House Speaker John Boehner looked like he "came out of the washing machine" after a White House meeting Wednesday because he has lost his power to the tea party, Howard Fineman of The Huffington Post says.
Of the 90-minute meeting between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders of both parties, Fineman told
MSNBC, "It seems like they spent an hour and a half talking past each other."
Both sides emerged from the meeting
saying nothing had been accomplished in an effort to end the government shutdown that began Oct. 1
After
a perceived loss on the fiscal cliff deal, Obama is trying "to put the toothpaste back in the tube," Fineman said. "The Teenage Mutant Republicans, if you will, having had this permissive parenting of the fiscal cliff situation, are saying to themselves, it worked once, why not do it again?"
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who also attended the meeting, is telling Obama he has to stand firm this time, Fineman said. "You've got to be the adult. You've got to be the dad. You got to get these obstreperous kids to go to 'regular order,' as Nancy Pelosi calls it."
Host Chris Hayes said that GOP pundits such as Charles Krauthammer and Karl Rove once were critical of the tea party shutdown strategy. Now, he said, those fissures are dissolving and the "entire right-wing noise machine" is backing a shutdown strategy.
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