NUMBER THREE - BOEHNER - PUTS NUMBER ONE - OBAMA - BACK IN HIS PLACE IN THE WHITE HOUSE AT THE OTHER END OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE

A split in the State of the Union  —  Take this !  —   A big  “departure from protocol” from the man “second in line to the presidency”

It didn’t take long  —  Boehner responds to the SOTUS by the POTUS on the next day

  
“John Boehner’s Bibi invite sets up showdown with White House –  the speaker didn’t consult with the administration before inviting Netanyahu to address Congress about Iran”  –   Politico

“Boehner insisted... he wasn't ‘poking anyone in the eye’....  But that's sure not how it looks”  –   The Atlantic

According to Jake Sherman, writing for Politico, “House Speaker John Boehner is setting up his most dramatic foreign policy confrontation with President Barack Obama to date, inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak about Iran in front of a joint session of Congress on Feb. 11. ***   Netanyahu is a fierce opponent of the emerging U.S. nuclear agreement with the Islamic republic, and has served as Obama’s foil, of sorts, as the negotiations have progressed. And his visit to Washington seems mostly for optics: When it comes to Iran, many Republicans and Democrats in the Capitol seem more closely aligned with Netanyahu than with Obama.... ***  Netanyahu’s speech could present a spectacle rarely seen in Washington — the leader of another nation, standing just blocks from the White House at the invitation of Congress to rebut the United States’ foreign policy....”(See “John Boehner’s Bibi invite sets up showdown with White House...” by Jake Sherman, 1/21/15, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/john-boehner-invites-benjamin-netanyahu-congress-iran-114439.html]).

The intellectually hefty magazine, “The Atlantic,” had this to say: “Republicans who panned President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night have responded by inviting one of their favorite speakers back for a return engagement: Benjamin Netanyahu....” (See “Now Speaking for the Republicans: Benjamin Netanyahu” by Russell Berman, 1/21/15, The Atlantic/ theatlantic.com
[http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/now-speaking-for-the-republicans-benjamin-netanyahu/384697/]).

Berman’s piece in “The Atlantic” went on to explain and quote House Speaker Boehner, as follows: “... In effect, Boehner is asking Netanyahu—a leader with whom the president's relationship has been icy, to say the least—to respond to Obama and make the case against a deal with Iran. In announcing the invitation, the speaker specifically said he wanted the prime minister to address ‘the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life.’ *** ‘There is a serious threat that exists in the world, and the president last night kind of papered over it,’ Boehner told reporters Wednesday morning. He said he did not consult with the White House over the invitation to Netanyahu, noting that ‘the Congress can make this decision on its own.’...”

In closing his article in “The Atlantic,”  Russell Berman noted that  “Boehner insisted on Wednesday morning that he wasn't ‘poking anyone in the eye’ with his invitation to Netanyahu. But that's sure not how it looks.”

Here’s how the CNN team reported on the Netanyahu invitation in significant part, “...  Boehner announced his invitation for Netanyahu to address Congress about Iran the day after President Obama pled with Congress during his State of the Union address to allow the talks to progress. ***  Typically invitations to foreign leaders to address Congress are coordinated ahead of time with the White House, but congressional sources said the Speaker acted on his own....  Boehner's team had been discussing this invite with Netanyahu "for weeks," according to a House GOP leadership source, who added the reason driving the invitation was the Administration's negotiations with Iran. ***   While they did not consult with the White House, this Republican aide said Boehner's office did inform the White House this morning that Netanyahu would be coming....” ( See “Netanyahu coming to Congress next month” by Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh [with contributions by CNN’s Laura Koran and Jeremy Diamond], 1/21/15, CNN/ News/ cnn.com [http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/21/politics/benjamin-netanyahu-congress-invitation/]).