Let's imagine something for a minute - what would the political reaction be if Osama Bin Laden had been killed while President George W. Bush was in office, and then Democrats in Congress refused to bring up a resolution honoring the NAVY Seals for their mission?
Do you think talk radio would be on fire about how Speaker Nancy Pelosi was catering to liberals who couldn't bring themselves to say anything nice about President Bush?
I throw out that hypothetical because this week the Senate approved a resolution praising the troops for their bravery, but the House is leaving town for the weekend without doing anything official along those lines.
At his weekly news conference in the Capitol on Thursday, Speaker John Boehner defended his move not to have a vote on a resolution to say 'thanks' to the troops.
"I think all of the members have issued press releases recognizing those who are responsible for taking down Bin Laden," said the Speaker, as he said the focus of Republicans would be on real issues.
"We're pretty well committed to the House doing substantive work on the floor of the House," Boehner said, referring to Republican changes that did away with a large number of resolutions that took up extra legislative time when Democrats ran the show.
Many of those commemorative resolutions were focused on things like "National Fragile X Awareness Day" or "National Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month," not with military action.
So was the Speaker really equating a resolution thanking the troops for killing Osama Bin Laden with a commemorative resolution honoring the team that won a college football bowl game?
"Some of them, I thought, were quite meaningless," Boehner told reporters, acknowledging that "there has been a conversation, but no decision" on a resolution to honor U.S. Special Forces for this Pakistan mission.
While GOP leaders have been holding back, the Senate - which is controlled by Democrats - trotted out a resolution back on Tuesday, which was for the purpose of "Honoring the members of the military and intelligence community who carried out the mission that killed Osama bin Laden."
It was approved on a 97-0 vote.
Rank and file GOP lawmakers I spoke to today weren't concerned about the lack of a resolution, as one told me he had "done a You Tube video" and more to thank those involved in the raid.
Would things be different if the Democrats held the House and the Republicans were back in charge of the White House?
Let me know what you think.
