Public Doesn't Like Boehner's Invitation of Netanyahu

If you keep up with politics at all, then you know that Speaker Boehner invited Israel's Netanyahu to speak to Congress with consulting with the president first. While that may not be illegal, it is a violation of accepted protocol and was very disrespectful. The two leaders colluded to do that because they are afraid the president was close to ironing out a deal with Iran -- a deal that would keep nuclear weapons out of that country and put the two nations on a friendlier footing.

That is something neither Netanyahu nor Boehner (and other right-wingers in Congress) want to see happen. Both of these men get a lot of political mileage by keeping Iran as an enemy, and keeping the public in their respective countries scared of what Iran might do. But they made a serious misjudgment.

Many Israelis are unhappy with Netanyahu because they see his siding with a single political party in the U.S. as endangering the friendly relations between the two countries. And this has turned out to be an embarrassment for Boehner also. Many Democrats are refusing to attend the scheduled speech -- and if enough of them stay away, Netanyahu will be speaking to a nearly half-empty room.

But Boehner's problems go deeper than that. The chart above is from a recent YouGov Poll -- done between February 4th and 8th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with a margin of error of about 4 points. It shows that 47% of Americans disapprove of Boehner's invitation, while only 30% approve. He may have made his base happy, but he angered a lot more people.