got the author of "renegade, the making of a president." ezra, i'll start with you, the new york "daily news" reflecting what people are thinking, it tells washington leaders to grow up. is speaker boehner reasserting his authority and what does the balanced budget amendment mean for the tense, terse negotiations going forward? >> quite the opposite. this is showing how little authority he actually has. to pass his own republicans in the house, boehner's having to rewrite the bill so it can never pass the senate or the president or anywhere else. the anallgy i would use, remember when that nancy pelosi in quite a striking act of leadership and show of authority among her members got the house to support a health care bill that did not include a public option, that included lower subsidies that included all things that the house did not want to vote for, but she was able to use her respect to pass it. what boehner was doing as if she had gone rewritten it to single