Is John Boehner actually an American hero?

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) isn't anyone's idea of a latter-day LBJ or Sam Rayburn — a super-legislator who twists arms, swaps pork for votes, and most of all, gets stuff done. But despite his rough December and New Year's — in which his own caucus humiliated him by rejecting his fiscal cliff "Plan B," he was cut out of negotiations before having to join Democrats to pass a Senate-brokered bill, survived an incompetent coup attempt, and was trash-talked on live TV by Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) — "Boehner has done his country a more important service over the last two years than almost any other politician in Washington," says Ross Douthat in The New York Times.

The idea of Boehner as a "downright American hero" is a little hard to swallow, says Matt Lewis at The Daily Caller. If averting catastrophe now qualifies for heroism, boy, "talk about grade inflation." There are, in fact, two ways Boehner could try to herd the cats of his GOP caucus. And since he can't really use the first option — he doesn't have the power to "essentially bribe or blackmail" his members — "the only arrow left in the quiver is to be a transformational leader — to actually inspire your team to follow you." That's isn't something Boehner seems capable of. So "'hero' just seems to me to be a tad too strong, all things considered." Maybe "victim" or "hostage" would be more apt.

Give Boehner a break, says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. He has had to grapple with more ideologically inflexible members who are loyal to themselves or their big donors rather than House leadership, backbenchers who have their own media-driven power bases, and political disincentives to compromise with Democrats. Indeed, Boehner has faced a series of "monumental challenges with as little power over his House majority as any speaker in modern memory."

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Meh, "I expect nothing from the GOP," says Thomas Friedman in The New York Times. "It's lost and leaderless." But if we're talking about the need for heroism, "I expect a lot from Obama, who knows what needs to be done" but focused his fiscal cliff fix entirely on raising taxes for the wealthy. "I expect him to stop acting as a party leader and start acting like the president of the whole country." That means not giving up on that grand bargain, and expending political capital to achieve it, with or without Boehner's help.