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Yesterday, there was a very public civil war in the Republican Party over House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to block a vote on aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. But today, when Boehner’s Speakership is up for a vote – and just 17 GOP dissenters could derail it - Fox News pulled out their all-purpose Republican Rehab strategy: blame President Obama. But it didn't work as well with Michelle Malkin as they'd surely hoped.

In one of several Fox & Friends segments with the same theme, Steve Doocy sneered that President Obama, now "back on vacation in Hawaii," had promised “at a photo op with Chris Christie” that he was going to “eliminate the red tape” and “make sure FEMA follows through” with aid to Sandy victims. Doocy continued, “And now, 60 days later, nothing.” As he spoke, a banner on the screen read, “JUST A PHOTO OP: GOP gets hammered, but not the president.”

Doocy played a mashup video of Obama talking about getting the relief job done, “Just for people who have missed that."

Afterward, Doocy whined, “Then people on Capitol Hill are trying to blame Boehner when he was looking at that Senate bill that was loaded up with a bunch of pork.”

Although she jumped at the opportunity for jeering with a “golf clap” and an “Aloha and mahalo” over President Obama’s “Oscar-winning performance,” to her credit, Malkin did not let Boehner or Republicans off the hook. “I think it’s ridiculous to FULLY (her emphasis) blame Boehner for the gridlock that’s happening over this bill,” she said. She added:

And the context for the spat I think doesn’t bode well for the Republican leadership because although there are die-hard, committed fiscal conservatives who are sincerely opposing this bill because of the pork, the context for this battle was, apparently, a snit fit between Boehner and Canter over how the fiscal cliff vote went down… There were tweets and messages coming out of Capitol Hill late on Sunday that the bill was pulled because of the resentment between those two boiling over.

And so there’s a lot of intrigue going on there. In the meantime, the usual pork-stuffed, emergency relief bill is finally being torn apart – not so much by Republicans on Capitol Hill as conservative watchdogs and activists who’ve been blowing the whistle on all of the piggy porky stuff that’s put into this bill that’s supposed to be for Sandy victims but ends up benefitting Guantanamo Bay, fisheries in Alaska, Head Start.

In other words, Fox can try to smooth things over for Boehner and Republicans by pointing a finger at President Obama but the rifts in the party are real and deep and unlikely to go away any time soon.

One thing I will say about Christie: He may be highly and too-frequently partisan, but he's not actually crazy in the way most prominent Republican officials are. (I'm talking about you, Lindsey Graham!) He's shown that he's not willing to ignore reality simply to score points over an issue as important as disaster relief, and in the Valley of the Blind, that makes him the one-eyed king:

The governors of New York and New Jersey came down hard on the Republican-controlled House Wednesday, saying it was “inexcusable” that Congress failed to act on disaster aid and that those hurt by Hurricane Sandy “can no longer afford to wait while politicians in Washington play games.”

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has scheduled an afternoon press conference to follow up on the statement issued together with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. Christie’s criticism of the House follows an emotional speech in Washington by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y) taking Speaker John Boehner to task for cancelling a promised vote this week on the aid.

“With all that New York and New Jersey and our millions of residents and small businesses have suffered and endured, this continued inaction and indifference by the House of Representatives is inexcusable,” the governors said. “It has now been 66 days since Hurricane Sandy hit and 27 days since President Obama put forth a responsible aid proposal that passed with a bipartisan vote in the Senate while the House has failed to even bring it to the floor. This failure to come to the aid of Americans following a severe and devastating natural disaster is unprecedented.”

So this whole process was a sorry mess, and for progressives, there were plenty of disappointments along the way. (I will get back to those.) We also have far bigger battles ahead. (I will get back to those, too.) But one of my themes in life with my fellow progressives is that we need to do a better job celebrating what we win, and we won a lot this round. It’s worth taking a moment to celebrate those victories while we get ready for the next round. Celebrating victories is important, as all the great progressive movement leaders have known well- it empowers people, and makes them believe that victory is possible so they should keep fighting.

For many progressives, including me, we had four major goals going into this budget battle. First priority: that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits- the most important safety net for low and middle income Americans- not be cut. These three programs are the heart and soul of the New Deal and Great Society programs passed by progressives in generations past. They are by far the biggest and most successful social insurance programs ever created in American history, and are central both to our ability to protect our most vulnerable citizens and to our efforts to keep the middle class from being hollowed even more.

These programs, especially Social Security, were in dire danger throughout these negotiations, with Obama and Pelosi and Republicans all willing to make cuts. But because of Republican stubbornness on taxes and strong progressive pushback, in the final deal, Social Security and the other two programs were saved. That is a huge, huge victory- but one that will only be preserved if we keep fighting, and fighting hard, because the Republicans got politically destroyed on this deal and will be even more determined to attack these programs going forward.

A second major goal was more tax revenue from the wealthiest Americans and again, this deal got that done. Not nearly enough-- obviously, the compromises on the 250K vs. 450K threshold and the estate tax are disappointing. As far as I am concerned, we should have a higher top rate than 39.6% on wealthy Americans, it should kick in at $200,000 rather than 250 or 450, and we ought to have a carbon tax and financial transactions tax as well. But a Republican controlled House significantly increased taxes on the top 1% for the first time since early in the first term of the Eisenhower administration, almost 60 years ago. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Civil War 150 years ago to have a Republican-controlled House that raised taxes for high income people That is a big deal, and well worth celebrating.

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