Poor, poor lonesome John Boehner, the House Minority Leader. On April 3rd he predicted that the Republicans would post gains in the House this November, a prediction so starkly divorced from reality that few people called him on it. Maybe the pundits just thought he was a passing blimp or something, full of hot air in a Washington where hot air isn’t all that remarkable. But we’re hearing from the Politico and from The Hill that Boehner has been mismanaging the Republican caucus in the House something fierce, and there’s even some dissention in the ranks. The Politico is reporting, specifically, that there’s some who are questioning lonesome John’s leadership:

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has put to rest questions about the future of NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), but he hasn’t quelled concerns of Republican members, aides and lobbyists who say Boehner lacks the “killer instinct” necessary to fend off an electoral disaster in November.

Although Cole has presided over three straight special election losses in districts thought to be GOP strongholds, Boehner has refused to join rank-and-file members in calling on Cole to step down.

The two men met privately Friday and again on Monday; in between, Boehner appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and declared unequivocally that Cole will be “staying” as chairman of the party’s campaign committee through November.

Sources say that Cole has offered to make some token moves — such as bringing in a well-known GOP operative to help with the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “incumbent-retention activities” — and that he and Boehner were hammering out the details Monday evening. But, the sources said, it now appears that there will be no major reshuffling of committee staff before November.

For Republicans hoping that the GOP loss last week in Mississippi would be the “wake-up call” Boehner said it was, the response from the top has been disappointing so far.

“This is the equivalent of watching two doctors fight over how to treat a patient with a gaping wound, and as a compromise they decided to apply a Band-Aid to the wrong appendage,” said one GOP insider.

One Republican lawmaker who is close to the dispute said that Boehner waited too long to force Cole to shake up the NRCC and that “nothing can be done” now.

“Cole is going to do this his way, and that’s that,” said the member, who asked to remain anonymous for this story. “There was a window where something could have been done over there, and now the window has shut.”

There’s even one Republican who yearns for the halcyon days of Tom DeLay as Majority Leader. Oh, my, how they’ve got it wrong. Boehner may be in a situation of his own making, as he’s led the House in backing almost every one of Bush’s failed policies, but the solution here isn’t to return to the politics of destruction as Tom DeLay practiced it. Yeah, this is a not-so-rare situations in which the Republicans are having a falling out on policy and they’re all wrong. Republican incompetence at its finest.

Interestingly, the Republicans may have gotten one thing right. America is tired of their usual divisive issues like guns and abortion and gay marriage. Those issues just aren’t working for them anymore. Sure, they may attract more religious conservatives to the ballot box this Fall in California because of the recent court decision about gay marriage there, but what’s the chance of them taking California from Obama? Nil. And that issue isn’t going to help their failed House candidates much, either. So, officially, the Republicans are not featuring those issues they usually use to energize the social conservatives, not this year, at least according to the CQPolitics (with a hat tip to Pensito Review):

Something big is missing from House Republicans’ 2008 campaign agenda for American families — and that is no accident.

There’s not a single mention in the 47-point program of such red-meat GOP issues as banning abortion, outlawing same-sex marriage, allowing prayer in the public schools, banning flag burning and protecting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Instead, the plan focuses on such GOP-introduced ideas as allowing private sector workers to take compensatory time instead of premium pay for overtime worked (HR 6025) or permitting full tax deductibility for most medical expenses (HR 636).

In an effort to appeal to moderates in their uphill push to retake the House, Republicans have pushed divisive social issues off center stage and replaced them with a host of pocketbook items they hope will appeal to working women, moderates and even some Democrats.

“This may not be the family agenda you expected from Republicans,’’ said Kay Granger , R-Texas, who was in charge of formulating the “American Families Agenda,’’ the first part of the party’s 2008 platform.

“In the past, the Republican agenda for families was about social issues. This is more straightforward, talking to families where they are, not where you want them to be,’’ Granger added.

De-emphasizing issues that were Republican signatures for many years is tricky. It risks alienating the party’s base in a challenging election year when it needs loyalists to turn out. And it does so when conservative Republicans are already uneasy about their party’s presumed presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

But GOP leaders see little choice. Democrats this year won three special elections in House districts long held by Republicans. The party’s campaign unit is struggling to raise funds. And polls show a strong generic preference for Democrats this year.

What a tricky fine line they walk. The Republicans, in eschewing the issues that so appeal to the religious right, the so-called social conservatives, they risk these folks, who are not all that enamored of John McCain anyway, staying home. Oh, and I would be pleased as punch if they stay at home. Oh, and it should be noted this policy and strategery has Boehner’s hands all over it, too. The man is going to fail, and then he’s going to be drummed out of the Republican leadership.

Is it Boehner’s fault, this failure? A good argument can be made that he’s simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. How could he know, after all, that the Republican policies of George Bush were going to fail so spectacularly, and how could he know that instead of maintaining his independent image John McCain was going to flip flop and pander his way through the campaign this Spring, so much that even many Republicans are abandoning him as a candidate (Specter and Hagel are two of those Republicans, but you’ll see more running against Bushco and McCain in the coming months, guaranteed).

Let’s focus back on Boehner. This guy is a typical Republican, even though some on the religious right are suspicious of him. Remember his work during the Mark Foley scandal, one of many Republican sex scandals to plague Boehner’s tenure as Majority/Minority Leader? He was very slow to recognize the danger one of his colleagues presented to kids working in the House. We’re talking about a man who puts votes ahead of ethics here, and America has cottoned onto that Republican ethical bottom line. John Boehner is destined to be a failure here, and he’ll be kicked to the side, a paraiah in his party, after he loses 20 seats and more this November. Yeah, he’s destined to be a loner.