Mr. Boehner's leadership could break the logjam — but that, of course, would also require his Republican colleagues to drop their narrow-minded opposition to stronger protections for all victims of abuse.
His party holds a slight edge in Parliament, which has 210 elected members and 12 appointed seats, though two of his colleagues were killed after the election, narrowing the opposition's majority.
He liked to allow, from time to time, a measure of dissent: the odd civil-society N.G.O., narrow openings for opposition parties, independent newspapers or TV channels.
A Senate committee on Wednesday summoned three top national security officials to make yet another plea for the agreement, in the face of narrow, but stubborn, opposition.
What's needed against Trump now is what has been found in France — not an ideologically narrow, politically focussed opposition but the widest possible coalition of people who genuinely value the tenets of democracy, meaning no more than the passionate desire to settle differences by debate and argument, rather than by power and cruelty and clan.
The narrow but vocal opposition is rooted in his scholarly writings, which take a broad view of the liberties protected by the Constitution.
We had a lot of support in public opinion polling, but the support was broad and not deep, and we had a hard time contending with the very deep, intense, but narrow band of opposition to comprehensive reform.
If it's known you're in a particular area, this can quickly narrow down your opposition's search.
10 Elections in Canada Prime Minister Jean Chretien is fighting for political survival, as his advantage over the conservative opposition narrows.
But the internal divisions narrowed once the opposition group went into the 2014 budget lock-up and saw the specific measures – many of which finance had bowled up to them in government and they'd rejected on the grounds they were politically nuclear.
"The inclusion of these provisions is an unfortunate perpetuation of [the] status quo," he added, accusing Republicans of maintaining their opposition for "narrow and trivial political interests".
