It's a contest of wills and guess who is winning? President Obama, of course. And that's because the president is up against the GOP's equivalent of Churchill's "Boneless Wonder," Speaker John Boehner. Matched against the president, Boehner is making Ned Beatty's hapless character from the classic movie Deliverance look downright gritty.

Boehner the Boneless Wonder's beta dog routine is doing much to deep-six the Party of Lincoln. Hyperbole? Don't grumpy grassroots conservatives grouse incessantly that establishment Republicans are screwing the -- well, putting it more politely, screwing it up and that the Grand Old Party will go the way of the pterodactyl?

For the insulated tin-eared prowlers of the halls of Congress (Boehner being chief), hear this: The times, they have a-changed -- radically so. The context is dramatically different today than America before the Hugo Chavez-in-chief wanna-be in the White House, the august and empurpled Barack Hussein Obama, took the nation's reins ("On Dancer, on Comet, on Boehner!)

As of this writing, there's been no stout opposition -- no bold proclamation of principles, no declaration of a fight for limited government and liberty -- from the speaker in the teeth of the president's insistence to tax the lights out of "rich" Americans (and, shhh!, every other working American, too, eventually). Boehner and his lackey GOP colleagues remind the history-minded of the French in the face of the Nazi blitzkrieg: throw up those white flags before the speaker's perfect hair is mussed.

As Dana Milbank opines in The Washington Post:

One of Boehner's lieutenants, Pete Roskam of Illinois, stepped to the microphones, essentially pleading for the president to show mercy. "President Obama has an unbelievable opportunity to be a transformational president -- that is, to bring the country together," he said. "Or he can devolve into zero-sum-game politics, where he wins and other people lose."

"Please, please, don't hurt us, Mr. President," goes Roskam's tiny squeaky voice. "We triple-promise to be good little establishment monkeys and play along. You're so big and brawny and buffed, why, us 98-pound weaklings just want to get along -- for the sake of the country, of course." (Steve Schmidt, cue "Dueling Banjos.")

Maybe the House Republicans should bring Pee-wee Herman in to be speaker. Why have a mere facsimile in Boehner?

In a much-aired sound bite from the speaker's press conference, the Ohio Republican stated that closing loopholes was a means of taxing the rich. The speaker conceded that revenues (DC talk for new "taxes") are needed to address the nation's dire debt dilemma, which wasn't caused by insufficient tax receipts (the federal treasury collects, what, $2.5 trillion or thereabouts annually from beleaguered taxpayers?) but by hyper-binge spending by Democrats, primarily, and with helping hands from Republicans across the years. Uncle Sam's credit card debt is an incomprehensible $16 trillion and growing. But a chronic and dangerous spending problem in DC -- perish the thought! It's about revenues -- get with the program, man!

And never-no mind Boehner's budget talks strategy, which seems to be no real strategy at all. Boehner-led Republicans made the critical concession to the president that revenues -- err, taxes -- need to be on the table first. Spending cuts will be discussed afterwards, and, ding-dang it, those cuts will be effectively cosmetic and first steps to meaningful budget reform by 2090 -- or if that's too soon, by sometime in the 22nd Century (provided there's a United States then).

And just like dutiful lemmings, many House Republicans are following Boehner. Yes siree, Bob, never mind the fiscal cliff; House Republicans are scampering behind Boehner -- their intrepid Percy Dovetoncils -- off the political cliff -- a steep cliff into an electoral abyss.

Boehner, a two-bit bully, has gone so far as purging stalwart conservatives from key House committee assignments -- and Boehner's chainsaw massacre may not be done yet, reports The Hill. (Note how rough and tough Boehner is within the caucus but what a bowl of quivering Jell-O he is when dealing with Democrats and the lamestream media.)

Reports The Hill:

This week, the Speaker and his lieutenants stressed the need for unity by penalizing GOP lawmakers who have failed to toe the party line.

Party discipline -- that's nice. Wasn't something like party discipline used at Jonestown? Ditto the Heaven's Gate cult? That's right, House Republican sheep, John Boehner is the political equivalent of Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite. Scram, because you'll be more than sheared. Doomed is more like it.

And doomed House Republicans will become in 2014 -- or at least those who insist on drinking Boehner's Kool-Aid.

Here's how it'll come down, if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly. Before 2014, Tea Party activists and grassroots conservatives will find challengers to place on GOP primary ballots or they'll skip the primaries altogether and put challengers on General Election ballots, which would effectively split votes between House Republican incumbents and conservative upstarts. Failing that, in 2014, grassroots conservatives will mount concerted write-in campaigns or simply refrain from casting votes in House contests.

Can you say, "Bye-bye, GOP House majority" three times fast, Mr. Speak? Just don't tap your ruby-red slippers; your Oz may vanish sooner than 2014.

But conservatives won't bail, retort Boehner and establishment Republicans. After all, without a Republican House majority, what will remain to stop the president's and Democrats' leftward march to the glistening statist sea?

The better question is: "Who and what are stopping Mr. Obama's drive now toward greater statism, pumped up tyranny, and not-far-off national ruin? You, Mr. Speaker? Or your craven, obsequious followers in the U.S. House?

Mr. Speaker, at this point, you're not even tapping the brakes to slow down the Obama bulldozer. Why, you're not even mounting a feeble rearguard action. Johnny-boy, you're caving. Why would anybody lambast the president for his overseas bow and grovel tours when you, Speaker Percy Dovetonsils, are manufacturing the daily equivalent down at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue? President O's got nothin' on your bowing and scraping, Johnny.

Dear readers, as the kindly but stern ghost in Dickens' A Christmas Carol advised Ebenezer Scrooge, if these shadows don't change very, very soon, there will be hell to pay. Literally it t'was for Ebenezer; politically it will be for John Boehner and his pale pastel Republican Party.