Boehner wins back Peter King by promising Sandy relief vote in 2 weeks

A few hours ago, Peter King was saying anyone in New York or New Jersey would be insane to ever support a House Republican because House Speaker John Boehner broke his promise to hold a vote on $60 billion in Hurricane Sandy relief. But then he got this promise:

Rep. Peter King says House will vote Friday on $9 billion of Sandy aid, followed by another vote on $51 billion on Jan. 15 - @streitfeldcnn
' @BreakingNews via web And in a press conference just now, King was joined by fellow Republicans from New York and New Jersey to praise Boehner for making the promise. And to say that of course they will all vote him when he runs for re-election as House speaker. As for whether they are still upset with Boehner for lying to them about his last promise? "That's all in the past now," said King.

Earlier today, King was saying that House Republicans would have to work very hard to ever win his vote again. Now he says he's happy to have received another promise, and will vote for Boehner in exchange. I guess the moral of the story is this: Peter King is the easiest vote in Washington, D.C.

12:52 PM PT: Here's King explaining why he no longer means any of those things he said.

12:57 PM PT: Of course, it's worth pointing out that whatever bill Boehner comes up with in two weeks will offset the $51 billion in Sandy relief with cuts to other important programs, which means the bill won't pass the Senate because Democrats aren't going to want to screw one group of people to help another group of people just to get Boehner out of a jam. Maybe Boehner will put forward a clean bill without offsets, but I'd bet heavily against it. Assuming that this is the case, it will be the first negotiating test for President Obama since the tax cliff deal. And it also means Peter King just endorsed a plan to put his constituents back in limbo.

1:04 PM PT: If Democrats don't get out in front in terms of demanding that this be a clean bill from Boehner, I get the feeling we're about to get rolled pretty hard. The only question is who Republicans decide to target with their offsets'unless Democrats get out in front of the messaging war.

1:27 PM PT: Peter King is on CNN now saying the Sandy relief should NOT be offset by cuts elsewhere. He says "it's not going to be done now'it shouldn't be done, and it won't be."

1:39 PM PT: Here's video of King's promise about offsets. It may be an important thing to remember. (And kudos to CNN's Wolf Blitzer for asking the question.)