An anxious America waits and wonders: Can New York and New Jersey hang on for two more weeks?

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner has assured lawmakers that the House will vote on $60 billion in aid related to Superstorm Sandy by January 15, a group of lawmakers from New York and New Jersey told reporters Wednesday afternoon…

The lawmakers met with Boehner Wednesday afternoon and then made the announcement.

“As far as I’m concerned … it was an extremely positive” meeting, said U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-New York, who earlier Wednesday called Boehner’s Tuesday move a “knife in the back.”

The plan is to vote Friday for $9 billion in aid and then deal with the remaining $51 billion on the 15th. The fact that they’re still talking about a $60 billion package means, presumably, that they’re going to cave and keep all or most of the porky Senate bill rather than strip out the expenditures unrelated to Sandy and vote on a “clean” bill. Taxpayers have to pay the price for poor “optics” here, I guess: If they pass a $30 billion bill instead, the next narrative will be “GOP guts Sandy bill,” possibly replete with another grandstanding Chris Christie press conference. Can’t have that. Better pass it all.

Meanwhile, here’s how seriously you should take Peter “Don’t donate to Republicans” King:

Rep. Peter King says he will vote for John Boehner as speaker tomorrow after this afternoon's movie.

— Kara Rowland (@kararowland) January 2, 2013

Rep Peter King: There are no earmarks or pork in the Sandy aid bill.

— Kara Rowland (@kararowland) January 2, 2013

In the span of about six hours, the guy went from accusing Boehner of sticking a knife in New York’s back for slightly delaying a bill that’s destined to pass to supporting him as de facto leader of the GOP for another two years. At least when Christie affects outrage for political gain, he keeps up the charade for a day or two.

Speaking of which, enjoy as the media hero and future No Labels candidate sounds off. Do note that the video below comes from his own press team. And not only are they circulating the full clip, they’re sending around a smaller clip in which he dumps on Congress just to make sure no one misses the political point of all this.