Posted on 07/27/2011 9:40:47 AM PDT by Huck
John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. The biographer who somewhere down the line tackles the question of Boehner's legacy will do well to simply throw out any references to party affiliation, because the thing that has made Boehner who he is — the thing that has finally lifted him to the apex of legislative power in America — has almost nothing to do with his being a Republican.
The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the "total package," and that term comes close to describing Boehner's talent for perpetuating our corrupt and debt-addled status quo: He's a five-tool insider who can lie, cheat, steal, play golf, change his mind on command and do anything else his lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors require of him to get the job done.
SNIP
And yet, when the Republicans rolled back into the control of the House this past November on the strength of a nationwide Throw-the-Bums-Out movement, it was Boehner, the prototypical bum, who somehow clambered onto the congressional throne. It's hard to imagine that in all of American political history there has been a more unlikely marriage than John Boehner and the pitchfork-wielding, incumbent-eating Tea Party, whose blood ostensibly boils at the thought of business as usual. Because John Boehner is business as usual, a man devoted almost exclusively to ensuring his own political survival by tending faithfully to the corrupt and clanking Beltway machinery.
SNIP
The fact that Boehner supported TARP and No Child Left Behind and mega-handouts to the pharmaceutical industry and a range of other federal subsidies is hardly surprising, for this is what mainstream Washington politicians of both parties do — they take great buttloads of money from giant transnational companies, play golf with the CEOs of those same companies ("If someone I've gotten to know on the golf course comes into my office with a good argument," Boehner once said, "I tend to want to listen"), and deliver taxpayer money back to their buddies when the need arises, or sometimes even when the need doesn't arise. In this regard, Boehner has had a lot more in common with campaign-contribution-devouring Democrats like Chris Dodd and Harry Reid than he has with the Tea Party Republican voters he now ostensibly represents.
I though tat poor excuse for a magazine had died a long time ago..No one reads this garbage but filthy communist democrats..
I though that poor excuse for a magazine had died a long time ago..No one reads this garbage but filthy communist democrats..
Now is an opportunity for tea-partiers to prove that they are non-partisan. We must resist Boehner’s business-as-usual garbage.
Taibbi could have substituted any one else’s name for Boehner’s and the article would still essentially ring true (eg., Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch, the entire black caucus, etc.).
It’s enough to make one want to go Galt (after getting Boehner to shaft Zer0’s re-election).
I prefer to do it without using prompts and lines from a Rolling Stone article.
Gee, where was the Rolling Stone article on Pelosi stating what a business as usual hack she was. Drain the swamp? Please, the culture of corruption flourished under her watch. Favors for her district and her husbands business. A rich woman hiring illegals while claiming to be looking out for the little guy.
Oh, wait, Rolling Stone... part of Pravda, nevermind.
Ouch!! Sticks'n'stones....I think he's playing well with the hand he was dealt..so deal with that.
Exactly. Boehner is a surrender monkey in the finest tradition of the french army. He will sell us out.
He compares him to Reid and Dodd:
In this regard, Boehner has had a lot more in common with campaign-contribution-devouring Democrats like Chris Dodd and Harry Reid than he has with the Tea Party Republican voters he now ostensibly represents.
Wow, Tiabbi writing an acerbic hit piece on a Republican? I can’t BELIEVE it.
Someone might want to tell him that there is another party with people to attack....
Taibbi could have substituted any one else’s name for Boehner’s and the article would still essentially ring true (eg., Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch, the entire black caucus, etc.).
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Quite true. The exceptions can be counted on one hand, and even those few are not pure.
Bump to read later
Reading the snips I find little to differ with
>>It’s enough to make one want to go Galt (after getting Boehner to shaft Zer0’s re-election).<<
I am. I make the final drive from Seattle to rural Kentucky beginning next Tuesday morning. :-)
But there are TARP-like votes ahead that will prove to be the real indicators of whether or not Boehner leads the Republican caucus, or whether the caucus will end up leading him.
Sometime in the spring, for instance, the Republicans will likely be forced to choose between raising the debt ceiling or shutting down the government. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling was an explicit campaign issue for many Tea Party-backed candidates, and in the wake of the election, several prominent Republicans, including dingbat party chief Michael Steele, have vowed to oppose any move to raise the debt limit next year.
"It's going to be really interesting to watch," says one Democratic aide. "Is Boehner going to let the Tea Party shut the government down?"
Boehner, somewhat predictably, has indicated an unwillingness to do so. Reflecting the sentiment of veterans in both parties, he calls raising the debt ceiling a procedural no-brainer, something that simply has to be done.
Give us a holler when you get setup. ;-)
I think this right here is the problem our side faces.
We continually self sabotage ourselves by expecting miracles from the GOP leadership. So we put all our focus on them instead of focusing on how the 0 Democrats are blocking every real reform being presented.
Rather then continually blame the GOP leadership for doing the best they can with a weak hand, how about Conservatives finally focus on the real roadblock here?
The 0 Democrats.
If the GOP held the Senate majority CCB sails through this week leaving 0 in an untenable political position.
So instead of endlessly complaints that the GOP isn’t doing the absolutely impossible, how about we focus on the real enemies to our values?
The current leadership of the Democrat Party.
"We have found the enemy and he is us." [Pogo]
The TEA PARTY should look out for itself first, not carry water for shills like Boehner. Now is the time to show America that we mean business, that this isn't just something we're doing because we're out of power. We need to show hacks like Boehner that we mean business, that we're not going to go back to sleep when the GOP regains control.
You talk about what would happen if the GOP held the majority. How quickly you forget. Just a few short years ago, they DID. And what did they do? They raised the debt limit and increased the debt. Where was the tea party then?
GOPers think we're stupid. They think we'll go back to sleep. They think they can hoodwink us, and maybe they are right. Time will tell.
Get it through your head. The GOP is not our party. They are a professional political organization that we will either control, or be controlled by.
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