John Boehner led the fight against the Affordable Care Act, refused to hold a vote on an immigration reform bill that passed the Senate with 68 votes, and was once caught handing out campaign checks from Big Tobacco on the House floor. But in a sign of how dark the current political climate is for liberals, on Sunday night many were wistfully recalling the days when the former House speaker was struggling to keep the Republican conference together.
But if you only have time for his mean remarks about fellow Republicans, the highlights are collected below. A legislative terrorist. On the Freedom Caucus in general. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. Fuck Chaffetz. On cursing out Harry Reid in the White House. Boehner was running out of patience. The day before, Reid had blasted him from the Senate floor, saying he ran the House like a dictator.
You ever listen to that shit that comes out of your mouth? On that time a House member held a knife to his throat. In another curious connection between campaign funding and political favors, Boehner received hundreds of thousands of dollars from for-profit colleges and the private-student-loan industry — and then sponsored laws that restricted the Department of Education from making less expensive government loans to students, pushing for federal subsidies for private colleges and trade schools.
And what does Boehner do with these lobbyists? Well, one thing we know he does is play golf — shitloads and shitloads of golf, which he apparently likes a lot more than, well, working. Congressional sources say that Boehner likes to knock off early, and that seems to square with his record, which reveals a real passion — for the links. He once went on junkets in six years, most of them golf trips, and reportedly copped to playing rounds a year at a time when he was collecting a six-figure salary, paid for by the U.
He flew on a corporate jet 45 times between and , and took at least 41 other corporate-sponsored trips in the past decade. L ook back over almost every controversial episode in the recent history of the U. When the news broke in September that Rep.
Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida, had been sending sexually suggestive e-mails to a year-old male page, it turned out that Boehner had been sitting on the information for months. Nancy Pelosi called for an immediate investigation into the Foley scandal, but Boehner blocked the resolution. Boehner later claimed that he had told then-Speaker Dennis Hastert about the Foley incident as soon as he found out — and promptly retracted his own alibi.
The ensuing scandal nearly toppled Hastert, but Boehner survived mostly unscathed. Boehner is also an innovator in the loathsome new political phenomenon of men crying in public, co-owning mastery of the habit with screeching media dillweed Glenn Beck. But beyond all of that, Boehner just represents a certain type of hollowly driven, two-faced personality unique to the Beltway. This is true almost in a literal sense. One congressional aide tells a story that goes back many years.
The aide, who at the time worked for a prominent Democratic congressman, suggested that his boss offer Boehner condolences. Yet Boehner quietly continued to campaign for Iott even after his beaming Nazi photos were blasted over the national airwaves.
Kaptur and her staff were mystified as to why Boehner would back a nutjob in an SS costume, especially when Kaptur was so far ahead in the polls. They could come up with only two explanations, both humorously nauseating. One was that it was a personal thing to tweak Kaptur, who had recently held a press conference criticizing a Boehner proposal to raise the Social Security retirement age to The other was that Boehner was milking the moronic Iott, the wealthy heir to a supermarket chain, for future campaign contributions.
Another Ohio Democrat, Steve Driehaus, clashed repeatedly with Boehner before losing his seat in the midterm elections. Driehaus says he approached Boehner on the floor and confronted him. For you to say something like that is wildly irresponsible.
We run into some crazy people in this line of work. Others in Washington see Boehner not so much as a bloodless partisan but as a clueless yutz, one who rose to power through a combination of accidents and bureaucratic inertia. Yes, he could have fought for his job on the House floor this fall, prompting an ugly battle where he would have to rely on Democratic vote -- something that would have badly undermined his standing in the Republican Party.
He could have stayed as Speaker and dealt with a tumultuous session -- where he would have to cut major fiscal deals that would have prompted an angry revolt from the right. He could continue to criss-cross the country, raising big bucks for his party even as his future as Speaker continued to remain in doubt.
Or he could have tightened his grip by trying to punish conservative agitators -- a tactic he has been resistant to do during his leadership tenure. Friday, Boehner said he didn't want to put himself or the House through it. He had already stayed on longer than he had wanted to, running again for Speaker this January after his then-No.
It's about the people, it's about the institution. The timing may have been right for Boehner -- but it stunned the House GOP Conference Friday morning, which had been meeting to discuss a way forward on funding legislation. Boehner made the announcement -- and choked up. Others did too. Lee Zeldin, R-New York. Ohio GOP Rep. Steve Chabot called the mood "somber" and said there were tears from Boehner but also from other members in the room who listened to his remarks.
They become different people. Notably missing from the parade of presidential contenders at the Washington gathering were former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Ohio Governor John Kasich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, none of whom is much loved by the type of conservative true believers in attendance. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, the three candidates who are perceived to be vying for support from the party's establishment praised the speaker.
Mr Bush tweeted that Mr Boehner "dedicated his life to public service" and praised his part in bringing Pope Francis to the Capitol on Thursday. Such kind words were a marked contrast from the views expressed by the Values Voter Summit attendees as they filed out of the event hall for lunch.
Candidates like Mr Bush should be concerned that the anti-establishment tide that felled Mr Boehner may signal trouble ahead for their presidential aspirations. He added that he has more disdain for Republicans like the speaker than he does Democrats.
Larry Farnes of Missoula, Montana, noted Mr Boehner's propensity for tears and said Republicans need "a leader who rallies the troops and rallies Congress". Given that he's part of the same Republican leadership team, however, he's already being targeted by some of the same grass-roots conservatives who celebrated Mr Boehner's impending departure.
0コメント