A Leader Without Followers

Book Review May 21, 2021

Former Speaker of the House John Boehner is unassuming in On the House: A Washington Memoir. He promises that the book will not be “another boring drag through Washington’s ‘halls of power.’” “If you’re looking for Shakespeare, or my 15-point plan to save the world, this isn’t the book for you,” he writes. This will be a book about real politics, filled with interesting personal stories, rather than instruction in public policy or political theory.

On the House, for the most part, delivers on this opening promise. It is a folksy, breezy read that I completed in two or three sittings of a couple hours. And it is engaging, at least until the final three chapters, which consist of trite discussions of Boehner’s relationships with lobbyists and the media and mildly interesting but ultimately forgettable stories of foreign travels. Before then, there are a few perplexing detours (such as an encomium to his high school football coach and Gerald Ford) interspersed with genuinely entertaining stories about what really goes on in Washington.  .............To Read More....

 

Boehner Stands to Make Millions in Drug Money From Biden Win

The sordid motives behind the ex-Speaker's anti-Trump stand. 

Fri Apr 16, 2021 Daniel Greenfield 12 comments

Nine years ago, the New York Times was accusing John Boehner of racism. Now it’s eager to lap up every drop of vomitous bile from the former Republican House Speaker.  When Boehner asked Obama to move his speech by one day to avoid clashing with a Republican debate, NBC political analyst Richard Wolffe suggested that Boehner only did it because of "the color of his skin". Wolffe meant Obama's skin, not Boehner's, which always looks like spoiled meat served in some blackmarket back alley cafe in Havana.

Since then Boehner has followed the usual career track of former RINOs from “worse than Hitler” to “sleazy lobbyist” to “author of unnecessary memoir bashing Trump”.  Boehner’s memoir On The House, like his political career, has no reason to exist. Even when he occupied one of the most powerful elected positions in the country, Boehner was mostly notable for looking like he was on the edge of tears. That and the time his bartender was arrested for wanting to poison him. That seemed unnecessary as Boehner was doing the job for him..........

Acreage Holdings has one of the biggest marijuana operations in America.................Biden had promised to legalize pot, and "Senator Kamala Harris... introduced the Democrat-championed bill that would essentially legalize marijuana on the federal level."  What’s at stake for Boehner? A lot. As Bloomberg News reported, he can “collect $1.59 million in cash once shareholders approve Canopy Growth Corp.’s acquisition of Acreage Holdings Inc..”  Boehner had 625,000 shares of Acreage at the time the article was written and it noted that, "if his former colleagues in Congress help make marijuana federally legal, he’d be eligible to receive Canopy shares worth about $16 million."...........To Read More....

 

The GOP’s Trump Solution

At some point, the former Republican establishment will have to familiarize itself with the consequences of being defeated by Donald Trump within its own party.

  By Conrad Black April 12, 2021

 

The Wall Street Journal on Friday published an editorial headlined “The GOP’s Trump Problem.” It gets things terribly wrong. The GOP is Trump’s party and it is the Wall Street Journal that has the Trump problem. 

Having been commendably supportive of the former president through most of his term, the Journal joined in the general embarkation of NeverTrumpers over the ostensible election results. The theory that inspired this headline is Trump had his chance but lost the election in a manner practically indistinguishable from defeated incumbents Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H. W. Bush in 1992 (when there were no suggestions of questionable results). The editors suggest further that Trump had exhausted any grounds he had for contesting the fairness of the counting of ballots, and that it was his duty to go quietly into that good night and do everything that he could to elect Republican senators in Georgia to preserve the Republican majority in the Senate and to enhance the likelihood of the reelection next year of Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia and his secretary of state Brad Raffensperger.............To Read More.....

My Take - Interesting piece in contrast with these two diametrically opposing views.

• Kasich: Trump’s ‘Ugly’ Name-Calling Will ‘Continue to Shrink’ Republican Party 
• Flake: Trump ‘Plays Well to the Base, But It’s a Shrinking Base’

Here's the thing. These two are losers.  Flake really is a flake and Kasich, whom I've met, suffers from a serious case of weird compounded by a massive infection of hubris, and both suffer from the Mind Projection fallacy, where they see what's in their head, whether it's real or not.  Will Trump shrink the GOP?  Yes!  By driving out the invertebrates, collaborators and self-serving traitors like these two, and John Boehner, who's absolutely a disgrace, and if reports are correct, a drunk. 

 

 

Boehner blames 'knuckleheads in Congress' who listen to talk radio for shutdown

Justin Wise

Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Monday that GOP lawmakers who listen to talk radio are to blame for the recent partial government shutdown. Boehner singled out "talk radio people" and those he called the "goofballs on the right," while speaking at the Caxambas Republican Club on Marco Island, Fla., according to The Naples Daily News.

"The knuckleheads in Congress that listen to these guys start blowing in the president's ear," Boehner said........To Read More....

My Take - Knuckleheads and Goofballs?  And exactly who in Congress does everyone think he's referring to? The conservtive Republicans!  Remember, when he was Speaker of the House the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, so we need to look back and ask Boehner: 

• How many times did you reduce spending?
• Did spending go up or down while you were in the leadership?
• How many regulations did you eliminate?
• Did regulations increase or decrease while you were in the leadership?
• How many agencies of the government did you help eliminate?
• Did government increase or decrease when you were in Congress?
• Did you, in the 24 years you were in Congress, get a fraction done of what Trump has accomplished in less than three years?

So what would be his solution?  He would do what he did for all those years in Congress - give the Democrats everything they wanted.  All the while proclaiming he was against it, lying to his Ohio constituents.
 
Now here's a former Republican, who presented himself as a conservative, who is now using his former position as Speaker of the House to promote marijuana, and he has the nerve to call someone, or anyone for that matter, a knucklehead or a goofball! 
 
John Boehner is a disgrace!
 

Steny Hoyer Recalls When GOP Ended Shutdown and Allowed Obamacare: ‘Thank God for John Boehner’

By CNSNews.com Staff | January 18, 2019

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D.-Md.) gave a speech on the House floor yesterday in which he heaped praise on former House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) for acting against the wishes of the majority of his own party in 2013 by agreeing to a deal to end a government shutdown and let Obamacare move forward.

“Thank God for John Boehner, who had the courage to say shutting down the government does not make any sense. It is a stupid policy,” said Hoyer.

“Thank God for John Boehner, who came to the floor, notwithstanding the fact only 87 of his Republican colleagues would support it, but with all the support of the Democrats, we opened up the government after 26 days,” said Hoyer..........To Read More...

My Take - Well, if there ever was an indictment against Boehner .... this is it!  That an the fact that's Boehner promoting marijuana.  Boehner says he's "evolved" and he's right.  He's evolved into a disgrace.

Ryan-Murray and the Fundamental Lack of Seriousness in Washington

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | December 19th, 2013

Yesterday, Republicans in the Senate blamed Harry Reid for cutting veterans’ pensions.  But the House of Representatives passed the legislation first. The GOP could have fixed it there had Speaker Boehner spent more time reading his legislation than attacking conservatives.  Once passed, the House of Representatives headed home for Christmas.

Had Harry Reid let the amendment through on Ryan-Murray, the Senate would have had to pass the legislation and the House of Representatives would have had to scramble back to Washington to re=pass the legislation they could have fixed the first time.

But the Republicans were not really interested in fixing the legislation. They just wanted to blame Harry Reid and play gotcha with the lives of veterans. In fact, Paul Ryan claimed the legislation would not affect veterans disabled in war, but that claim was not true. Paul Ryan and John Boehner attacked conservatives for criticizing the legislation without knowing what was in it while they claimed things were in the legislation that were not there……To Read More….

The Republican establishment and insurgent groups brace for all-out war

By TIMOTHY P. CARNEY | DECEMBER 13, 2013

The Republican establishment is fed up with the “outside groups” — the conservative lobbying shops and super PACs that have pulled the party Rightward in recent years — and this time, it’s the establishment that is uninterested in compromise.

House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are playing to win. But here's the problem: Directly fighting the insurgent groups only makes them stronger.

In a span of 48 hours, the party leadership took two direct shots at the conservative insurgents. Boehner attacked the outside groups on camera, singling out Heritage Action. Also, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., fired Republican Study Committee Executive Director Paul Teller, the universally liked longtime leader of the conservative wing on Capitol Hill. The occasion was a dispute over the budget, but it sure looks like a broad effort to bring the insurgency to heel.

Heritage Action, the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund all came out against the budget resolution that Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., crafted with Democrats. The agreement neuters the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester, and conservatives argued that the budget's “fee increases” are really tax hikes...........To Read More…..

10 Reasons to Vote Against the Murray-Ryan Giant Spending and Deficit Increase

By Michael Hammond (Diary) | December 14th, 2013

(1) It increases spending by over $59 billion dollars.

(2) It increases he deficit by over $45 billion dollars.

(3) It raises taxes in order to raise spending. .

(4) The increased spending will be spent on Democratic priorities which will explode in out-years.

(5) The Murray-Ryan budget purports to be "frugal" only because of "Obamacare-style accounting.

(6) A vote for the Murray-Ryan budget is a vote to fund Obamacare, no matter what.

(7) The Murray-Ryan budget would remove a point of order which has been used to object to new spending.

(8) For foreign policy hawks, the bill would slash military colas.

(9) The Murray-Ryan budget will change the national discussion - to immigration reform, minimum wage increases, and gun control.

(10) Harry Reid just destroyed he Senate as an institution, and should not be rewarded for his fraud. …..To Read The Details……

To quote Speaker John Boehner: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????”

My Take - I have waited to see if anyone would pick up on this, but apparently no one has.  When Boehner lambasted conservative groups for criticizing a budget they hadn't seen I noticed one important fact.  I didn't criticize them for being factually wrong.  Why?  Because the information had been leaked ahead of time - spoiling his Sanhedrin moment -  and as it turned out, they were factually and philosophically spot on.  Just a thought. 

Boehner’s Crocodile Tears for Amnesty

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | December 13th, 2013

It is an odd fight. Such a weird little battle over meaningless and known outcomes. Conservatives, aware from press reports and congressional leaks, knew what would be in the Paul Ryan drafted budget plan. The conservative groups released statements in opposition to the plan based on what they had been told. But there was never any doubt about the Ryan plan passing.

After the plan was publicly unveiled by the Republicans at six o’clock on a Tuesday night, conservative fears were realized. Those things they knew would be in the plan were, in fact, in the plan. The plan funded Obamacare. The plan raised taxes. The plan broke the sequestration spending limits that only a month before Republican leaders had said would never be broken.

Speaker Boehner then did something curious. He held two press conferences wherein he lashed out at conservative groups. He denounced them for making up their minds before the plan was publicly unveiled. Never mind that everyone knew what would be in the plan. Never mind that he only gave the public thirty-six hours to explore the text of the plan, a violation of a campaign promise to give at least seventy-two hours of examination. Speaker Boehner’s statement sounded like former Speaker Pelosi claiming we had to pass the Ryan plan to find out what was in the Ryan plan.

Superficially, it is a very odd fight. But Speaker Boehner’s crocodile tears in his attacks and cries against the conservative movement are really about the next fight. Speaker Boehner intends to pursue immigration reform, with an amnesty component. Before he gets there, he needs to shape battle lines.  . . . ‘please click here for the rest of the post ’

John Boehner is facing a beclowning in the Senate.

By: streiff (Diary) | December 13th

Yesterday, Speaker Boehner rammed through the house an ill-conceived, self-defeating budget deal negotiated by Paul Ryan. The he went on to belittle conservative members and groups as “having no credibility” because they criticized the bill without having read it. They hadn’t read it because Boehner moved the bill in the face of his own repeated promise to allow 72 hours for a bill to be examined. He did that because he knew the budget bill was of the “we have to pass the bill to know what’s in it” variety and that were members and activists given 72 hours to examine the bill it would never pass......someone should have checked with their Senate colleagues to see where they stood.....Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to vote against the budget deal.....The bill needs to get 60 votes for cloture and that is not assured:.......No matter the final vote on this bill, the fact remains that Boehner broke a vow he made to the American people to cap discretionary spending, he gave his own caucus the bum’s rush because he couldn’t afford to let them read the bill......To Read More.....

Boehner Slaps Conservatives: 'This is Ridiculous'

December 11, 2013 By Susan Jones

House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday took a swipe at conservative groups that "came out and opposed" a bipartisan budget deal "before they ever saw it."  "They're using our members, and they're using the American people for their own goals. This is ridiculous,"……The Heritage Foundation said the budget…failed to make substantive reforms to entitlement programs, Americans for Prosperity said the deal reverses "hard-won bipartisan spending limits set by the sequester." "Spending levels were set by law at $967 billion. Exceeding those levels by $45 billion takes us in the wrong direction; further from fiscal responsibility, and further from the promise made to the American people."…..FreedomWorks is urging a "no" vote on the bipartisan plan, saying it "is not acceptable to fiscal conservatives."

"The proposed plan would increase spending $63 billion above the budget caps set by Budget Control Act of 2011—the only actual spending control achieved by Congress under the Obama Administration. The deal claims to offset these costs by increasing various fees, and by making small reforms to government pensions. These new fees aren’t being used to shrink government or balance the budget; they’re simply a mask to help hide the breaching of the budget caps,"…..To Read More…..

My Take - Well, the desire to say something profound was overwhelming, but I guess the article really speaks for itself, however do have one question.  What are the poll numbers for Eric Gurr?

I do find it interesting that Representative Huelskamp says, "Republican leaders haven't yet asked the rank-and-file where they stand on a budget deal: "We've been out of town for the weekend. And all of a sudden, they have this deal."  Senator Coburn notes that,  some important things are not being addressed, such as "None of the waste, the duplication, [or] the fraud [is being addressed]-- none of it. And yet, we're going to raise spending back up because the political powers that be want to spend more money rather than be responsible with what we know needs to be done up here -- which is hard work, eliminating all the stupidity and fraud, duplication that's going on."

• Ryan on Budget Deal: Not the 'Greatest Agreement,’ But 'Step in the Right Direction'
• Coburn: Budget Deal 'Not Anything I Can Support'
• GOP's Huelskamp on Budget Deal: 'More Spending'
• Democrat on Budget Deal: 'I'm Skeptical'

Ok....I guess I do have one more question. What exactly is it that Speaker Boehner finds ridiculous?

 

Boehner to Obama: We'll Tie 'Important Spending Cuts ... to Debt Limit Increase'

By Susan Jones September 26, 2013

House Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that House Republicans will pass a bill to increase the debt limit of the federal government that includes spending cuts and what he described as "pro-growth reforms." …..To Read More…..

WH: 'We Will Not Negotiate;' Boehner: 'It Just Doesn't Work That Way'

By Susan Jones September 26, 2013

House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday rejected President Barack Obama's assertion that he will not negotiate over legislation to increase the legal limit on the federal government's debt.  "Now the president says, I'm not going to negotiate," said Boehner. "Well I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work that way."  At his press briefing on Wednesday, White House Press Spokesman Jay Carney had reiterated Obama's insistence that he will not negotiate with Congress over legislation to increase the amount of money the federal government can borrow. …..To Read More…..

Will Boehner Stop Our Rogue President?

August 30, 2013 By Patrick J. Buchanan

The next 72 hours will be decisive in the career of the speaker of the House. The alternatives he faces are these: John Boehner can, after "consultation," give his blessing to Barack Obama's decision to launch a war on Syria, a nation that has neither attacked nor threatened us.  Or Boehner can instruct Obama that, under our Constitution, in the absence of an attack on the United States, Congress alone has the authority to decide whether the United States goes to war.

As speaker, he can call the House back on Monday to debate, and decide, whether to authorize the war Obama is about to start. In the absence of a Congressional vote for war, Boehner should remind the president that U.S. cruise missile strikes on Syria, killing soldiers and civilians alike, would be the unconstitutional and impeachable acts of a rogue president.  Moreover, an attack on Syria would be an act of stupidity. Why this rush to war? Why the hysteria? Why the panic?....To Read More.....

My Take - This is another one of those "then what" scenarios.  Muslim controlled countries are nothing more than Medieval tribal cultures with modern trappings and military hardware.  After you scrap away the surface horsepucky you begin to realize these countries are still tribal societies that are still fighting the same wars they have been fighting for centuries....and not a one of them are good guys.  They hate everyone except their own.  They only love their own tribal members, their own brand of Islam, their own financial interests and their own power.  All else, and everyone else is the enemy and in their minds deserve death delivered in any way that works best. 

How President Obama Lost His Shirt to John Boehner

Ralph Benko, Contributor

 The House, under the leadership of Speaker John Boehner, has precipitated a postponement in the debt ceiling fight until May. This represents a strategic choice by Boehner to make the Sequester fight, not the debt ceiling fight, the next major engagement. Much of the mainstream media now is accusing Congress of “kicking the can down the road.” They are missing the strategic implications.   In retrospect, at the Battle at Fiscal Cliff, Boehner took President Obama to the cleaners…..While Obama churlishly, and in a politically amateurish manner, publicly strutted about having forced the Republicans to raise tax rates on “the wealthiest Americans” Boehner, quietly, was pocketing his winnings.

Dazzled by Obama’s Ozymandias-scale sneer most liberals failed to notice that Boehner quietly made 99% of the Bush tax cuts permanent. As Boehner himself …..“”Who would have ever guessed that we could make 99% of the Bush tax cuts permanent? When we had a Republican House and Senate and a Republican in the White House, we couldn’t get that”…….Boehner thereby won a triple jackpot, a bonanza for conservatives and supply-siders … while Obama, giving up all that for a trivial symbolic victory, lost his Progressive shirt. The mainstream media, with a few exceptions such as Howard Kurtz at the Daily Beast, was too deep in the tank to report that the Emperor has no clothes….To Read More…..   And a bonus link.  The End Of The Karl Rove Death Grip Signals A Reagan Renaissance