Tag Archives: John Boehner

Boehner is burning key congressional bridge

September 28, 2015 kanelis2012

John Boehner is showing some spunk now that he’s a declared short-timer in the halls of Congress.

The speaker of the House of Representatives announced his planned resignation from Congress, effective Oct. 30. He’s weary of the constant fighting with TEA Party members of his GOP caucus.

Then there’s word he might become a lobbyist after waiting a year, per House rules for former lawmakers.

So, what does he do? He starts torching the “false prophets” who gave him so much hell as he tried to manage the House’s legislative agenda.

Those “false prophets” well could become potential sources for the clients he would represent lobbying for their interests in the halls of Congress.

What’s up, then, with the speaker burning that key bridge?

It might be that Boehner could spend the next year campaigning for more moderate and, dare I say, reasonable Republicans. Those individuals, then, could be his target audience as he starts lobbying them for legislation favorable to whomever he hopes to represent.

Speaker Boehner has liberated himself from the shackles of trying to please the multi-faceted elements within his own political party, let alone trying to find common ground with congressional Democrats, who are angry with him for kowtowing to the TEA Party in the first place.

You go, Mr. Speaker!

national news, political news

Government shutdown looming … maybe

September 27, 2015 kanelis2012

Oh, how I wish I could be as serene as some of the pundits out there about the prospects of a government shutdown in the wake of John Boehner’s stunning resignation.

The speaker of the House is leaving office at the end of next month. Between now and then Congress is going to vote on some funding issues that involve possibly the very issue of a government shutdown.

The TEA Party wing of Boehner’s Republican Party won big with the speaker’s resignation. He’s been battling the yahoos on the far right for years. He’s had enough, so he bailed.

That empowers the TEA Party types. It strengthens their hand with the new speaker, believed to be House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Does he want to wage war with the TEA Party faction? Hardly.

He might find it more difficult to resist them than his predecessor did.

Planned Parenthood is in the TEA Party sights. They think shutting down the federal government — which, by the way, does a lot of things for other people as well — is a good way to get back at the agency for what TEA Party lawmakers say is its callous disregard for human life; it’s the abortion thing, you know.

Government to shut down?

This kind of political hostage-taking is not in keeping with congressional responsibility. Given that so many of the TEA Party faithful in Congress are too young to have been around when the GOP tried this tactic before.

It blew up in their face. It will do so every time.

If only they’d realize the folly.

national news, political news, Uncategorized

Boehner may become lobbyist … who knew?

September 27, 2015 kanelis2012

Twenty-five years on Capitol Hill bought John Boehner a lot of friendships.

OK, perhaps “bought” isn’t entirely appropriate, but he did acquire a lot of contacts.

So, the question of the day is this: Will the soon-to-be former House speaker join the corps of high-dollar lobbyists?

Gee. Do you think?

Boehner may move to K Street

Boehner announced this week he’s resigning from Congress. He’s giving up his power House speakership because, word has it, he was tired of fighting with the TEA Party wing of his Republican Party.

The House of Representatives requires a one-year cooling off period before former members can actually lobby. But let’s face it: Boehner’s connections will enable him to line up any opportunity he chooses to pursue once the year is up.

Observers note that Boehner is a savvy politician who has made many friends in and out of government.

USA Today reports: “He’ll get seven figures on the street,” said Tom Davis, a fellow Republican and former Virginia congressman who now lobbies for the financial-consulting giant Deloitte. “He’s got a lot of friends and allies in Congress. But it’s not necessarily his Rolodex that’s valuable. It’s just that he knows Congress inside and out.”

I guess it’s safe to say that Boehner will console his loss of political power with an abundance of cash he’ll earn once he signs on to represent well-heeled interests looking for any advantage they can get on Capitol Hill.

John Boehner is a cinch to find it for them.

national news, political news

Congressional GOP divide appears to widen

September 26, 2015 kanelis2012

John Boehner’s shocking departure from the House speakership likely has exacerbated the dispute between the “establishment” and TEA Party wings of the Republican Party majority that controls Congress.

TEA Party loyalists have cheered the news. Boehner’s buddies have jeered it.

What’s more, Boehner’s friends and allies have struck out at the TEA Party wing over its continued obstruction of issues that Boehner sought to pursue during his tenure as the Man of the House.

Allies lash out

This comment came from House Ethics Chairman Charlie Dent, R-Fla.: “Any jackass can kick down a barn door. It takes a carpenter to hang one. We need a few more carpenters around here. Everybody knows it.”

Do you think Dent’s an unhappy man?

Congress still might shut down the government over, say, Planned Parenthood. The righties still are angry over the Iran nuclear deal. Boehner’s governing instincts have led him to seek when possible to work with moderates and even Democrats on occasion. Those on the right and far right will have none of that.

So, they got their wish when Boehner announced his intention to quit his Ohio congressional seat.

We all ought to stay tuned to learn whether the TEA Party wing of the GOP can actually govern.

national news, political news, State news

What would LBJ think of today’s political climate?

September 26, 2015 kanelis2012 3 Comments

JOHNSON CITY, Texas — What would Lyndon think of what happened today?

We’ve spent the past three nights in President Johnson’s beloved Texas Hill Country and it was in this tranquil environment that we heard the news out of Washington — that House Speaker John Boehner is resigning his speakership and his congressional seat at the end of October.

The reaction from across the political spectrum? Well, President Obama — with whom Boehner has had many enormous differences — called him a “patriot” and a “good man.”

The reaction from the right wing of the speaker’s Republican Party? They cheered the news. Good riddance, Mr. Speaker.

Right wingers are smiling at the news. They want the speaker out of there.

Which brings me back to Lyndon Johnson.

LBJ was a proud Democrat. He also was a supreme legislator, thought by many to be the greatest Senate majority leader in the history of the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”

He took his legislative skill with him to the vice presidency and then — in that spasm of violence on Nov. 22, 1963 — to the presidency.

How do you suppose he earned the legislative kudos? He earned them by knowing how to compromise and how to get his friends in the other party to join him in enacting critical legislation. The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, enactment of Medicare? All three of those landmarks were achieved with bipartisan support engineered in large part by the president of the United States.

Today, the mood and the atmosphere is different. Arch-conservatives — and, for that matter, ultraliberals — would rather fall on their proverbial grenades than compromise with politicians they see as enemies, and not just adversaries.

Lyndon Johnson would be an unhappy man were he to rise from his grave in Stonewall and see what has happened to the two great political parties that at one time knew how to work together to get things done for the common good.

In that respect, the president likely would throw his arm around Speaker Boehner, wish him well and hope for the return of better days atop Capitol Hill.

national news, political news

Boehner the buffer?

September 25, 2015 kanelis2012

Here’s an interesting take on the sudden resignation of House Speaker John Boehner.

It comes from an acknowledged left-wing Democrat, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

Is he right or wrong about whether the speaker served as a buffer between the extreme right wing of his party and the rest of a diverse nation?

***

“Actually I’m amazed John Boehner survived as long as he has. His one virtue as Speaker of the House has been his total lack of principle, which has enabled him to cobble together majorities or pluralities out of a Party that’s gone off the rails, becoming increasingly misogynist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim; filled with paranoid whackos, voodoo economists, anti-science half-brains, creationists, and white supremists; while being financed by billionaires, Wall Street, and big business.

“The problem for the rest of us right now is they’re still a majority in Congress, and many are aiming to close down the government unless Planned Parenthood is defunded — and then to default on the nation’s debt rather than lift the debt limit.

“John Boehner will not go down in history as one of America’s greatest Speakers of the House, but at least he served as something of a buffer between the Republican crazies and the rest of America. (This morning when Marco Rubio announced Boehner’s plan to retire, attendees at the Values Voter Summit in Washington roared their approval and then rose in a standing ovation.) After the end of October, that buffer is gone.”

national news, political news

Speaker provides a serious stunner

September 25, 2015 kanelis2012

John Boehner likely didn’t intend to do it, but this morning he managed to rip much of the attention away from the man — Pope Francis — who spoke Thursday to a joint session of Congress.

All the speaker did was … announce his resignation from Congress effective Oct. 30.

Speaker drops bombshell

Although the speaker isn’t the kind of politician many of us generally could support, compared to many others within his Republican Party, he became a rational voice among the dwindling ranks of others like him who call themselves Republicans.

“The first job of any Speaker is to protect this institution that we all love,” Boehner said. “It was my plan to only serve as Speaker until the end of last year, but I stayed on to provide continuity to the Republican Conference and the House. It is my view, however, that prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution. To that end, I will resign the Speakership and my seat in Congress on October 30.”

The turmoil wasn’t likely to abate any time soon. From my vantage point, it looks for all the world that the speaker declared today he’s had enough of the infighting that has plagued his efforts at running the House of Representatives.

What’s next? I guess Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is the favorite to succeed Boehner. Will a new speaker be more beholden to the TEA Party wing of his party, the wing that Boehner once referred to as nut cases — or something to that effect?

Boehner’s instinct always seemed to work with Democrats, not against them. He has become hamstrung by the ideologues within his party.

Truth be told, I’m sorry to see John Boehner pack it in.

Another truth, though, is that I am surprised he lasted as long as he did.

national news

Now it’s a mountain name that brings criticism

September 1, 2015 kanelis2012

You almost could have predicted this would happen.

President Obama decided to rename Mount McKinley, which had been named in honor of a Republican president, William McKinley. The tallest peak in North America now is called Denali, which is a native Alaskan term.

But here it comes: Ohio Republicans are angry at the mountain renaming. They think it’s a slight to a GOP president who, by the way, never set foot in Alaska, let alone climb the peak.

Ohio GOP up in arms

House Speaker John Boehner, who hails from Ohio, says the president shouldn’t have acted unilaterally. Other lawmakers from Ohio say they’ll try to block the name change legislatively.

Oh yes. Then there’s Donald Trump, the GOP front runner for the party’s presidential nomination, who says if elected president he’ll undo Obama’s decision.

Alaska’s Republicans, though, are in favor of the name change. The state’s senior U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, its House member, Don Young, and its junior senator, Dan Sullivan, vow to block any effort to reverse the decision.

Alaska has been calling the peak Denali since 1975. The president’s action changes it in the federal registry of geographic names.

Oh, but it’s now a slap in the face to a former president who happened to hail from Ohio and that it detracts from his legacy.

Good grief. Can we call a halt to this partisan bickering over an issue that makes not a bit of difference, except perhaps to the native Alaskans who can recite the grand peak’s new name with their own sense of pride?

What in the world is wrong with that?

national news, political news

Name-calling becomes a hit

August 28, 2015 kanelis2012 4 Comments

Republicans are becoming the party of name-callers.

Let’s run a little tabulation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham called Donald Trump a “jackass.”

Trump has called Graham, former Govs. Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney “losers.”

Trump also has said that every official in the U.S. government is “stupid.”

House Speaker John Boehner has chimed in with a “jackass” epithet hurled at Sen. Ted Cruz.

I know I’ve missed some, maybe a lot. But these come to mind immediately.

What’s up here? Are the candidates for the presidency getting under each other’s skin?

I’ve lost count of the bad names Sen. John McCain has tossed at folks who disagree with him. Then again, he’s not running for president this time around.

I’ll give the current GOP bunch this much credit: At least they aren’t tossing out f-bombs, at least not publicly.

It was then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s dubious honor to reveal his potty mouth when, during a Senate floor debate years ago, he told Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy to go f*** himself.

Hey, just think: The presidential campaign is just getting warmed up.

International news

Netanyahu says it’s ‘not my job’ to dictate Iran vote

August 11, 2015 kanelis2012

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — I dare say — is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

He told a delegation of congressional Democrats visiting him in Israel this week that it’s “not my job” to tell them how to vote on the Iran nuclear deal hammered out by Secretary of State John Kerry and representatives of five other world powers.

However, that doesn’t quite square with what he did earlier this year when, at the invitation of Republican U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, Netanyahu stood before a joint congressional session and — yep — told them in effect how they should vote on a deal designed to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Lawmakers visiting Netanyahu said the prime minister was respectful and frank.

He doesn’t like the deal. In many ways, I understand Netanyahu’s reluctance to deal with the Iranians. Their regime has declared its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the planet. The Islamic Republic of Iran isn’t to be trusted at any level, according to Netanyahu.

But President Obama, Kerry and all the participants say the same thing about the deal: It blocks “every pathway” Iran has to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Congress is going to take up the issue next month. A resolution calling for defeat of the deal is likely to pass. It’s also likely to lack the votes to overturn an expected veto from the president.

Never mind, though, that the Israeli prime minister isn’t telling members of Congress how to vote.

Wink, wink.

Actually, yes he is.

High Plains Blogger

Tag Archives: John Boehner

Boehner is burning key congressional bridge

Government shutdown looming … maybe

Boehner may become lobbyist … who knew?

Congressional GOP divide appears to widen

What would LBJ think of today’s political climate?

Boehner the buffer?

Speaker provides a serious stunner

Now it’s a mountain name that brings criticism

Name-calling becomes a hit

Netanyahu says it’s ‘not my job’ to dictate Iran vote

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