Taibbi on Boehner: "The new speaker is a lazy, double-talking shill for corporate interests"

[kpete]

Matt Taibbi: The Crying Shame of John Boehner
The new speaker is a lazy, double-talking shill for corporate interests. So how's he going to fare with the Tea Party?


The irony is, no one — no one — represents all of these bile-inspiring qualities better than John Boehner. His most striking achievement is that there's a check mark next to his name on virtually every entry on the list of common public complaints about Congress. 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. How? Let us count the ways.

Forget about free haircuts: Boehner was soon caught literally handing out checks from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House. This was 1995; the House was voting to consider an end to federal subsidies of the tobacco industry, and Boehner, at the time the fourth-ranking Republican in the party hierarchy, went on the floor and handed out, by his own admission, "a half-dozen" donation checks from the tobacco lobby to various members.

Boehner only got busted when former-football-star-turned-GOP-congressman Steve Largent got wind of the check-passing and confronted Boehner about it. The fallout from the incident reveals the future House speaker at his absolute finest: While being interviewed by a television reporter about what he had done, Boehner with a straight face tries to turn the tables and present himself as an opponent of the practice.

"It's a practice that's gone on here for a long time that we're trying to stop, and I know that I'll never do it again," he deadpans. Asked how he feels about the episode, he says, "It's a bad practice. We've gotta stop it."

more:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105?page=2

[aquart]

1. Lazy is the best news I've heard about him.

[Demeter]

55. Yeah, those Are His GOOD Points

[opihimoimoi]

2. The dude is an asshole unwiped

[shanti]

14. indeed.

n/t

[femrap]

33. might I add....

a drunken asshole unwiped.

[opihimoimoi]

56. awright....you win.......LOL :o)

[femrap]

57. Watched your YouTube....

Your art is WOW! Love it. Inspiring.

[opihimoimoi]

58. Thank you :o)

[spanone]

3. k&r..

[Lint Head]

4. Taibbi is a courageous journalist.

[applegrove]

8. Yes he is.

[Dappleganger]

9. I just purchased his lates (e)book...

it's quite gripping!

[gateley]

10. What's the title? Thanks. nt

[jtown1123]

22. Griftopia. Amazing. I am reading it right now.

[Dappleganger]

24. Yes, that's it.

Sorry, couldn't reply last night. They keyboard was overtaken by a sleeping kitteh. ;)

[underpants]

47. I dind't know he had a new book out-thanks

The Great Derangement was a classic


"She had what looked like, and I think was, a bag of cheeseburgers"

"In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of handwriting analysis!"

[panader0]

5. So at last I understood, there was still a drop of good in

Steve Largent?

[gateley]

11. Largent? I would have thought he was squeaky clean -- over the top Christian,

but a good guy. At least that's what I thought of him when he was with the Seahawks. And oh yeah, boring.

[awoke_in_2003]

49. Just did a little looking up on him...

when in the house, he introduced a bill that would ban homosexuals from adopting children. That makes him filth.

[gratuitous]

6. Yes, he's a double-talking shill, but those are features, not bugs

And Boehner is quite confident that nobody's going to call him on any of it. He's been unaccountable for years, despite a record of continuing personal corruption that the likes of Newt Gingrich can only envy. None of Boehner's pals from the drinky-drinky circuit are going to get on him for anything. They haven't done it to this point, and they'd be crazy to hold him to account now, just when he can start throwing some really swell parties.

[efhmc]

27. He can go down. Look at the others repukes who have.

[bulloney]

30. The problem is, especially in the rural areas of Boehner's district,

they are heavily Catholic "pro-lifers" who think that Republicans are the only ones who will carry out their agenda in government. Boehner can literally rob and rape everyone in these communities and they'd still vote for him because he's "pro-life."

No matter how incompetent, corrupt or immoral Boehner is, they'll re-elect him in a landslide.

[tavalon]

7. My, that was shockingly straightforward

I'm so used to mealymouthed -isms, I hardly know what to do with this. Is lazy like leisure enhanced? Is a "shill for corporate interests" like a pro business representative?

[gateley]

12. Great article -- thanks! nt

[Mimosa]

13. All Congress critters are bought and paid for

Sadly, Matt Taibbi is right.

[rasputin1952]

15. I give this idiot 3 weeks before he completely blows it...

he'll spend ore time on the golf course than he will in the House...and if he goes to the links w/Limbaugh, it's all over.

[opihimoimoi]

16. The Moaner is the ultimate PETER....He is NO Nancy.....not even close

[molly77]

28. Pulic speakin' while drinkin'. MSM will cover for him like they did for bush.

It was so evident he was drinking and yet MSM never mentioned it. Progressives called him a dry drunk.

Lots of drunks in my family, it was evident that there was nothing dry about the bush 8 years in office.

[awoke_in_2003]

50. there was nothing dry about Bush...

he was quite frequently obviously drunk. I mean, who walks up to another head of state and starts to give a shoulder massage? Only a drunk.

[awoke_in_2003]

51. there was nothing dry about Bush...

he was quite frequently obviously drunk. I mean, who walks up to another head of state and starts to give a shoulder massage? Only a drun

[FiveGoodMen]

43. What's all over?

You think if he does a bad job for the US citizenry that it will somehow harm his career?

[rasputin1952]

44. Yep...

Pelosi got a lot done...Boehner will bumble through about 3 weeks, the Teabaggers are going to add poison to the mix,...he's going to go down like Gingrich did.

[FiveGoodMen]

45. That would be fun to watch

although someone just as evil and more competent would probably take his place.

[peekaloo]

17. Boo-hoo-ner: the Maude Flanders of the House.

"think of the children..." :cry:

[TomClash]

18. "God-humping Pennsylvanian Rick Santorum"

God-humping. Precious.

[truebrit71]

19. Taibbi pulls no punches...

...great article...the Teabaggers have absolutely NO clue who their new leader REALLY is..

[russspeakeasy]

25. Even if the teabaggers knew, they don't care.

Remember "country first"?.

[backtomn]

32. I don't care either.........

How does this matter?? I can only hope that he is lazy.....but, in the end, what he DOES is what counts. I for one, will be watching that and trying to stop it. This, like a lot of stories I see here, might make some people feel good....but they don't really matter much. This can be two years of not much of significance or two years of hell......how do you want it?? (remember welfare reform, balanced budget..under Clinton)

Preaching to the converted is not enough.....how do we stop this, if Boehner decides to exert himself??

[BonnieJW]

39. Don't forget, he's got little Eric Cantor

whose nose is totally up boner's ass. Cantor is a complete tool who will do boner's bidding when he's too drunk to function or wants to be out hitting the sticks. Watch the next press coverage of boner. Eric will be right in his pocket.

[The Wizard]

29. Teabaggers only care

if there's an R after the name. Everyone else is a commie nazi traitor.

[crikkett]

20. sounds like we'll experience a 2006 redux.

I don't think we completely 'cleaned house' of dirty congressmen in 2006.

[FlyByNight]

21. Bo(eh)ner is the consummate corporate whore

A fine and vulgar example of what's wrong with Washington.

:puke:

[wilt the stilt]

23. He will actually hate being speaker

because of time restraints of the job it wlll cut into his golf and drinking time.

[Erose999]

26. I doubt it will cut into his drinking time. He's already demonstrated his penchant for drinkin' on

the job during his "victory speech". He was about 3 sheets into the wind then.

Fuck Agent Orange.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SpiralHawk]

34. Is Boenher really a Rev. Moon sockpuppet?

Like some think...

[ooglymoogly]

35. Moon's money is as good as any one eslse's.

I'm betting if Kim Jong-il sent a few mil his way he could also get whatever he wanted from our, for the corporation's and bottom line for profit government.

[valerief]

36. He's the Honcho Whore. nt

[ooglymoogly]

37. Cheese Doodles melt if you throw water on them. Thanx Matt kr nt.

[SoapBox]

38. ...and don't forget...from his appearance he seems to be a chain smoker (ugly teeth) and

looks / acts like a "functional" alchoholic.

[Politicub]

40. With a big helping of sleazy thrown in for good measure

[Citizen Worker]

41. The reason the republicans are back in charge of the house is a lack of choice for voters. Upset

disillusioned with the democrats, Business Party #2, and with nowhere else to go angry voters returned Business Party #1 to power in the house and will likely do the same with the senate in 2012. Solution: form a SECOND political party that addresses the needs of the working class.

[Javaman]

42. The weeping boner will be his own undoing...

he has all the slack in the rope now to hang himself.

I believe he will go down in history with other great repukes as newty and tommy.

[underpants]

46. Classic Taibbi

"..a remorseless spender of taxpayer money for whom the notion of small government is just something to say when the cameras are on, or when the public money in question might go to poor people or immigrants or other such unlikely golfers."


"... jack off the mob by incorporating the Tea Party's Constitution-and-liberty rhetoric, hand the Tea Party those reforms that the GOP's big campaign contributors want anyway (most notably, tax breaks for the rich and deregulation of big business), and then cough up a note from the doctor or some other lame excuse when the time comes to actually cut spending."

[underpants]

48. The last two paragraphs

It was good times in America for a while. A man could wait for his local congressman to get caught diddling a 16-year-old, make a run for his seat, and then spend the next 20 years getting hustled around the world on golf junkets and showered with campaign checks and apartments and corporate-jet flights, and nobody would utter so much as a peep of protest. Congress was an easy job for any man with a nice fairway stroke, a limited moral compass and a keen sense of bureaucratic loyalty; it was half an acting job and half clerical work, taking orders from industry captains and selling the resultant giveaway bills to your voters as principled blows for Adam Smith, the flag and the free-enterprise system. Back when America was still a feared international bully that was flush with borrowed Saudi and Chinese cash and could stand to blow a few hundred extra billion in public funds every year on budget-padding deals — back in the Bush years — John Boehner was the perfect candidate for congressional leadership, a lifetime company man who didn't give a shit about most Americans but could shed tears on national television on behalf of Jamie Dimon's bottom line.

Things are different now. America is so broke, there's no longer really any money in the Treasury to give away — the job of overseeing corporate handouts that used to belong to the leaders of Congress has now moved to the Federal Reserve, which itself is so broke that it has to invent dollars out of thin air before it can give them away to influential billionaires. This leaves congressional leaders with nothing to do but their ostensible jobs — i.e., fixing the country's actual problems — and few of the current leaders have any experience with that, Boehner being a prime example. The new speaker represents an increasingly endangered class of Beltway jobholders who know how to raise money and get elected, but not much beyond that. He now finds himself the party's last line of defense against millions of angry voters who, for the first time in recent memory, are at least attempting to watch what Congress is up to. The tee times are over.

[mentalsolstice]

52. I've said it here before, and I'll say it again

Boehner reminds me of a three-day-old glass of beer with several cigarette butts floating in it. When I was in college, I've done housecleaning after a weekend binge, so I know what I speak of.

[RowdyRacer]

53. Tammy Faye Boehner

Repeat this nickname, and hang it around his neck like an anchor!!

[BrklynLiberal]

54. Taibbi is terrific!!!