Boehner goes for the GQP’s jugular in new book

Thomas Veil

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Boehner’s low opinion of his colleagues is entertaining enough...but then there’s that literal knife-to-the-throat story. 😳


I mean...there’s cut-throat politics, but fucking seriously?
 
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lizkat

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Boehner’s low opinion of his colleagues is entertaining enough...but then there’s that literal knife-to-the-throat story. 😳


I mean...there’s cut-throat politics, but fucking seriously?

Yeah, on that particular occasion what flashed through my mind were photos of occasional actual fisticuffs in the South Korean legislature and etc. Amazing. But Don Young has pulled a stunt like that at least once before, during a hot debate over an attempt by environmentalists to protect the Tongass Forest in Alaska from loggers:



As for Boehner: Whatever anyone from the left thought of the former GOP leader while he was either Speaker or minority leader in the House, his departure was a sign that the moderate Republicans had definitely lost all chance of managing Republican fortunes in Congress after that. He was the last of their crew who knew how to work the edges of a deal inside their own party without getting too far ahead of the electorate's rightward drift.

Ryan wasn't up to that task. So when Boehner threw in the towel, it wasn't necessarily the passing of a baton but rather a formal acknowledgment of a mutiny from the far right that was out of control. Ryan stepped in "where angels fear to tread" and any misgivings he may have had ahead of that time seem (at least in the Trump era) to have ended up being the best part of his assessment of how things could go for the party after that.

Even the evangelicals could not fully realize at that time how dangerous it was to have supported meanwhile the tactic of primarying from the right any Republican incumbents who would not adopt the rightward-rightward-rightward pressures from the far right -- whose agendas are not actually about GOP policy at all, but rather about rabid anti-government and white supremacist attitudes.
 

SuperMatt

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He didn’t have to take the path he did. He is a crybaby. He could have formed a coalition with moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats and totally marginalized the Tea-Party nuts. But as he keeps yapping: “A leader without any followers is just a guy taking a walk.” You should have taken a walk much sooner then, John. No different than most politicians on the right: he doesn’t have any actual principles. He only wanted to stay in power, even if it meant betraying his supposed ideals.
 

lizkat

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He didn’t have to take the path he did. He is a crybaby. He could have formed a coalition with moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats and totally marginalized the Tea-Party nuts. But as he keeps yapping: “A leader without any followers is just a guy taking a walk.” You should have taken a walk much sooner then, John. No different than most politicians on the right: he doesn’t have any actual principles. He only wanted to stay in power, even if it meant betraying his supposed ideals.

I only partly agree... because McConnell. Mitch, although not an ideologue by nature, is a complete cynic and had thrown in with the far right when he saw where the electorate was going without them... nowhere... and then took the RNC with him. There is only so much room for a House speaker to maneuver in when his counterpart in the Senate is leader of a party of "NO".
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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whose agendas are not actually about GOP policy at all, but rather about rabid anti-government and white supremacist attitudes.

I'm still amused when sane people from the right or left think they can reason with or attack the Trumpist voter with things like the constitution, law and order, or even Democracy. They simply don't give a shit about any of those things, or they only do when any of those things conveniently support their agenda, but when it's obstructing their agenda they are full-on not giving a shit. There is nothing patriotic about them. They are just pure selfishness.
 

lizkat

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I'm still amused when sane people from the right or left think they can reason with or attack the Trumpist voter with things like the constitution, law and order, or even Democracy. They simply don't give a shit about any of those things, or they only do when any of those things conveniently support their agenda, but when it's obstructing their agenda they are full-on not giving a shit. There is nothing patriotic about them. They are just pure selfishness.

Yeah I've finally gotten over thinking it's down to ignorance that we elected Trump. That gave him a leg up but there was a lot of highly educated push behind his election also... and all that was down to greed and "me, me, me" -- the same as Dear Leader.
 

thekev

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He didn’t have to take the path he did. He is a crybaby. He could have formed a coalition with moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats and totally marginalized the Tea-Party nuts. But as he keeps yapping: “A leader without any followers is just a guy taking a walk.” You should have taken a walk much sooner then, John. No different than most politicians on the right: he doesn’t have any actual principles. He only wanted to stay in power, even if it meant betraying his supposed ideals.

I'm skeptical as to how much anyone could have done, once these guys started to walk the path of the crazy.
 

SuperMatt

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I'm skeptical as to how much anyone could have done, once these guys started to walk the path of the crazy.
As I suggested, make a coalition of moderates on each side. If that actually led to getting things done, Boehner could have made the Tea Party look like the nuts they are. Instead, he gave the crazies the power.
 

mac_in_tosh

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I'm not impressed by these GOP officials who suddenly get the courage to speak out when they are no longer in office. Or when they have a book to sell.
 
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