WHY REPUBLICANS HAVE A BONER FOR JOHN BOEHNER, WHO HAS PROVEN TO BE JUST AS CORRUPT AS TOM DELAY SINCE TAKING OVER AS LEADER

On Saturday Mike McIntire did a long expose in the NY TIMES about John Boehner's very close ties to the K Street Project and the corrupt Republican world of fast, loose, corporate moolah. The piece isn't a stretch at all, since before he became the new GOP Majority Leader (at DeLay's forced retirement) he was basically only known outside his home district for one thing: giving out Big Tobacco checks on the floor of the House of Representatives. No one has ever accused John Boehner of having spent any time thinking about Ethics (other than how to get around them).

And McIntire doesn't beat around the bush in describing John Boehner as the new congressional kingpin of corporate whores-- the worst of the worst. "Representative John A. Boehner won the job of House majority leader amid a post-Abramoff clamor for an overhaul of lobbying and ethics rules. But nearly six months later, the changes are still tied up in Congress. And far from trying to put the brakes on lobbyists and the money they channel into Republican coffers, Mr. Boehner, who has portrayed his ties to Washington lobbyists as something to be proud of, has stepped on the gas. He has been holding fund-raisers at lobbyists' offices, flying to political events on corporate planes and staying at a golf resort with a business group that has a direct stake in issues before Congress."

Since he took over from DeLay, he ordered the wussy Davey Dreier-- who was supposed to come up with a new Republican approach to ethics-- to pipe down. And then he went to work-- vacuuming up over $10,000 per day in legal bribes from Big Business. He's taking in even more than DeLay did! Boehner is taking money from whomever he can get it but the biggest donors so far are his pals at Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, the banks and credit card companies (for whom the GOP delivered the outrageous bankruptcy bill), health insurers (who the Boehner and the Republican rubber stamps have insured gigantic profits by allowing them to completely rip off the public), Big Oil and, of course, the military "contractors" who have reaped billions of dollars in war profits from Republican policies. (Boehner has even had the gall to go back to casino-rich Indian tribes for more money!!)

"And despite an intensified spotlight on Congressional trip taking," McIntire writes, "Mr. Boehner flew to a golf resort in Boca Raton, Fla., in March for a convention of commodities traders, who have contributed more than $100,000 to his campaigns and are lobbying against a proposed federal tax on futures transactions. During the trip, Mr. Boehner assured his hosts that Congress would most likely not approve a tax they opposed. His leadership committee, the Freedom Project, which in recent months has enlisted the use of corporate planes from Federal Express, Aflac and the Florida Power and Light Company, later reimbursed the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for the cost of the Boca Raton trip."

And Boehner is continuing the Santorum-DeLay tactic of the revolving-door relationship between Republican congressmen and interest groups with mega-stakes in legislation, having just hired a couple of crooked sleazeballs from the financial and insurance industries.

"A review of Mr. Boehner's recent contributors finds a 'who's who' of Washington special interests, many with issues before Congress. The Indian tribes have fought to keep gambling legislation from affecting their casinos. Investment companies that have contributed tens of thousands of dollars have a stake in legislation to update the pension system... More than 10 of Mr. Boehner's former staff members have gone to work for lobbying firms, and his former chief of staff, Joyce Gates, is married to a lobbyist, Bruce Gates. Mrs. Gates and her husband, whose firm has contributed more than $100,000 to Mr. Boehner and represents dozens of blue chip companies, have helped produce popular whorehouse parties 'warehouse parties' for Mr. Boehner at Republican conventions since 1996."

The Democrat challenging Capitol Hill's King of Corruption, Morton Meier, is rated about a zero percent chance of ousting Boehner. The DCCC hasn't even bothered to list his website, a distinction he shares with no other Democratic challengers. He's a 71 year old former Republican who fought Boehner in a GOP primary in 1990 in this solidly Republican district bordering Indiana. After Bush was elected Meier abandoned the Republicans in disgust and volunteered for Howard Dean.