Beyond Hypocrisy-- Meet Republican House Leader, John Boehner

Boehner slipped into his leadership role after Tom DeLay's career was cut short by corruption so blatant and conspicuous that even the Republicans had to jettison him. So what did they take in his place? Boehner was best known as the bag man for Big Tobacco, who had the gumption to hand out bribes from cigarette companies on the floor of the House while members were voting!

And it been all downhill since then. When the GOP loses several dozen House seats in November, the left-behinds will scapegoat Boehner and force him to step down-- probably for someone even worse, like Eric Cantor, Mike Pence or even an intellectual featherweight like Know Nothing Jeb Hensarling. Wednesday, though, Boehner really outdid himself in a memo he sent to Republican members giving them advice about how to hold on to their seats in what is shaping up to be the worst year for Republican incumbents since the last time they caused a Depression with their policies of Greed and Selfishness. His message: attack, attack, attack.

Ironically, the chief Bush rubber stamp on the bailout cynically urges Republicans-- whose arms he was twisting to vote for the bailout a week ago-- to attack Democrats for supporting... Bush on the bailout! According to yesterday's CongressDaily Boehner urged "GOP lawmakers to push the idea that Democrats helped bring about the economic crisis by blocking efforts to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while downplaying the GOP role in passing the economic bailout bill. 'It's up to all of us to make sure our neighbors back at home are hearing our message of reform,' the memo states. 'Enactment of the flawed but necessary economic rescue bill was not a cause for celebration. Thus, the image last week of Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic leaders smiling and beaming at a press conference as the bill was prepared for the president's signature spoke volumes. It's an image that should burn in the minds of angry American taxpayers this fall as Main Street America deals with the consequences of a broken Washington.'"

I wonder how much comfort that "strategy" will offer Arizona flip-flopper John Shadegg, who was against the bailout and then got talked into reverting to his habitual rubber stamp posture and voted for it. A few hours later Shadegg was one of only 28 far right extremists who opposed extending unemployment compensation to workers who are being thrown out of work by the atrocious policies Shadegg and the rubber stamp Republicans have been implementing.

And, of course, Shadegg is far from the only vulnerable incumbent who may find Boehner's mental somersault too difficult to explain to the folks back home. Ninety-one Republicans voted for the Wall Street bailout/giveaway, including endangered incumbents like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Jon Porter (R-NV), Mike Rogers (R-AL), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), David Dreier (R-CA), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Jon Kline (R-MN), and Chris Shays (R-CT).

This morning's CQPolitics frames Boehner's predicament in terms of the battle between the GOP's far right extremists and mainstream conservatives over the Bush Regime's bailout.

The Battle of the Bailout may ultimately be viewed as the first major skirmish in the fight for control of the GOP whose “brand” has been badly damaged by the collapse of support for Bush during his second term as president and by the foibles that have made the Republicans in Congress at least as unpopular as Bush. This fight will occur even if McCain is somehow able to reverse his slide in the presidential race polls and pull out what would now be regarded as an upset victory over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.

In fact, the election of McCain-- whose campaign leans heavily on the handful of issues on which he disagrees with the conservative wing of his own party-- would likely complicate the efforts by the Republican Party to define itself and revive its overall fortunes.

...After the Republicans lost control of Congress in the 2006 elections, a number of observers said the party needed to temper the image of unbridled conservative partisanship that many voters attributed to the party and show that its members could work with the Democrats to forge compromises on issues of major public concern.

But members of the conservative activist wing of Republican lawmakers see it otherwise. Under the banner of the Republican Study Committee (RSC)-- which claims membership of more than 110 of the 199 Republicans who currently hold U.S. House seats-- these Republicans claim their party’s fortunes have fallen because it is not conservative enough.

The RSC, headed by figures such as Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the current chairman, and past chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, argues that “big government conservatism” practiced by Bush and Republican leaders in Congress has robbed the party of its identity and has prompted voters to see the GOP as little different from the Democratic Party.

They point to the political horse-trading under the past House leadership of now-departed Republicans such as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Tom DeLay of Texas that contributed to the explosive growth in federal spending “earmarks;” the outright corruption scandals that played big roles in the Republican downfall in 2006; and the creation under Bush of the No Child Left Behind education law and the prescription drug benefit program under Medicare, which many conservatives see as vast expansions of federal spending and intrusion.

Boehner will now face a self-righteous Sarah Palin wing of a defeated and tattered Republican caucus. The ones who are left after the coming drubbing will be the inbred extremists from backward, ignorant racist districts gerrymandered to be all white and all reactionary. They'll want one of their own to lead their rump party-- and they deserve exactly that. I recommend Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), closet queen Patrick McHenry (R-NC), or the House's version of Sarah Palin, Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

Meanwhile, across Capitol Hill, in the real world, CQPolitics has reassessed Republican chances of holding onto 4 Senate seats in light of recent events. They declared the Virginia race virtually over (Safe Democratic) and downgraded the chances of 3 Bush rubber stamps, Norm Coleman (MN), Miss McConnell (KY) and Saxby Chambliss (GA) to win re-election. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of assholes.