Who's Worse So Far This Week, John Boehner Or John Campbell?

Boehner must have been high from something in the tanning salon but he twittering away merrily today a letter to the editor Mike Pence wrote and managed to get the Indianapolis Star to print for him. Big surprise: Mike Pence opposes bailouts. He actually does. Pence was the only member of the Republican House leadership, in fact, who voted against the September 29 and October 3 no-strings-attached Wall Street bailouts that Bush shoved down their throats. And the biggest irony of all is that Boehner, of all people, is sucking up to Pence when it was Boehner who not only voted for the heinous bill twice but who strong-armed reluctant Republicans into going along with it and then delivering two dozen Republicans on October 3 to pass the bill after it had been defeated just a week earlier. Boehner certainly earned the $3,533,714 he's accepted from the Financial Sector-- as did his #1 Deputy Dog Eric Cantor ($4,030,235) and other crooked members of the House Republican leadership, like Roy Blunt ($3,573,427), Pete Sessions ($3,002,107), Spencer Bachus ($4,287,174), David Dreier ($2,234,838), and Paul Ryan ($1,787,215). Boehner, whose entire political career has been-- and continues to be-- financed by special interests lobbyists, led them all into the calamitous TARP bailout which the Bush economic team had carefully put together to rip off American taxpayers on behalf of the most avaricious and venal banking interests in the world. And now he's desperately trying to make out like he hates bailouts. Since the political demise of Tom DeLay Boehner has been widely considered the most corrupt man in Washington, a favorite of the most insidious lobbyists and a bagman for corporate special interests eager to funnel legalistic bribes to Republican members of Congress willing to do their bidding, regardless of how badly it impacts their own constituents.

A regular on the cocktail and fundraising circuit, Boehner has long been friendly with a number of corporate and contract lobbyists-- a network that he is increasingly relying on now as he eyes the Speakership. Altria’s Gates, along with his wife, Joyce Gates, who once served as Boehner’s chief of staff, and Quinn Gillespie’s Lampkin are considered key members of Boehner’s inner circle, as are Gary Andres of Dutko Worldwide, Terry Holt, a former Boehner aide who is now with the Republican lobbying firm HDMK, and John Fish, an in-house lobbyist with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Ohio native Steve Clark of Clark, Lytle & Geduldig, his partner Sam Geduldig, who was Boehner’s political director, and Glover Park Group’s Brian Gaston, another one-time Boehner staffer, are also tight with the top House Republican.

“I think that he has an excellent relationship with a lot of people on K Street,” Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) said. “He raises a lot of money through the Freedom Project, and of course, he transfers a lot of money to the team, to the [National Republican Congressional Committee] and to Members.”

Justin Coussoule, the fiscally responsible Democrat opposing Boehner for re-election doesn't want to see him get away with the perfidy unchallenged. "To those millions who are rightfully angered by the bail out of Wall Street banks and financial institutions who violated our trust and created an economic disaster for American families," said Coussoule, "they should be reminded that the bail out was George Bush's and John Boehner twisted arms to pass the bill for his friends on Wall Street.

"Although a response while our nation stood at the edge of economic collapse may have been necessary, a bail out without transparency, accountability and safeguards for American families was inexcusable. But 'Bail Out Boehner' chose to protect his friends on Wall Street and stiff working families, leaving them to pick up the tab."

Yesterday-- like almost every day when he's not out on the links, Boehner was running around making a lot of negative noises, a substitute, at least in his mind, for doing substantive work to clean up some of the mess he has helped create over the past two decades. Yesterday what he was huffing and puffing about was his and Cantor's silly new pet project-- yet another tax-payer funded gimmicky boondoggle for Republicans-- YouCut.

He yells and carries on so much about how long it's taking for Obama to fix the economy-- that he was so integral in wrecking-- that he never seems to notice when any of the progress the legislation he always routinely opposes seems to be working. Yesterday the nonpartisan CBO gave credit to the Recovery Act-- which Boehner claimed would lead to the end of the world-- with having already created or saved nearly 3 million jobs in the first quarter of 2010-- something that Boehner fears could have an adverse effect on his ability to hang on to his own job!

While more must be done to create and save jobs, this is even better than earlier CBO estimates for this time period. Looking ahead, CBO projects up to 3.7 million American jobs could be attributed to the Recovery Act by the end of the September.

In January 2009, before Congress enacted the Recovery Act, Americans lost 779,000 jobs in just one month. A year later, job losses have turned to jobs gains of 290,000 in April-- the largest gain in four years and a 1 million job swing from the end of the Bush Administration. This marks the fourth month of job growth with 573,000 American jobs added since December-- 84% in private sector. This is a sharp reversal from the job losses and deep economic crisis President Bush left behind. If job growth continues at this pace, the Obama Administration will create more jobs in 2010, than the Bush Administration created in eight years:

But when it came time to vote, Boehner was reluctant, this close to election time, to be as blatantly obstructionist as usual. So Monday night he led most of his caucus-- not counting 4 lunatic fringe nutcases who got all carried away with the Limbaugh rhetoric about the government failing and collapsing, 4 with drool dripping from their chins-- to vote "yes" on Hank Johnson's and John Conyers' legislation to amend the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act of 2004. The 4 were the usual anti-U.S. suspects: Paul Broun (R-GA), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Tom McClintock (R-CA) and, needless to say Rand's loony papa Ron Paul (R-TX).

Then yesterday another bill came up that Boehner decided was too dangerous to obstruct: Jerry McNerney's H.R. 5145, Assuring Quality Care for Veterans Act. In fact that one passed 413-2. 2? Who would oppose quality care for the men and women who fought to protect our country? Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and John Campbell (R-CA).

Flake has a mind of his own but Campbell usually always goes along with Boehner on everything. He was certainly an avid Bush bankster bailout supporter-- and no one had to twist his arms. One of the most egregiously corrupt members of Congress, Campbell is always sniffing around for bankster PAC money and he voted for the bailout on September 29, when most members of Congress opposed it and it failed, and again, when it passed, on October 3, 2008. A couple of weeks ago the Irregular Times featured a story about Campbell wearing that "Join The Resistance" tee-shirt you see him modeling above.

That sounds hip. It sounds independent. It sounds countercultural.

Is it? Just what sort of resistance is Representative Campbell advocating?

It seems that Campbell’s resistance is heavily funded by corporations and their lobbyists. According to the Federal Election Commission, among the biggest contributors to Campbell’s 2010 re-election campaign are the following political action committees:

- AFLAC PAC

- American Bankers Association PAC

- American Financial Services Association PAC

- American Insurance Association PAC

- Ameriprise Financial Inc. PAC

- Bank of America Corporation Federal PAC

- Blue Shield of California PAC

- Charles Schwab Corporation PAC

- Citigroup Inc. PAC

- Commercial Real Estate Financial Council PAC

- Credit Suisse Securities PAC

- Ernst and Young PAC

- Exxon Mobil Corporation PAC

- Financial Services Rountable PAC

- International Council of Shopping Centers Inc. PAC

- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company PAC

- Microsoft Corporation PAC

- Mortgage Bankers Association PAC

- New York Life Insurance Company PAC

- Pricewaterhousecoopers PAC

- Raytheon Company PAC

- Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association PAC

The only resistance I can imagine all these powerful corporations would participate in would be a resistance to control of the political process by individual constituents. Why would we want to join that kind of resistance?

Campbell has never opposed a special interests bill that any of his big campaign donors has hired lobbyists to push. He's just that kind of guy. Not even when we're trying to help veterans-- and just as Memorial Day approaches.

Beth Krom is the newest candidate to be endorsed by Blue America. A former mayor and current city council member of Irvine, she's a progressive Democrat taking on the odious Campbell. She noticed his bizarre vote yesterday as well and sent us a comment on it last night. She pointed that "despite the endorsement of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Paralyzed Veterans of America, Congressman John Campbell (CA 48) voted NO today on H.R. 5145, the Assuring Quality Care for Veterans Act. With our nation poised to honor the service and sacrifice of military personnel in observance of Memorial Day next week, it is astounding that Campbell would be one of only two Congressmen opposing this bill-- which enjoyed strong bipartisan support and passed with 413 votes."

She looked into the bill closely to try to understand why her district's congressman broken with the rest of Congress, including his own party leaders, to vote against this bill which most people in Orange County would be very support of and find very patriotic. The 48th district, which has a strong military history and a large veteran community, was home to the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro and the Tustin Lighter Than Air Base. Camp Pendleton, an active Marine Base, lies just beyond the district boundaries. "The legislation, which encourages VA medical professionals to participate in continuing education courses in their field of practice, will help ensure that our nations veterans get the best possible care from medical professionals by supporting up-to-date training. H.R. 5145 allows the VA to offer reimbursements for continuing professional education to nurses, psychologists, physical therapists and other medical providers, as well as physicians and dentists. The reimbursement rate will be increased from $1000 to $1600-- the first increase since 1991." Obviously all the other Southern California members of Congress-- both parties-- voted for it.

“John Campbell had no trouble supporting Cash for Clunkers, but when it comes to investing in the education and training of the people in whose care we place our injured and ailing military veterans, he just says NO! Apparently Campbell cares more about cars than the quality of care provided to our veterans... Given the increase in traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases related to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the need for enhanced training has never been greater."

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