John Boehner Belongs On TV

Yesterday's appearance by John Boehner on Meet The Press was tantamount to an unpaid advertisement for Justin Coussoule's campaign for the western Ohio congressional seat that Boehner has been squatting in since 1990 when Buz Lukens, his Republican predecessor, was caught buying the sexual favors of a sixteen year old girl. Apparently Boehner was so traumatized by the Lukens incident that he joined the one remaining golf club in the DC area that not only doesn't admit women-- but doesn't even permit them on the premises! Burning Tree has been Boehner's home away from home when he's not on Meet The Press advocating raiding the Social Security Trust Fund to finance more tax breaks for multi-millionaires.

One could only wish that the Meet The Press segment would play on TV from Fairfield and Hamilton up through Huber Heights, Troy, Piqua and Celina from now til November. But it won't. If the DCCC were serious about defeating Boehner... but they're not. Instead of working on defeating the Orange Golfer who would be Speaker, they're wasting everyone's time and money with Diana von Furstenberg designer tote bags. What the hell is wrong with these people?


Blue America isn't waiting around to watch them hand Congress over to dangerous sociopaths and corporate shills like Boehner, Cantor, Pence and Paul Krugman's bff Paul Ryan. With your help we've raised the funds for a series of BeatBoehner billboards and with Boehner's help, the Ohio media caught on and started reporting them as news. And since Boehner has decided to lie to the press about his golfing addiction, we decided to take it a step further... with the TV ad you see up top. I mean the next couple of billboards aren't rolling out for a few weeks and since Boehner never comes to the district who else is going to keep his bumbling in front of the voters there?

Here are some quotes from the press release we sent out to Ohio media outlets this morning:

According to public records, Boehner’s golf habit has cost him, his PAC, and special interests between $150,000 and $250,000 over the past 10 years-- between three to five times the median household income of his constituents ($46,000).

Despite his own lax, golf-friendly work ethic, Boehner believes Ohio and America workers should work harder and longer-- and don’t deserve help if they lose their jobs.
 
Boehner grabbed headlines when he told the Pittsburgh Tribune in June he believes the Social Security retirement age should be raised to 70. Boehner has also been the GOP’s point man, along with Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), in their attempts to block extending unemployment benefits to jobless Americans, even in the current tough recession-- and despite the fact his own brother lost his job.  

Now Boehner is leading House Republicans in opposing aid to states to avoid laying off teachers, police, firefighters and other state employees in a vote to be held next week.

“John Boehner is angry at teachers, cops, and firefighters for interrupting his summer golf schedule,” said Dan Manatt, co-founder of Americans America PAC. “After all, his golf game is more important than their jobs.”

Boehner, ever the golfing competitor, responded forcefully to attacks on his lavish golf habit. Responding to a billboard sponsored by Blue America on the same theme, Boehner’s office said the billboard was false, and that the Republican golfed only seven at events held by his leadership PAC in 2009.

But Golf Digest, the golfing world’s publication of record, reported in 2005 that Boehner golfs “100 plus” times per year. And Boehner’s trips to St. Andrews in Scotland, Pebble Beach and other golfing meccas are well documented.

“Where did Boehner golf, and how many times did he golf there,” asked Howie Klein, co-founder of Blue America. “The question seems a Watergate parody-- but it is a fair question to ask of the Republican leader who seeks to raise Ohioans’ retirement age, cut their unemployment, and cut funding for their teachers, firefighters and cops-- even as he plays hooky from work on a weekly basis to play golf.”

Boehner’s willingness to engage Blue America and Americans for America on how frequently he golfs thrilled the PACs.

“John Boehner’s press office just hit the issue of his golf habit into the sand trap-- and now they’re acting like the golfer who takes repeated whacks at the ball, but only digs the ball deeper and deeper in,” said Manatt.  

“A debate on the number of times John Boehner plays golf-- that’s a debate we would love to have,” added Klein. “Boehner’s staff has a bunker mentality-- they say he only golfs seven times a year-- but Golf Digest says he golfs 100 plus times. So which is it? Hopefully reporters can ask him-- and get hard evidence.”

Boehner regularly records his golf score with the USGA, such that the frequency of his golfing would be a recorded statistic.

The ad also notes that Boehner belongs to the all male Burning Tree Club in Maryland, which bars women from setting foot on the grounds-- a discriminatory policy far in excess of even Augusta National in Georgia. Boehner has not said if he will resign his membership if he replaces the first even female Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

..."Boehner has a record of catering to wealthy corporate special interests and ignoring the needs of working families and his own constituents. Whether it's handing out Tobacco lobbyists' checks on the floor of the House or using shady PAC contributions to help elect other corporate shills like himself, hardworking families in western Ohio deserve much more. That's why Blue America is so enthusiastic about supporting Justin Coussoule, who is a smart, dedicated, honest and committed West Pointer with a young family and an urge for the kind of Change Ohio is craving, rather than the stale, failed formulas that Boehner has been pushing for decades," said Howie Klein, co-founder of Blue America.

“Americans for America and Blue America are fired up this fall to shine a light on the Republican/Tea Party’s hypocrisy and wrongheadedness-- and, despite challenges from the economy and Republican obstructionism, the remarkable accomplishments of the Obama Administration and this Congress,” said Dan Manatt, co-director of Americans for America.

Thanks to our friends at People For the American Way and the AFL-CIO the BeatBoehner billboard contest raised more than we needed for the billboard we planned. We decided to put the extra money into more billboards and into the TV ad buy that repudiates Boehner's lies about the content of our campaign. Please watch the ad again and if you'd like to see it up on broadcast TV... well, let's put it like this: the DCCC is too busy with von Furstenberg designer totes and trying to save the asses of worthless Blue Dogs like Frank Kratovil, Bobby Bright and Travis Childers to help true blue progressives like Coussoule or to even make an effort to defeat their own worst enemies, like Boehner. They won't help. Can you? If you can, everything donated on this ActBlue page goes into defeating John Boehner. Not one cent for Blue Dogs and not one cent for consultants.