JOHN BOEHNER - OHIO - THE HOUSE SPEAKER



JOHN BOEHNER - TEARS OF A JOYFUL MAN


BORN AGAIN BORN AGAINER
He was born in Reading, Ohio, the second of 12 children born to a Tavern Owner. He is a practicing Catholic and in 1977, his family’s first college graduate.


WORK HISTORY

Boehner, took over a small business whose owner had died and he took a stand against government regulation and taxes, whom on occasion has termed them the “Gestapo”. He got involved in Politics, Republican politics. 

He rose through the ranks.  In 1990, Boehner beat a GOP incumbent in a congressional primary, and won the general election. 

He teamed up with the Goebbels of the GOP, Newton (The Rewriter) Gingrich. Gingrich resigned in 1998, amid ethics turmoils, and political failure, Boehner was swept out of leadership with him. 

THE RESURRECTION
“I decided I was going to earn my way back,” Boehner said. As chairman of the House education committee, he worked on President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, digging into the complex legislation and proving he could work with liberals like Democratic Rep. George Miller.  

He also demonstrated real fundraising prowess.  He won the majority leader post in 2006, his PAC had contributed nearly $300,000 to Republican incumbents running that year.  But Boehner’s prodigious fundraising has also raised eyebrows, particularly because of his ties to lobbyists. A lobbyist for an Ohio steel company helped launch Boehner’s career, and in Washington Boehner is surrounded by business lobbyist friends, advisors, and campaign contributors. 


“BOEHNERLAND”
A tobacco lobbyist is the single largest contributor to Boehner’s campaigns, which over the years have reaped at least $340,000 from tobacco interests.  In 1995, Boehner shocked ethics watchdogs by handing out campaign-contribution checks from the tobacco industry on the House floor before a vote on tobacco legislation. Unabashedly pro-business, Boehner rents his Washington apartment from a lobbyist friend, routinely flies on private jets owned by business interests, and meets regularly with business lobbyists and conservative activists. He uses the system about as well as any of the politicians.


THE NEW SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE 
A conservative one; Boehner has kept pace with his party’s move rightward, achieving YouTube fame in March for his “Hell, No” incantation during the health-care-reform vote. When he has strayed from the conservative hard line—supporting President Bush’s TARP bailout or suggesting he’s open to letting tax cuts for high earners expire—he has been quickly rebuffed by his caucus.

Boehner insists that “this is not a time for compromise,” suggesting he’ll continue the strategy that Democratic Rep. Miller calls “obstruct, delay, oppose, then repeat same.” 

Former GOP Rep. Mickey Edwards says Boehner wants more than that. “He will want to go down in history as a serious-minded speaker who helped govern the country,” Edwards said.

But balancing the demands of Tea Partiers, presidential aspirants, and other GOP constituencies won’t make it easy. After being elected minority leader in 2006, Boehner said, “I feel like the dog who caught the car.” He’s got even more to chew on now.

THE TAN LOOK IN A CAN - DENIED
Boehner’s natural tan has been described as “tangerine,” which suits his 1950s country-club demeanor to a tee. He has played as many as 100 rounds of golf in a single year while gaining a reputation as a man with a taste for Camel cigarettes, steak, fine wine, and cocktail parties. 

“He is what he looks like: a casual, chatty country-club Republican,” says Jim VandeHei in Politico.com. (Boehner has seemed less orange since his year-round glow became a topic for comedians.) But as with his tanning secrets, Boehner usually keeps his thoughts and emotions hidden.

In times of turmoil, he said, “I wasn’t gonna let anybody see it on my face.” When the mask does fall, it reveals a face washed in tears. He has wept publicly while speaking about topics as diverse as the Iraq war, Ronald Reagan, and his own conservative principles. “I hold these values dear because I’ve lived them,” he said amid sobs on Election Night 2010. 

Friends say it’s just Boehner being Boehner. As a Democratic colleague from the Ohio legislature said, “He’s been conservative, he’s been consistent, and he’s been tan.”  We know he’s just another cog in the ongoing partisanship war. 


BBB - BOEHNER, BRAVADO, AND BULLSHIT
The Sunday talk shows, heralded by Bloviation Synonymous as the place where all the rumors start, you find the hawks, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and a man who should of been shot as a traitor, disgraced former Vice President Dick Cheney (or his daughter mundane Liz) banging the drums for war in some other Middle Eastern country.  (Haven’t we gotten them all yet?) 

Why should it be a surprise that the most powerful Republican in the country, John Boehner, suggested that Obama use his own fists to solve conflict. 

President George W. Bush walks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his summer residence in Sochi, Russia in April 2008. (API)

While on the campaign trail Monday in Davenport, Iowa, House Speaker John Boehner took some time to once again blast President Barack Obama's foreign policy and bring up George W. Bush's name — and talk about how Bush would have popped Russian President Vladimir Putin in the nose.

"Does anybody think that Vladimir Putin would have gone into Crimea had George W. Bush been president of the United States? No!"  
Boehner asked, then answered, in front of a group of GOP volunteers.
"Even Putin is smart enough to know that Bush would have punched him in the nose in about 10 seconds!"  Boehner said to applause.

WHAT A SCHMUCK TO SAY THAT
But Bush didn't punch Putin in the nose when he invaded the Republic of Georgia in 2008 and was criticized at the time for not reacting more forcefully against Putin and Russia. 

The truth is, though, that as much as Republicans talk about violence, they live their lives in fear.  Few ever serve, neither do most of their kids  in the military. They hide behind their guns and once in politics, they hide behind bigger guns. Is it a wonder that they still reminisce about the tough-talkin’ daddy figure George Bush, despite the fact that he was objectively one of the worst presidents in the history of the U.S.




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