Tag: john boehner

‘One (hundred) seat at a time…’

House Minority Leader John Boehner made a comment late last week that raised an eyebrow or two:

When pressed for a number, Boehner said he believed the GOP could win as many as 100 seats in this fall’s elections.

“At least 100 seats,” Boehner said when asked how wide the playing field for districts is. “I do,” the top House Republican answered when asked if he thinks there are 100 seats in the U.S. “that could change hands.”

Much as I hate to contradict Rep. Boehner, we must fight inaccuracy in all its forms.  There are not currently one hundred Democratic-held seats that could change hands, and he should have known better than to claim that in this media atmosphere.

There are currently only ninety-nine. Continue reading ‘One (hundred) seat at a time…’

The GOP/White House ‘discussion’ on health care, simplified.

I’m going to sum this entire thing up, because the sooner we move past this the happier everybody’s going to be.

  • Republican Party* (in the person of House Republican Leader John Boehner & House Republican Whip Eric Cantor): Mr. President, you claim that you want bipartisan health care talks.  Do you have the moral courage to commit to junking this existing unpopular, hyper-partisan health care bill and start over from scratch, with a further commitment for transparency and against reconciliation?
  • White House** (in the person of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs): No.

And I think that should end it right there: Republican Members of the House of Representatives don’t debate press secretaries, either.

Moe Lane

*H/T: FireDogLake (I know, I know, but there was nothing offensive about this specific post).

**H/T: Hot Air Headlines.

Crossposted to RedState.

Palin boosts Boehner’s health care address.

Via her Facebook account, of course:

Mark my words – tomorrow is the game changer! Tune in to hear common sense solutions that bury the false accusations that conscientious members of Congress have no solutions to meet America’s health care challenges.

If you’re like me, shaking your head wondering why all the miscommunication between Washington and the American people who have been saying, “Please hear what we’re saying about our desire for health care reform,” then tomorrow will be a refreshing time of clarity for all.

As she notes, preview here. This will be interesting to see for two reasons; first off, as Dan Riehl notes this should provide Rep. Boehner’s address with a bit more traffic than these things usually get.  I’ll be interested to see whether or not it’ll be a significant spike, but it should be something.  Second: if you were holding out hope that former Governor Palin was going to play third-party advocate… you might as well stop.  This is her way of saying that NY-23 is a special case, not a general one; and that she’s still in, and in with, the GOP.

[Insert tired, yet labored Halloween cliche here.]

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Boehner to White House: You’ve been dodging our calls since April.

I’m translating this into English, of course – but not too much; Boehner made it clear Monday that the White House was disinterested in getting anything except a rubber-stamp on health care.

Earlier this year, GOP leaders sent a letter to the president in May stating that they would like to work with the administration to find “common ground” on healthcare reform.

But the administration responded with a tersely worded letter indicating that they had healthcare reform under control.

Continue reading Boehner to White House: You’ve been dodging our calls since April.

USPS at risk at not making payroll?

Elections have consequences.

Back last month, House Minority Leader John Boehner made the following comment about government-run health care options:

“Listen, if you like going to the DMV and you think they do a great job, or you like going to the post office and think it’s the most efficient thing you’ve run into, then you’ll love the government-run health care system that they’re proposing because that’s basically what you’re going to have,”

…to which a variety of people who do, indeed, love the DMV/Post Office as examples of government-run agencies reacted in various levels of reflexively sardonic befuddlement.  The DMV comparison was usually skipped over, in favor of the USPS: after all, what’s wrong with them?  44 cents for a stamp, send it out, gets where it’s going.  Great, right?

Sure.  Until they can’t make payroll. Continue reading USPS at risk at not making payroll?

Democrats, GOP both want Pelosi out of DC.

The former is claiming that having a Speaker with a 39% approval rating will only help the Democrats in swing districts:

The vice chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign arm says Speaker Nancy Pelosi could play a critical role in the 2010 elections, and not the one that Republicans have in mind.

GOP strategists have been signaling that they intend to make the San Francisco liberal an issue in the coming mid-term elections, particularly her claims that the CIA misled her during a 2002 briefing about harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.

But Bruce Braley , D-Iowa, said he believes that rather than lying low, Pelosi should travel to competitive districts to counter GOP attacks.

NRCC Chair Pete Sessions endorsed this idea fully; no word if drooling was involved. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Boehner is still waiting to see that evidence the Speaker has that the CIA lied about her… Continue reading Democrats, GOP both want Pelosi out of DC.

‘Boehner to Pelosi: Put Up, or Shut Up.’

Whoops! I was channeling Maureen Dowd there, for a moment*.

Anyway, the title is of course from Hot Air Headlines, and it refers to this story:

GOP leader: Pelosi should show proof or apologize

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A key Republican leader demanded Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi produce evidence to back up her assertion that she was misled by the CIA on the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

[snip]

“Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“If the speaker is accusing the CIA and other intelligence officials of lying or misleading the Congress, then she should come forward with evidence and turn that over to the Justice Department so they be prosecuted. And if that’s not the case, I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world.”

Continue reading ‘Boehner to Pelosi: Put Up, or Shut Up.’