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From Under The Rubble
December 12, 2014
Boehner’s Haunted House
by Christopher Manion
fitzgerald griffin foundation
FRONT ROYAL, VA — When he became Speaker of the House, John Boehner cried.
Now it’s our turn.
In the weeks since the most resounding Republican victory in living memory — even mine! — Mr. Speaker has turned his back on the voters and opened his Capitol suite once more to the Crony Crowd.
In November, the voters said “no” to amnesty. To prove the point, Boehner’s junior partner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, had already been swamped in his primary by an unknown whose sole operative issue was amnesty: he’s agin’it.
Boehner cried then, too.
Now Boehner’s carefully-chosen lieutenants are committed to passing “immigration reform” in classic “bipartisan” fashion.
Translated, that means the Speaker is going to stab the “folks that brung’im” in the back. Apparently, Mr. Boehner thinks that granting a blanket amnesty to illegal aliens is fine, as long as Republicans do it.
Republicans were elected to end [Obamacare], but Mr. Speaker has just joined with Democrats to fund Obamacare fully, including funding for the abortion and HHS Contraception mandates, through September 2015.
He should cast his memory back to 2007, when Bush joined John McCain to demand amnesty for illegals, only to be swamped by a tsunami of public opposition that roiled all the way to McCain’s hapless defeat in 2008.
If that’s not bad enough, consider Obamacare. Republicans were elected to end it, but Mr. Speaker has just joined with Democrats to fund Obamacare fully, including funding for the abortion and HHS Contraception mandates, through September 2015.
The Bush legacy haunts Speaker Boehner. War, amnesty, the national surveillance state, profligate spending — they are lethal to Republicans, which is why they do their best to blame Obama for it all.
Party hacks grow violent when reminded of the ball-and-chain of Bush. Consider the latest irony: Republicans, fresh from a historic victory and intent on taking the nation in a “positive” direction, are saddled by peevish Democrats with the grim obligation to defend Bush and Cheney’s torture programs.
The Bush legacy haunts Speaker Boehner. War, amnesty, the national surveillance state, profligate spending — they are lethal to Republicans, which is why they do their best to blame Obama for it all.
In the face of such public opprobrium and opposition, why won’t Mr Boehner and his establishment companions return to the winning Republican mantra of “Peace and Prosperity”?
The answer lies in the demands of two key constituencies: first, the bipartisan Crony Capitalists in the Military-Industrial-Pentagon-Security-Finance-Loybbyist-Etcetera Complex, who consider Mr. Boehner to be a mere hired hand; and second, the stable of establishment 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls and their allies on the Hill — Jeb, Mitt, Mitch, and all the other Hot-Tub hacks.
Oh, did I forget John Kerry? Emerging from the trauma of his party’s defeat, he has the gall to demand that Congress grant Obama the authority to continue Bush’s ruinous wars, and to start any new ones that he finds appealing.
And Boehner just might give it to him!
This illustrates the bipartisan nature of the Cronies: war is the health of the state. It puts gas in their tank, and they don’t plan on running dry.
How Do You Spell “Betrayal”?
When Republicans sell out (and they always do), they waffle — until they’re out of office, anyway. Then some of them become bold truth-tellers.Consider Republican Trent Lott, former Senate Majority Leader and now one of Washington’s most highly-paid and sought-after lobbyists.
In the face of such public opprobrium and opposition, why won’t Mr Boehner and his establishment companions return to the winning Republican mantra of “Peace and Prosperity”?
Lott’s law firm, Patton Boggs, brags that he “provides strategic advice, consulting and lobbying to clients on a wide range of public policy matters, including defense and homeland security…” — in other words, he’s — Splash! — right in the middle of the Crony Hot Tub.
To prove the point, Lott has joined forces with former Democrat Senator John Breaux to make sure that the cash they rake in and the influence they wield is “bipartisan.”
This month Mr. Lott told the Christian Science Monitor that Boehner had better “deal ‘sternly’ with renegade conservatives and quickly ‘coopt’ new GOP senators so they don’t drift over to the obstructionist [sic] side of the party.”
Seldom has Big Beltway Money been so smugly candid. The new members must help the leadership find “common ground” with Democrats — and to help them, Lott and Breaux are using something called the “Bipartisan Policy Center” to return Washington to a “more productive era.”
[Trent] Lott has joined forces with former Democrat Senator John Breaux to make sure that the cash they rake in and the influence they wield is “bipartisan.”
More productive in lobbying fees for them, perhaps. But disastrous for the country.
How could this have happened to Lott, a prominent conservative voice in the Senate twenty years ago?
Well, in the movies, love is blind. In Washington, money is.
Proof? Consider: According to the Center for Public Integrity, Gazprombank has just hired Breaux and Lott to help them fight sanctions imposed on the Russian bank by the U.S.
Now there’s some “common ground”!
From Under the Rubble archives
From Under the Rubble is copyright © 2014 by Christopher Manion. All rights reserved.
Christopher Manion served as a staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for many years. He has taught in the departments of politics, religion, and international relations at Boston University, the Catholic University of America, and Christendom College.
See a complete biographical sketch.
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