Word is Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) was so buoyed by the recent slow down in the recovery that he called a closed-door meeting of House Republicans to review his gobs of jobs angle yesterday:
(Politico) — Boehner and his leadership team has its eye on unemployment numbers, the $15 trillion national debt and a Republican presidential nominee who’s running close to even in crucial swing states. Not to mention, the pile of polls that show jobs and the economy are atop the nation’s agenda.
“Let’s call bulls—- bulls—-,” he told House Republicans in a closed meeting, talking about Obama’s ploy to drag the GOP into a battle. “This election is about jobs, jobs, jobs.” Boehner’s even kept up his trademark phrase: “Where are the jobs?” It makes some other Republicans cringe.
The jobs report today gave this idea legs. That’s doesn’t have to be a bad thing. True, having any Republican whining about the mess their boy George created, after backing his economic and overseas catastrophes to the hilt when it would have made a difference, is bad enough. When they insist the only way out is to get rid of the guy who presided over the clean up and repeat the same conservative policies favoring the super wealthy and bankstas that caused it, they should be laughed off the stage. But there’s more going on here than the usual hypocrisy and rhetoric: this is Boehner’s way of trying to get the wingnut teaparty division of his party to cool it on unpopular ideas, like rolling back women’s health or running birther panels, at least until after the election.
Whether or not the last vestiges of sanity and decency will prevail in the GOP remains to be seen. The fact that John freaking Boehner is now the voice of relative reason is both funny and tragic, but at least he’s somewhat stable and sometimes connected to reality. The forces he’s trying to corral are dangerous, members of his party are playing with fire, and if they fuck that up they could tear at the nation’s fabric as bad or worse than the Vietnam War and Civil Rights did a few decades ago. I suppose, in a weird way, we should hope Boehner’s faction wins this deal.
The sad part is, people just can’t understand that the very fact he was ‘excited’ by high unemployment rates means he’s already ethically unqualified to do his job.
And after this closed door meeting with his caucus, what happens on the floor of the House? Just guess…I dare ya. I double dare ya. I double dog dare ya. Yep, you guessed it. After Boehner’s “jobs, jobs, jobs,” rant the House Republicans brought up and failed to pass (because they needed a 2/3 majority because it was fast-tracked) an anti-abortion bill. Yeah. House Republicans are concerned about jobs, if by “jobs” you mean women’s access to reproductive health care.
Rachel Maddow’s second segment on her show on Friday, June 1, 2012, covered this quite thoroughly.
“we should hope Boehner’s faction wins this deal.”
No we shouldn’t. If the GOP fight the election on jobs and the economy, they may well win. If they fight it on gay marriage and abortion, they will lose. So it’s in the interests of Americans that they take the latter route. Plus, being defeated on a hard-right, ‘social issues’ campaign might just help bring them to their senses…