Cowardly Lion - When John Boehner Cries

It's amazing how many people discuss John Boehner's tears on the internet. Love him or hate him, his crying jags are definitely fascinating. He even cried on the first day of Congress, blowing his nose into a very large handkerchief that he probably buys in bulk.





And I'm not judging him, since I've been known to cry over episodes of The Waltons, or children's birthday parties, or even on the Fourth of July. Certain movies are guaranteed to make me tear up - just put in Tender Mercies or Out of Africa and there I go again. Play certain songs and I get absolutely weepy.

I always wonder if Boehner gets emotional at times because he feels privileged to be there, considering he had a rather tough childhood. Or perhaps he is just overwhelmed with the responsibility and the byzantine politics, and can't control himself. I think it's a little of both, but who knows? Some say he just drinks too much, but I don't hold that against him either.

What it tells me is that in spite of his bluster and his confused stance on many issues, somewhere in there is a human being with a heart. I can't imagine Paul Ryan or Eric Cantor EVER crying in public, or really crying at all - they are cold fish compared to Boehner.

And then there are the rightwing pundits such as Sean Hannity who thinks Boehner should snap out of it:

Crying in public - I can't take it! Somebody needs to say this: I don't get the crying in public all the time. And I like John Boehner but this is ridiculous. If anything we ought to be crying because America's on the brink of bankruptcy. That's something to cry about.

Does it really surprise anyone that a scumbag like Hannity would be puzzled by an emotional display?

And maybe that's why Boehner cries so much: he is trapped in the craziest party in history with a bunch of sociopaths who lack basic empathy and show him no respect. David Axelrod called the Tea Party Caucus "John Boehner's Unruly Children," and I think that's the perfect characterization. A Speaker of the House is supposed to be a figurehead and a mentor to the others in his or her party. The trouble is, the GOP members of the House not only don't love him - they don't even like him.

And maybe that's why President Obama keeps trying to deal with him, since the Democrats are often quick to dismiss him as a failed President, too, even when he gets Congress to vote for his bills with good things for everyone. Nothing is ever enough for extremists in either party, so I think that's their real common ground.

But Boehner is no Obama, and the Speakership is probably the only power he will ever have. I'm sure that sometimes Boehner wishes he could run down the hall and jump out the window like the Cowardly Lion, but he tries to pull himself together and blunders on, which seems pretty brave.

I wouldn't trade places with him for all the money in the world.

Off-Kilter Republicans in a State of Decline

The past week has been dotted with Republican fail the likes of which we have rarely seen in the modern era, and it shows just how off-kilter they are. Of course, as my witty husband says, were they ever 'on kilter'? Well, maybe not in terms of a philosophy we can all understand, but at least they were able to stay on the same page and agree on the same mass delusions. Right now, not so much. In fact, the re-election of Barack Obama seems to have thrown them into complete disarray that seems to echo a death knell for the national party. It's sort of like watching a rabid skunk foaming at the mouth and jumping around snapping at invisible enemies in the air. You can be pretty darn sure the rabies will get them in the end.

For instance, take Rick Santelli, please. The CNBC guy threw another tantrum on the air last Friday, calling for a "Waaaahmbulance" over Obama and tax reform. Do these guys not realize that we all know they are crying for themselves and their own bank accounts, not for the other 99% of Americans? Cry me a river. He really does seem to be foaming at the mouth, though, doesn't he?


New York Mag reported that Karl Rove and Dick Morris are now in Disgrace at Fox News for their ridiculous and over-zealous predictions that Mitt Romney would win the presidency in the landslide:

According to multiple Fox sources, Ailes has issued a new directive to his staff: He wants the faces associated with the election off the air — for now. For Karl Rove and Dick Morris — a pair of pundits perhaps most closely aligned with Fox’s anti-Obama campaign — Ailes’s orders mean new rules. Ailes’s deputy, Fox News programming chief Bill Shine, has sent out orders mandating that producers must get permission before booking Rove or Morris.


. . . Multiple sources say that Ailes was angry at Rove’s election-night tantrum when he disputed the network’s call for Obama. While the moment made for riveting television — it was Ailes’s decision to have Kelly confront the statisticians on air — in the end, it provided another data point for Fox’s critics. A spokesperson for Ailes denied any rift between Ailes and Rove, and said the two plan to meet this week.

Rove may have lost Ailes for the present, but he is still probably laughing all the way to the bank with his Super-Pac money. Dick Morris is in a different place, tangled up with Glenn Beck and his scary conspiracy theory, Agenda 21. As you may recall, a guy in Georgia named Chip Rogers organized an embarrassing seminar on how Obama was practicing "Mind Control" on us all (thanks to the evil U.N.) and soon the black helicopters will come to take our guns (if we have any) and herd us into the concentration camps.


Dick Morris was featured in a video shown at the conference which in turn was filmed by progressive watchdog group Better Georgia. Now the be-clowned and delusional Chip Rogers has resigned from the GA Legislature and Dick Morris has no cover for any of this. With any luck, he will just fade into the woodwork, never to be seen again.

Another "Dick" had to resign this week: Former House member Dick Armey, who broke his association with tea party group Freedomworks over a badly negotiated book deal - at least that's what he says. Cushioning the blow is the fact that he is running away with an $8 million golden parachute - for doing what, I wonder?
Time Magazine has more here.

Then in a move that surprised many on the Right and the Left, Senator Jim DeMint R-SC left the Senate to become the new head of the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation. While most think he did it for the money, other pundits assume DeMint was tired of having to vote with the more moderate members of his party (the few that are still there), and wanted to be among a group of like-minded wingnuts. That's probably a mistake for the Party, as Ezra Klein pointed out in a Washington Post piece called The Death of the Think Tanks.

Incredibly, the pundit who has often been most-described as "rabid" in the past - Ann Coulter - seems to have found a truth antidote and is now the voice of reason. She went on Fox News and schooled Sean Hannity on the new reality, telling him that Democrats are "going to win" the tax battle with the House, and it's "not winning" to raise taxes on everyone just to save the top 2%, a message he did NOT want to hear! Transcript Here


And finally, we reached the height, the apex, the crowning glory of Republican Off-Kilterness yesterday when Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, pretending to introduce legislation on the Debt Ceiling in an effort to show up Harry Reid, was forced to filibuster his own bill when "Honey Badger" Reid called his bluff.

*DERP* With leaders like McConnell, Boehner, Jim Demint, and the Fox Fools, it can only get worse before it gets better!

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