Why All Hope Is Lost

[Lucky]

The Republicans gutted the US Treasury while Bush ran the country, they devastated the economy, and now they stand to be voted back into office in November. After 2 years of voting no to very good idea proposed by the Democrats, people want them to be rewarded for all that by returning them to power. I used to care about politics, but how can anyone support the corrupt machinations we see today.

And, to top it off, one of the most crooked Republicans is expected to be the Speaker of the house. I take the liberty of copying this column in full since Mr. Herbert would like it read:

Op-Ed Columnist

That’s Where the Money Is

By BOB HERBERT

Published: October 5, 2010

NY Times

It’s beyond astonishing to me that John Boehner has a real chance to be speaker of the House of Representatives.

I’ve always thought of Mr. Boehner as one of the especially sleazy figures in a capital seething with sleaze. I remember writing about that day back in the mid-’90s when this slick, chain-smoking, quintessential influence-peddler decided to play Santa Claus by handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to fellow Congressional sleazes right on the floor of the House.

It was incredible, even to some Republicans. The House was in session, and here was a congressman actually distributing money on the floor. Other, more serious, representatives were engaged in debates that day on such matters as financing for foreign operations and a proposed amendment to the Constitution to outlaw desecration of the flag. Mr. Boehner was busy desecrating the House itself by doing the bidding of big tobacco.

Embarrassed members of the G.O.P. tried to hush up the matter, but I got a tip and called Mr. Boehner’s office. His chief of staff, Barry Jackson, was hardly contrite. “They were contributions from tobacco P.A.C.’s,” he said.

When I asked why the congressman would hand the money out on the floor of the House, Mr. Jackson’s answer seemed an echo of Willie Sutton’s observation about banks. “The floor,” he said, “is where the members meet with each other.”

Mr. Boehner is the minority leader in the House and would most likely become speaker if the Republicans win control in next month’s elections. He has stopped funneling corporate money to his colleagues on the House floor. (It is now illegal.) But nothing else has changed, except that his already outsized influence-peddling has grown. The amount of democracy-destroying money that manages to make its way into the sleazy environs of what is now known as Boehner Land has increased to a staggering degree.

The Times’s Eric Lipton, in an article last month, noted that Mr. Boehner “maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R.J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.

“They have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns, provided him with rides on their corporate jets, socialized with him at luxury golf resorts and waterfront bashes and are now leading fund-raising efforts for his Boehner for Speaker campaign, which is soliciting checks of up to $37,800 each, the maximum allowed.”

The hack who once handed out checks on the House floor is now a coddled, gilded flunky of the nation’s big-time corporate elite.

When House Democrats were preparing for the first floor vote on financial regulatory reform, Mr. Boehner and other Republican leaders summoned more than 100 industry lobbyists and conservative activists to a private strategy session. One could be forgiven for thinking that behind those closed doors they may not have had the public’s best interests in mind. According to Mr. Lipton, Mr. Boehner told the gathering, “We need you to get out there and speak up against this.”

Both major parties have, with great enthusiasm, turned more and more of the government over to corporate and banking interests. But the G.O.P., with Mr. Boehner currently the point person, is fanatical about it, has barely tried to hide its willingness to offer up the government wholesale, no questions asked.

Just this past July, Mr. Boehner called for a moratorium on new federal regulations, saying it would be “a wonderful signal to the private sector that they’re going to have some breathing room.” Talk about an invitation to a nightmare. Try imagining how the public would be treated by banks, energy companies, food processors and myriad other powerful entities if the federal government were forced by law to ignore even more of their predations.

That’s Mr. Boehner, for you — always willing to stick his neck out for the elite. When it comes to policies of particular concern to ordinary individuals and families, however, his generosity of spirit and passionate willingness to help vanishes. He believes, for example, that Americans who are at least 20 years away from retirement should be unable to receive Social Security before they are 70, and that Social Security benefits should be means-tested.

Mr. Boehner and his pals also opposed the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection created by the Wall Street financial overhaul. Protect the public? You must be kidding.

The U.S. is in terrible shape right now because far too much influence has been ceded to the financial and corporate elites who have used that influence to game the system and reap rewards that are almost unimaginable. Ordinary working Americans have been left far behind, gasping and on their knees.

John Boehner has been one of the leaders of the army of enablers responsible for this abominable state of affairs.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on October 5, 2010, on page A31 of the New York edition.

[BiBottomBoy]

Boehner is not going to become speaker.

I have it on very good authority that the New York Times is almost ready to publish their expose on him that will tank his political career.

He likes very young looking escort girls.

[Lucky]

...and you live where? Get a grip, if Trent Lott could fuck Benjamin Nicholas and no one cared, why would they care where Boehner gets his stick dipped?

[BiBottomBoy]

They took down Spitzer on similar stuff.

[MsGuy]

Your average American voter is showing no apparent interest in Mr. Boehner's peccadilloes or the likely consequences of making him Speaker of the House:

"In reporting its latest generic poll results, also released Monday, like Rasmussen, Gallup showed the Republicans with a three-point lead, 46% to 43%, among all registered voters. "However, in Gallup's first estimates among likely voters, . . . Republicans have a double-digit advantage under two separate turnout scenarios."

Republicans tend to do better among voters who are more civically involved. A corollary is that Democrats do best when turnout is highest--that is, when relatively apathetic voters can be roused to go to the polls. Under Gallup's "lower turnout" scenario, Republicans lead by a whopping 18 points, 56% to 38%. Even under the "higher turnout" scenario, which uses a more liberal definition of "likely voter," the GOP lead is 13 points, 53% to 40%. For comparison, according to numbers compiled by Tom Elia, the GOP's advantage in the aggregate vote in 1994 was 7.2 points, 52% to 44.8%. The Dems led by 10.4 points in 2008, 52.9% to 42.5%.

...

Those are absolutely terrifying numbers for Democrats. Although it's not completely straightforward to translate the generic ballot into actual votes, were Democrats to lose the House popular vote by anything resembling that margin, their losses could be catastrophic. According to one formula that models turnover in the House based on the Gallup likely voter model specifically, a 13-point lead for the G.O.P. would translate into a gain of 71 (!) seats--and an 18-point, lead, a gain of 86 (!!) seats.

The Republicans need 39 seats to take a House majority."

Read full article here

This article accurately reflects what's happening in my neck of the woods. My Dem incumbant, who is Republican in all but name & quite conservative (100% rating by NRA) is in the process of being swamped by a Bible thumping nit. There won't be much more than 5,000 White Dem votes in the whole district, IMO.

All of which is my explanation to Lucky of why I haven't been posting much in the political forum.

It's all just too damned depressing. I don't even have the energy to tack on any emoticons. ( )

[Lucky]

"All of which is my explanation to Lucky of why I haven't been posting much in the political forum.

It's all just too damned depressing. I don't even have the energy to tack on any emoticons"

Didn't I title this why all hope is lost? The American people are fucking stupid.

[TampaYankee]

According to one formula that models turnover in the House based on the Gallup likely voter model specifically, a 13-point lead for the G.O.P. would translate into a gain of 71 (!) seats--and an 18-point, lead, a gain of 86 (!!) seats.

The Republicans need 39 seats to take a House majority."

What does it matter? Once the GOP majority is sufficient to overcome the handful of moderates members that might reach compromise with the Democrats on occasion, the GOP will steamroll whatever it wants in the House. It could be argued that if the Dems lose any potential for compromise it might be better to give the GOP overwhelming majority and with it ownership of whatever does or does not get done.

Barring unforseen circumstances, we are in for two years of government stalemate. The Dems ought to push through everything they can in the next two months. After that the party is over. It remains to be seen what those Bluedogs and Conservadems that get retired choose to do in the lameduck session.

[JKane]

They took down Spitzer on similar stuff.

But he was a Democrat. It's only the Republicans who are immune to hypocrisy!

[TampaYankee]

But he was a Democrat. It's only the Republicans who are immune to hypocrisy!

There is a simple explanation for this. For all the preaching and bluster about family values and the moral majority, when it comes right down to it the one universal motivator among Republicans is taxes. Other shortcomings aare readily forgiven.

A strong second, though not as widespread among the evangelicals, is socialism for Big Business. It's ok for government to underwrite business just not the middle and working classes for jobs, health care, education, etc. They really do believe in trickle down -- let the lower classes fatten on the crumbs from the table. If they don't then obviously they are lazy.