I’m kind of astounded by the performance of John Boehner on 60 Minutes that DougJ discussed last night. Besides the fact that it is just odd that the man cries all the time (and no, there is nothing wrong with crying, but doing it all the time), this piece in the Politico just cracked me up:
John Boehner thinks President Barack Obama is “engaging” and “smart” — but the speaker-elect is also still smarting over the president’s claim that he took taxpayers hostage to secure a tax break for the rich.
***Another place they may find common ground: the golf course. The two are avid players, except Boehner is said to be an accomplished golfer, while Obama may be closer to a duffer. The pair have spoken about playing golf several times, but it has never happened. The Ohio Republican is holding out hope.
“Listen, playing golf with someone is a great way to get to know someone,” Boehner said. “You start trying to hit that little white ball, you can’t be somebody that you’re not, because all of you shows up.”
It’s pretty precious, isn’t it? A couple of months ago, Boehner was stumping for a guy in a Nazi outfit, now he is on national tv in tears ‘cuz he has a sad over the way Barack treats him. But a round of golf might cheer him up!
According to TPM, he also claimed that he does not use indoor tanning. Which I find completely believable, because I’ve always found his skin tone to be a completely natural shade of fluorescent orange:
These folks really think we’re stupid, don’t they?
Joe Beese
Not that one should ever feel obliged to take a politician’s word for anything.
But inept use of self-tanning products can cause Boehner’s kind of oompa-loompa-ism, can’t it?
JohnR
What you mean “we”, non-orange-face?
Anyway, it’s not “think”, either. They “know” that most of us are stupid.
General Stuck
The Varmint Cong are ever where,
Obama should take him up on the golfing thingy, and show up with red balls with a yellow star on them.
We could bucket Boenhers tears to make clown paint with.
Dave
How long for the Teatards to go Full Metal Jacket on Boehner for saying Obama is “smart” as opposed to “a Kenyan Muslim gay terrorist”?
suzanne
@Joe Beese:
Yes. But the dude never looks streaky, so I’d guess he gets the spray-on kind from the salon. Which is somehow even grosser.
CJ
The sad part is that it will probably work. That mean ol’ Obama. Making Republicans cry.
Alwhite
Think hell, they KNOW people are stupid. And voters just proved them right again.
Morbo
Sign me up for a round of golf in the group behind Boehner.
Rook
I still say his skin color is due to alcohol consumption. It’s called alcoholic jaundice.
4tehlulz
I blame colloidal copper.
Suck It Up!
Yes they do.
I didn’t watch the interview, but I read steve benen’s post on boehner’s refusal to use the word “compromise” and instead likes to say “common ground”. Stahl tried to tell him that they are the same thing but boehner’s not having it.
yes, he thinks we’re stupid.
CT Voter
If that skin tone isn’t due to a tanning salon, or to some sort of tan-in-a-can product, then he should seriously see a dermatologist, ’cause that ain’t right. Ewww.
Nick
fixed
J.W. Hamner
How pissed is Mitch McConnell at all this attention Boehner is getting?
HeartlandLiberal
I assume this is just a rhetorical question, since the answer is so blindingly obvious.
This nation is foundering, and not a day passes that some new outrage that is based in total lies and obfuscation is not handed out by Congress and the Media as truth.
I frankly have just about given up, and have resumed researching the cost of living post-retirement in some country other than the US of A.
CT Voter
@Suck It Up!: Or maybe the Great Orange One is not very bright himself.
SFAW
Fixed.
Alex S.
I bet he uses a tanning cream…
I have to say that I don’t despise him completely. Sometimes I feel sympathy for him, because I don’t think that he is in a place he wants to be (the position, yes, but not quite the party it has turned out to be). And he’s not such an empty shell like McConnell, or Thune/Pawlenty/random-Republican-guy-the-“intellectual conservatives”-are-pushing-because-they-are-too-empty-to-represent-the-true-values-of-today’s-GOP.
Suck It Up!
I don’t even know what that means.
bkny
uh, i think the election results sorta confirm that there’s a whole bunch of stupid out there.
geg6
My John and I had a good time during the interview throwing spitballs at the teevee.
And dude does the spray on tan thing. No.doubt.about.it. Whatsoever. He says he tans easily. Bullshit. So do I. But I’ve never turned orange. Only spray tanners get that particularly even orange.
Pangloss
And Reagan’s hair color was natural. Completely natural.
SFAW
There’s like, what, maybe one of those in existence? And he’s in hiding (from the Teabaggers).
Mike Goetz
Boehner really needs to stop crying. He’s going to be third in line for the goddamn Presidency. He’s completely emotionally incontinent.
maye
Checking his blood-alcohol content on any given day would probably explain much of his behavior and appearance.
R-Jud
@CT Voter: Maybe he just really, really likes carrots!
sab
Remember how apesh*t the press went when Hillary Clinton shed one little tear during the primary?
General Stuck
@geg6:
Well, he did say, he was comfortable in his skin. Different yolks for different folks.
Chris
Not only do they think we’re stupid, they’ve proven many times over they can take advantage of our collective stupidity.
SFAW
No kidding. Pelosi’s a shitload tougher than Ducks L’Orange. Smarter, too, but these days that’s considered a negative.
Kryptik
@Suck It Up!:
That was possibly the most galling part of it to me, precisely because it’s NOT true that they’re both the same thing.
Boehner can find common ground with Obama without compromising easily: Obama just has to be the one doing all the compromising. It’s telling semantic wordsmithing, and it’s somehow a working strategy for them at this point.
mikefromArlington
Putin is licking his chops knowing a cry baby is third in line for the Presidency.
cleek
he doesn’t look particularly orange in the picture above. clearly, the photographer has adjusted the color balance of his digital camera to change Boehner’s appearance.
how racist.
cathyx
I’ve heard that some men, not all men, who hit middle age start to cry more, kind of like a menopause/hormone thing.
Sly
Voters in state of Florida elected a man who (a) was forced to resign from being CEO of a hospital company after it was hit with the biggest Medicare fraud suit in history and (b) chastised his opponent for supporting “Medicare Cuts” because she issued verbal support for a bill that curtailed the biggest Federal boondoggle outside the Department of Defense, Medicare Advantage.
All Americans aren’t stupid. But enough of us are, and they’re the reason why we can’t have nice things.
Keith G
@Mike Goetz: Right.
Patricia S. Schroeder must be…..crying…right about now.
some other guy
Next time Boehner breaks down in tears in front of a camera, a reporter should ask him if he ever cries for the 9/11 first responders dying of cancer and respiratory diseases, whose treatment his party refuses to allocate funding for.
Yeah, I’m sure the “liberal” media will get on that.
mds
@General Stuck:
Orange balls would be an even better choice, especially if President Obama made a show of putting them in his pocket afterwards.
@J.W. Hamner:
Well, at least he can console himself with the fact that the media are acting like he’s the incoming Senate majority leader. Hmm … You think DeMint will keep him nominally in the top spot, as a sneeze shield?
@Alex S.:
See, I actually despise people like that even more, because they know better. Boehner knows that his party and its policies constantly piss on families like the one he grew up in, and he doesn’t care, because if they were actually worthy, they’d benefit from the largesse of the boss’s widow too.
Poopyman
It’s a strategy that has repeatedly worked for them. And by “worked”, I mean getting elected, not actually governing.
JWL
Cole, you all but invite people to share your contempt of the GOP, with one caveat: lay off any sincere, substantive criticism of the Obama administration.
You realize you’re in for a long couple of years, right?
That is, unless you impose Route 86 on those who don’t see eye-to-eye with you about democratic party infighting.
Face it. If you don’t, you’re doomed to be one pissed off blogger in the foreseeable future.
(I dig cats and dogs,too).
mikefromArlington
@cathyx:
LOL
Nice try. heh
Kryptik
@Poopyman:
But that’s only because they have no intentions of actually governing. Their inability to govern is less incompetence and more purposeful malice. ‘Small enough to drown in a tub’, anyone?
The Republic of Stupidity
I actually think that works a little differently than just “They think we’re stupid”, John…
This has perplexed and flummoxed me for decades, so I’ve studied this particular phenomenon quite a bit…
It’s not that they necessarily think we’re as stupid as they wish us to be… it’s just that THEY’RE stupid, and as such, they really can’t imagine that some of us might actually be smarter, or not fooled by their inane statements.
Guys like the Boooooooooooohner have also been lying for so long, they probably can’t tell anymore whether they’re lying again, or not, and no one around is willing to call him on it anymore, because a), he’s got too much power, and b) they’re so busy telling their own lies, they don’t have time to call him…
That’s the problem w/ lying… the more you do it, the better you get at it, and the easier it gets to do, to the point even you can’t keep track of when you’re lying, or not…
David
I think it’s a spray on tan, not tanning per say.
SFAW
It occurred to me that Boehner’s tears may come from his anticipating that someday – if certain things happen – he’ll get to meet RedStoat’s latest pin-up boy. Why, he gets a – what’s that wordplay on his name? – just thinking about it. (And he hums “Love Me Tender” during those daydreams.)
OK, I gotta stop, this is getting too sick, even for me.
KCinDC
@Suck It Up!, I’m not sure either, but it’s not the sort of thing that would encourage me to play golf with the guy. It’s bad enough that he’s likely to be better at the game than Obama (since he spends a *lot* of time playing), but he’s also expecting the golf game to reveal Obama’s duplicity? Doesn’t sound like a friendly game to me.
Kryptik
@The Republic of Stupidity:
So what’s it say about Americans in general that they keep voting in these assholes in overwhelming ways right at the times they can do the most damage?
Skepticat
If we’re so smart, why are they in charge of things?
cathyx
@mikefromArlington: I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I wasn’t trying to make an excuse for him. Just like for women, he needs to keep his emotions in check and not be blathering on. I don’t like to see women crying like that either. It’s embarrassing.
Keith G
@JWL: Could you link to where Cole said that?
mikefromArlington
@cathyx:
I was just playin’ and being macho. Real men don’t cry. :P
Alex S.
Maybe John Boehner is a melungeon.
John Cole
Liar.
Mike Kay
It’s because he’s an alcoholic.
It’s a well known “open secret” that Boehner is a drunk.
And drunks cry a lot.
aimai
@R-Jud:
I had a roomate in college who turned orange from eating carrots. It really happens.
aimai
agrippa
I will wait and see what he does. He is, now, in a position of responsibilty as Speaker.
I see a very good chance of him being a nonentity, as was Hastert. I do not see a variant of that drama king, Gingrich.
The tea party people will, basically, fall in line. Their main object, beating the Democrats, has been accomplished; I regard the rest as mostly hot air.
rachel
@John Cole: Naw, I think he honestly believes that. In other words, he’s either really new around these parts, or he has severe reading comprehension problems.
SFAW
Assuming you’re being serious ..
That may be, but if he had jaundice for this long a time, I imagine he’d probably get hospitalized far more than he has been. Or dead from liver failure.
And, no, I don’t play one on TV.
Rathskeller
No one else has repeated it, so I will just mention Roger Ebert’s great take on Boehner from 10 November:
Culture of Truth
I liveblogged the interview. Leslie Stahl positively gushed over him, but she does that with everyone.
I wonder what conservatives see when they look at Boehner. A regular who made it through hard work, probably. I see something similar, with a twist; a guy born poor who really, really likes the good life. The good news is I sense he may not be ideological, but can be bought off. Perhaps cheaply.
Rathskeller
@aimai: So did my wife, once one memorable summer — but she eased off on the carrots. What the hell is wrong with this man, and how is he third in line for the presidency?
harlana
A spray tan (even the spa kind) would be especially problematic on a golf course. It has a tendency to come off on your clothes when you sweat. Come to think of it, copious crying could possibly leave streaks on your face.
The mystery continues.
mikefromArlington
I wonder how the third in line for the Presidency of the United Stated being a big cry baby is playing out in the international press.
How embarrassing.
I wonder if Boehner cries over the unemployed starving around the holidays like he does over his own self story though.
Buck
“Boehner’s Balls”
I wonder if they’re orange too.
Ick.
cleek
Boehner’s not so bad. anyone who’s that big a fan of Syracuse college sports is an OK guy in my book.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole:
Don’t fall for it. Simply direct him to the free speech zone.
Mike Kay
@SFAW: I am serious. but I was referring to the crying, not the tanning. In general, Drunks cry alot.
nevsky42
@some other guy: This.
One of my favorite passages from Nabokov was in his Lectures on Russian Literature.
different church-lady
Well, maybe they only think we’re stupid, but if we keep focusing on the kinds of stuff in this post then they might have good reason for that.
Ross Hershberger
We should ask Rahm if the color’s natural. Maybe he’s showered with him.
Linda Featheringill
I suspect that Boehner is dreaming of a run for the Presidency. If this is so, he might try to be intelligent, reasonable, and “grown up.”
We’ll see.
Keith G
@rachel: You raise an interesting question about JWL that also pertains to Boehner:
When a person reports or repeats an idea that at one time might have had questionable validity but now is easily proven false, at what time does that person cease being simply misinformed and start being a liar?
Are both Boehner and JWL liars?
different church-lady
@mds:
Maybe it would be even better if he showed up with a pair of balls and put them in his jock.
(OK, it’s a cheap joke, but I can’t resist unique setups like that.)
Odie Hugh Manatee
You can tell it’s a cheap spray job, you can see the orange peel finish close up. I would gladly grind him down to bare metal, prime him with vinyl base, slap an epoxy primer on that and give him a good 2-pak poly paint job to top it off. Toss a light pearl in the top coat and he’ll glisten like the Orange God that he thinks he is.
He’s probably on the Glenn Quagmire Health Diet: As many carrots as you can eat a day, inserted rectally for added effect.
Ross Hershberger
Boehner looks like he has the potential to be a decent human being. Stand him next to Gingrich, for instance and you’ll see what I mean. He may be on the wrong side but he doesn’t strike me as an egotistical megalomaniac.
Faint praise, but it’s all I’ve got.
John Cole
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yes! It is your constitutional right to comment here!
Good to see you and Sarah Palin understand the 1st Amendment in the same way.
JWL
@John Cole:
Liar? No, I’m not.
Indeed, that very accusation tends to prove my point.
JoyceH
There’s an obvious and simple explanation for Boehner’s skin tone – he got it the old fashioned way. On the golf course. I think it’s weird that so many on the left want to claim that the tan is from a salon or a can instead of the sun. What you’re doing is accusing the man of vanity, when you should be accusing him of laziness, which is not only certainly true, but is a greater sin for a professional politician anyway.
That’s the big thing that’s going to be Boehner’s undoing. Speaker is a big job, it requires a lot of hours on the job. This is a guy who’s at happy hour every day by five and spends at least ten or fifteen hours a week on the golf course.
Having a GOP House is going to be miserable for the rest of us, so it might be a small consolation, but it’s going to be miserable for Boehner too. He’ll either be working fulltime for the first time in his life, or the fact that he’s not is going to be News.
aimai
@nevsky42:
Boehner comes from one of those very big families that America has been celebrating since The Waltons–but with a twist which is that The Waltons celebrated depression era self sufficiency, family loyalty, cohesion while Boehner’s version of the large family celebrates getting out, getting ahead, and leaving the (unemployed) siblings behind. I hang out at the Anne Lander’s blog when I’m not over here and the letters from readers who “feel taken advantage of” by their working class/undermployed siblings or parents, who rage against the “losers’ in their own families who don’t manage to make it in America is really interesting to watch. The idea of a family that maintains family/clan solidarity for more than the few years of the individual’s minority is totally lost on modern Americans. Its like we are a country of individualists and only children who can only imagine being in competition with our own siblings.
So I think its natural for Boehner, who famously didn’t know whether his own siblings were employed or unemployed, to have zero sympathy for working class Americans although he grew up working class, and zero concern for the unemployed although his own siblings may be unemployed. He grew up in a large family but he left that behind emotionally and financially. He travels fastest who travels alone etc..etc..etc…
aimai
SFAW
I know.
Chyron HR
@JWL:
So where exactly do all the front page posts complaining about the tax cut deal, the war in Afghanistan, etc, fit into your Grand Unified O-Bot Theory?
Buck
From that interview:
_______________
BOEHNER: It means finding common ground.
STAHL: Okay, is that compromising?
BOEHNER: I made it clear I am not going to compromise on my principles, nor am I going to compromise the will of the American people.
STAHL: What are you saying? You’re saying, “I want common ground, but I’m not gonna compromise.” I don’t understand that. I really don’t.
BOEHNER: When you say the word “compromise,” a lot of Americans look up and go, “Uh oh, they’re gonna sell me out.” And so finding common ground, I think, makes more sense.
_______________
Next couple of years are gonna be great, baby!
(EDIT: blockquotes not working for some reason)
Jim C.
Where are the Red State pictures showing all of Boehner’s crying fits and questioning his manhood by indirectly, or even directly, calling him an enormous pussy?
Lysana
@JWL:
Inigo Montoya wishes to discuss your definition of “substantive.”
maye
@Culture of Truth: or easily manipulated by Eric Cantor.
wobblybits
@JWL: No, it doesn’t.
jcricket
@JWL: I’M OUT OF ORDER? YOU’RE OUT OF ORDER!! THIS WHOLE PLACE IS OUT OF ORDER!!!
Anyhoo, back to Boehner and the GOP. Republicans have so internalized the “we are the victims of persecution” mentality that anything except complete capitulation to their ideas is viewed as affront to all that is holy in the world. t is amazing just how much of Republican political behavior can be traced back to their psychological projection disorder.
When one side is willing to burn the country down to the ground to get their way and claim they are the ones being persecuted while doing so, we’re totally doomed.
Our own only is, sadly, Republican overreach (ala 2000-2006) when the voters throw the Republicans out again. Of course by then the damage will be so deep and so lasting that while the “country” (macro-level) will pull through, plenty of individuals (anyone in retirement or near it) will probably be screwed – see the Depression and its long-term effects on working-age or elderly people at that time.
Keith G
@JWL: No. No
You would prove your point by granting my honest request that you show me where John has typed words to the effect:
Prove that this is so and I will gladly join in your critique of Cole.
General Stuck
@JoyceH:
It’s not easy keeping a deep tan in Ohio, in the winter, no matter how many hours he spends on the golf course. just sayin….
bemused
That weepy, blubbering, lip quivering thing he does is really bizarre but rightwingers are pretty much silent about that. Anyone but an R would get ripped to pieces for not being John Wayne manly.
Have any shrinks weighed in on this behavior?
scav
oh, this could be good for the long haul.
Orange Boehner’s little white balls and little white bawls.
D-Chance.
Good to see you have that special thread to parcel the trolls away from this all-important, “John Boehner is orange” discussion…
Of course, I’m sure Boehner will never need a substitute speaker to show him how to do his damn job the way Obama did with the Big Dog taking charge at the presser last Friday.
Buck
@bemused:
Even though I have NEVER watched a Glenn Beck program (lucky me!), I understand he does a lot of blubbering too – which his fans obviously eat up.
Maybe republicans like signs of weakness in their leaders?
SFAW
Ah, yes, Ralph Nader’s Theory Which is His.
Unfortunately, the rest of your paragraph is probably pretty accurate, too. And as long as the Rethugs do their damnedest to keep public education from improving, it’ll stay that way.
I hope I live long enough for us both to be proved wrong.
JoyceH
@General Stuck:
Who says he’s golfing in Ohio? The man golfs over 100 times a year, by his own admission, usually with lobbyists. You think lobbyists can’t find a nice place to golf when DC is too cold?
NobodySpecial
OT, but I heard this this morning on Stephanie Miller’s show:
Laura Ingraham’s booker busted for impersonating Jack Kingston
MikeMc
Personally, I don’t mind John Boehner. Still, when did it become okay for men to randomly sprout into tears? I’m all for feelings and passion, but handle your shit. I don’t want foreign leaders and people who would like to see America attacked watch the man who is third in line to the presidency crying on television. It doesn’t inspire confidence.
geg6
@General Stuck:
Not to mention that, as a former life guard, there is no way that natural tanning creates that color. None. Zero. Zilch. I saw every color of tan human skin can be over six years as a life guard. None of them were that color of orange. None. Whereas I have many friends and colleagues and a niece who spray tan. Every one of them is that completely unnatural orange.
cleek
@General Stuck:
Boehner probably doesn’t spend a lot of time in Ohio…
John Cole
There is nothing substantive or important about this thread or post. But what is refreshing is that the thread is not polluted with the same bullshit every other thread has been filled with the last two months.
I’m not saying everything (anything?) on this website is serious or important. Hell, it used to be a fun place to joke around and snark. I am saying that I’m sick and tired of every god damned thread devolving into the same tired arguments about Obama. We get it. You all feel let down.
Pontious Pilates
You don’t need a tanning salon when you play golf outside 200 days a year………..
maya
No one asked the money question: How soon will Boehner declare a 3 day work week for the House again, like old times?
Think of all the golf games that could be played on a perpetual 4 day weekend. And the tan!
JWL
@Keith G:
Keith: Yes, Yes.
It’s Cole’s blog. Lord knows I don’t put any effort into maintaining it.
But I’m telling you: his posts are intolerant of those who take deep, even grave exception to the best Obama has delivered.
That is fucking indisputable.
And that’s OK.
It’s known as a disagreement.
I take issue with him on that score. That’s all.
I’m no liar.
And anyone who says otherwise can kiss my ass.
John Cole
@JWL: You come in here, my house, and claim that no one can offer “any sincere, substantive criticism of the Obama administration,” which is a complete lie.
What I’ve said is I am sick and tired of every single thread devolving into 5 assholes telling us how much Obama sucks, using the same statements they’ve posted in EVERY SINGLE THREAD for several months. If they even had something new and original, it would be interesting.
So yes, you are lying. You can offer all the “sincere, substantive criticism” you want, and no one has said otherwise. Unless you can show me where I said “sincere, substantive criticism of the Obama administration” is not allowed. Any link will do.
Ash Can
@maye: So what’s the behind-the-scenes D.C. scuttlebutt on Cantor? Is he really that much of a
closet casepreening shmuck, or does he just play one on TV?General Stuck
@JoyceH: I’m sorry, burnt Orange is orange, and to get that kind of look from the sun, even Florida winter sun, you would have to park yourself in a lawn chair round the clock to maintain it. And it is always perfectly even and deep, always. year round.
Paris
I stole this from a commenter on TPM:
Q: What’s the cure for a weepy boner?
A: Penicillin
matoko_chan
@Cole.
75% of the electorate IS stupid.
Boner is just playing the odds.
maye
@Ash Can: He is purportedly squeaky clean.
Ash Can
@maya: I think it would be fabulous if Boehner brought back the three-day work week for the House. It would cut down on the mess the House Republicans are going to make.
bemused
@Buck:
I like how Mike Goetz@24 put it, “He’s completely emotionally incontinent”. Perfect.
matoko_chan
Here is a Putinism the jeesus humpers prolly wont approve of.
martha
OK, so is Boner the true Great Orange Satan?
Enquiring minds want to know. He makes about as much sense as a lot of those folks do these days anyway.
martha
@matoko_chan: LOL. And I think 75% is low.
SFAW
re: JC @ 100
If Obama had negotiated harder, Boehner would not be playing golf 200 times per year.
(Yeah, it’s a stretch. Sorry.)
Rook
@SFAW: OH MY GOWD! An oxymoron!
Ash Can
@martha: More like a Lesser Orange Whiner, I’d say.
Keith G
@JWL:
Indisputable = Beyond dispute or doubt; undeniable
Fucking indisputable = more so
1. I dispute your provably incorrect assertion
2. There is only one person’s ass I will kiss, and your aren’t him
3. Read this as just one example (and not the strongest):
https://balloon-juice.com/2010/05/14/staggering-hypocrisy/
matoko_chan
drip….drip….drip.
Pope wanted Turkey kept out of the EU.
Indoleaks.
Look Cole.
Boner and the jeebus-humpers are in as long as they can maintain an electoral majority.
as soon as the demographic timer goes off, they are as dead as the dinosaurs. It will just take a bit for the little second brains in their hips to necrotize.
Let a thousand trails of carnage bloom in the Pasture of the Cudlips.
Rook
@SFAW: I play an alcohol and drug counselor in real life, and I have seen people turn even more orange than him, and never get hospitalized, until their renal system shuts down and they die.
SFAW
Rook –
Who you callin’ a moran?
blondie
@Rathskeller:
Great quote! I hadn’t seen that one before.
Also, crocodile tears, too.
matoko_chan
oh, i almost forgot.
about 20 per hour.
SFAW
How long does it take that to happen? (Serious question.)
A former co-worker was jaundiced for maybe a day before they sent him to the ER. I’m assuming three-plus years of orange would not be jaundice.
gnomedad
@Linda Featheringill:
How is that supposed to make him appeal to Republicans?
martha
@Rook: I know someone who did just that. He was younger than Boner, but until the last 6 months, you’d have never known it unless you counted the empty bottles or broken promises. Then he went fast and horribly.
Chris
So what happened to golf being a sport for Obama elites that they did when they didn’t want to be Real aMericans? Inquiring minds want to know.
Boehner, you elitist. I’m bracing myself for the inevitable “Boehner was a liberal!” tsunami X years down the line.
JWL
I wrote: “Cole, you all but invite people to share your contempt of the GOP, with one caveat: lay off any sincere, substantive criticism of the Obama administration”.
OK, I’ve re-read that, and I was unfair. It implied that any comment of a J. Cole post regarding democratic party infighting is subject to censure. I know better.
But I was no liar.
Dripping contempt of political antagonists does not constitute censure.
That said: Fuck the Steelers.
Linda Featheringill
@gnomedad:
Boehner on his best behavior:
I don’t know. He represents an area in south central Ohio and I live up here on the North Coast of Ohio, so I’ve never been to one of his political appearances.
I’ve always assumed that he has enough “oomph” to have a following. Does he have enough to make it through primaries? I don’t know.
srv
All that we see in this thread is that mainstream-Obots are attacking a person of color.
Y’all are in danger of losing the orange community’s vote forever.
gnomedad
@Linda Featheringill:
I was just snarking. I would be nice to imagine that there is some covert movement among Republicans to whom acting like a grownup is a plus.
Keith G
@matoko_chan:
Sorry Mook, but that’s a logic fail for both you and Putin. Democracy is more about how decisions are made, not what decisions are made.
In fact, given the proclivities of our American voters, if his fate were put to a vote Assange would never get the chance to face the rape charges.
I wonder if you and Putin are brighter than you seem?
Rathskeller
@JWL: The problem may be better understood in this way: you guys are boring, repetitive, whiny, and unrealistic when you talk about Obama. You act like he’s got a compliant Senate, instead of what he has, which is a whole sack of preening ninnies where any single one of them can block major legislation with a single declaration of opposition.
debbie
It was bad enough seeing Boehner golfing in shorts, but those orange legs! OMG!
JPL
@JWL: blah, blah, blah
dollared
OK, I confess to being an Obama critic. And the answer is on this thread, not the other one.
Not one person in America should be confused about Boehner. He is a psychopathic, alcoholic frat boy who plays golf with lobbyists, lets them write the directly write the laws that his party passes, and then he distributes trillions of dollars of our money to those lobbyists’ clients.
Why can he steal from us without a single challenge from Lesley Stahl? Because Obama won’t go to war with him.
And you-all made the other link: 75% of us are stupid, and we need that demonization made simple and repeated 200 times per day to get past our stupidity. But Obama’s team thinks they’ve done a fine job of getting their message out. Ask them. And Obama thinks he hasn’t done a good enough job of accomodating this psychopathic thief. Ask him.
Look, if you agree people are stupid, and you agree the Republicans are winning, then you agree that Obama’s tactics are dead wrong. Because winning matters more than being noble or “right.”
Mike in NC
It’ll be hell trying to lay off the sauce, but on the other hand Boehner can count on unlimited free cartons of cigarettes courtesy of the factories in Eric Cantor’s district.
Between his three-pack a day habit and the orange spray tan, he’s gonna end up looking like a smoked fish by this time next year.
JWL
@Rathskeller:
Rathskellar: You’re absolutely right.
To be sure, I grew up in a family in which politics were a staple of conversation. In San Francisco. During the ’60s. And I’ve voted in every election since I came of age in 1974.
But I’m unrealistic about the fucking U.S. Senate. And boring.
Yeah, that’s my major malfunction. That’s where things go haywire.
Thanks for the nudge in the ribs.
dollared
@Rathskeller,
Nobody ever pretended that he has a compliant Senate. But my dog could have saved GM and 12 months later carried Michigan for the Democrats. Obama couldn’t do that.
It’s about politics, not legislation.
dollared
@Mike
Love it! Especially when I think of those big scales on those smoked chubs, and those blank, bulging eyes!
Omnes Omnibus
@dollared: For all the people confused about what Cole was saying about dissent and criticism, take a look at this comment. Criticism of Obama that was phrased in terms other than just “Obama sucks,” and was supported by reasoning. Is it really that hard?
Mnemosyne
@dollared:
It depends — is your dog black? If he is, he wouldn’t have won shit.
And please don’t try to claim that wasn’t a factor in Michigan, the state with the biggest and most destructive white flight from an urban area.
Keith G
@dollared:
The argument form you created: If (A + B) then C , is valid, but valid does not equal true in the real world.
dollared
mnemosyne
e-x-c-u-s-e – that’s all it is.
They elected him president, he bailed their asses out. And now they’re all racist?
Tried Occam’s razor recently? You could use a shave.
dollared
@ Keith G. Then what’s the way to win? Or are you just a proud and happy Mondale Democrat? Because I’m interested in winning. I have children and they need a future.
FlipYrWhig
@dollared:
We don’t know what Obama thinks. We know what Obama says. And many such statements are measured for political effect, no? So is Obama _actually_ hoping to work with psychopathic thieves like Boehner? Or is he _saying_ he hopes to work with Boehner et al because it’s the kind of thing middle-of-the-road voters like to hear? I don’t get the persistence of this idea that because Obama _talks about_ common ground and coming together, that means he’s so naive that he genuinely anticipates finding common ground and coming together. Because _even John Boehner_, the Hell no you can’t guy, talks about common ground and coming together, as he does even in this interview, and none of us believes that. Just apply the same logic to Obama from time to time.
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: Also, it’s possible to save the auto industry in Michigan and not get rewarded for it if the same people who appreciate that action also _really hate_ many other actions you’ve undertaken. Let’s not ever underestimate the extent of the thought process that results in thinking of yourself as the deserving recipient of government assistance, but dusky hordes of Other People being _un_deserving recipients, thereby finding your own treatment unremarkable but imagining others’ treatment as far too generous and voting for candidates who’ll stop giving Them so many favors. It worked for the “Keep government out of my Medicare!” people, and it certainly could have worked for the “Save my job, fuck everyone else’s” people.
CalD
Maybe next week, Speaker John and Glenn Beck can get together and squirt a few for us.
Keith G
@dollared:
To be honest I do not know because I am not sure what winning is. We really are heading further “up a creek” as for the first time in 70 years, an increasing number of Americans are unable to secure a steady sustaining income.
Even more Americans who are able to earn a sustaining middle class income find themselves with less earning power when compared to previous generations. As has been universally noted, the great wealth generated by American economic activity is shared by fewer and fewer people.
I have a sense that Obama gets this. I also know that so many of us are 1) so enamored with our previous accomplishments and 2) so weary of fundamental change that it is nearly impossible to get this society to swallow big change. Because of this, I feel Obama is playing a more subtle strategy than I would like. I do understand his motives. He believes that a journey of many miles start with a few simple steps and being around to continue taking more steps.
SFAW
I think it’s a combination of hopefulness and naivete – he hopes the Repubs will listen to their better angels, and he (seemingly) naively believes that a mid-point/common ground solution will be reached. When his Administration starts negotiating from either their own “this is the most we’re willing to give” position, or from a “as a show of good faith, let’s give the Repubs XX percent of what they want” position, then it creates the appearance that they’re naive. (Another possible explanation is that what they really want is a lot closer to Repub wants than we thought would be the case.) And with the Repubs (and “Dems” like Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Holy Joe) doing the Lucy-pulling-the-football-away thing more times than I can count, it starts tipping the scale away from hopefulness, and toward naivete (or worse)
Because even John Boehner, the Hell no you can’t guy, talks about common ground and coming together, as he does even in this interview, and none of us believes that.
SFAW
Continued from 150, because the editing function sux
We just have a different frame of reference than Boehner: to him, “common ground” means Obama giving the Rethugs what they want, because “that’s what Real Americans want”.
FlipYrWhig
@SFAW:
I just don’t see it, I’m sorry. I see hopeful _rhetoric_ towards Republicans. Overwhelmingly I see conciliatory gestures and compromises towards _conservative Democrats_, followed by attempts to cherry-pick single Republicans.
Before now, the one exception I’d allow is HCR, where there was more of an attempt to engage mainstream Republicans, because people like Bob Bennett had actually spoken and legislated in support of some kinds of reform.
The tax-cut deal involves sitting down with actual Republicans, because the different thing they tried without them — the “decoupling” of upper-income tax cuts, the raising of the threshold to $1M — all failed.
rikyrah
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…
He’s ORANGE, because he wants to hide ANOTHER color.
plain and simple.
hint – if his mother had lived in my mother’s small town in Mississippi growing up, she would never have been allowed near the WHITES ONLY fountain.
SFAW
You may be right. And I may be ascribing motives to him that just ain’t there. But, for the moment, I think I’d rather (perhaps naively) believe that he really is hopeful, rather than breathtakingly naive or a Rethug mole. There are people in this world who feel that way (i.e. the hopeful part). Some of them even become politicians. Is he one of them? As the Zen master once said: “We’ll see.”
News Reference
Republican’s definition of compromise:
Yup.
Mnemosyne
@dollared:
Have you ever been to Michigan? I have friends in Detroit. You are vastly underestimating the feeling that white people are getting screwed while black people are taking all of the welfare money.
matoko_chan
@Keith G: i have no logic fail.
Putin can say w/e he damn pleases.
the problem is that America is NOT a secular democracy, it is a jeebus-humper cudlip democracy. Because of the consent of the governed.
And it will remain a jeebus-humper cudlip democracy until the demographic timer runs out.
tick….tick…….tick.
ino shinola
Negros need to stop being so mean to Republicans. First Kanye West and George W, now Obama and Boehner.
Wile E. Quixote
@Joe Beese:
Or maybe Boehner is an Oompa-Loompa. Have you ever seen his long form birth certificate? Neither have I.
Keith G
@matoko_chan: Oh, sorry. I thought you were using a quote to make a point. Silly me.
Rathskeller
@JWL: Oh, I didn’t realize your authority was so immense and well-justified. Excuse me all to hell and back.
Look, it’s pretty simple. Reload this page. Go to the top. Search for JWL. You post assertions and insults, some of them gratuitous. You give no citations. You’re asked specific questions, which you ignore. It’s boring and repetitive. That’s evidence, that’s what you wrote, what you chose to contribute. It’s awfully close to nothing.
Based on the evidence, you’re just looking for endless argument, but no resolution of anything. You think your special, exotic background of being interested in politics and voting in every election qualifies you for something? It’s a sad, sad joke. You wouldn’t be the most qualified person riding on my subway train. Every single fucking person here is interested in politics, obsessively so, and we’ve all voted in a few elections in our time.
dollared
@matako,
@Flip,
@Mnemosyne,
I’m sorry, but I see “quitter” in your logic. It’s all racism – it couldn’t be Obama’s fault that he refused to use the truth as a defense to Republican charges. It isn’t the fault of the Democratic leadership for failing to spend enough time highlighting the differences between Democrats and Republicans. It isn’t my fault for not giving more money or spending more time knocking on doors.
It’s just all the racism. Just wait it out. Those old whiteys will die. And that will solve everything. 20 years from now.
That is the logic of losers.
We have to solve this problem. We have to figure out a way to do two things:
1. Shine an unwavering spotlight on Republican evil. And I mean evil. And hammer it, over, and over and over again.
2. Get American citizens without college degrees to vote in every election.
The question is how. And I submit that Obama’s Soaringly Hopeful and Charitable Broderism is not it. But neither is your defeatist reverse racism.
dollared
Hint: http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/12/news-flash-wall-street-still-loathed.
It would not be so hard to kick ass and take names. You just have to do it.
tones
the tan is real, I read somewhere he plays some 170 games of golf per year…
“A debate on the number of times John Boehner plays golf– that’s a debate we would love to have,” added Klein. “Boehner’s staff has a bunker mentality– they say he only golfs seven times a year– but Golf Digest says he golfs 100 plus times…”
http://www.actblue.com/page/boehnertv
dollared
@tones: This is the kind of thing that kills me. How hard is it for somebody to follow this putz around for a month? We can’t find one single unpaid intern to do this?
There is a helluva difference between 7 rounds of golf and 150 rounds, and you can’t exactly hide several rounds of golf.