Drama Queen

Little Johnny Boehner, age 6, throws a tantrum:

15 Comments

Cry John Boner, cry. Your tears sustain me.

The fact that he didn’t cry in this makes me doubt the authenticity of the tape. If I were you, I would demand a refund from Youtube.

(Oh, and the fact that the GOP never pulled this kind of shit when they were in charge makes Johnny that much more credible.)

Guess it sucks not having lobbyists writing the bills so they can tell you how to vote. Welcome to the Brave New World Rep. Boehner.

Anybody seen yesterday’s Tom Toles cartoon of Obama sinking a basket? It’s a thing of beauty. I think Boehner is the clueless elephant at the bottom of the panel.

Oh, Johnny Boner wasn’t so pissed off when the Caligutard was demanding quick passage of bills and spending willy-nilly.

Whiny little prat.

We’ll see how this plays out, but Barry seems to have learned his lesson about premature bipartisanship. Or maybe that was the point all along: sussing out their strategy, then adapting.

Not that he’ll make a lunge for the left. The election was won with the 10 percent undecided, and Barry’s going to be squatting that turf as long as he can.

breaking/ Burris Bumped Bucks to Blago, despite earlier statements, per Taegan Goddard

@nojo: I don’t think Barry is facing much of a challenge from the left. Unfairly or not Kucinich has tremendous trouble being taken seriously by the “leftist” mainstream media. I know many Stinquers are in awe of the guy because of his wife but that hasn’t translated to much of a national impact.

Mike Gravel was the guy I agreed with on most issues according to some of those primary polls that matched a candidate to your answers. He must have been abducted by aliens or renditioned to Syria because if you blinked you never knew he was running.

I don’t think Hillary is remotely as far to the left as Obama.

One thing you learn playing basketball is to recognize the other team’s defense and adapt your offense to exploit the weaknesses. For decades (I’d say since 1968) the Republicans have been on offense while the Democrats have remained on the defensive everywhere. As a result the political center has shifted FAR to the right of where it was 50 years ago. Obama is just beginning to push back the other way. If the GOP is trying to defend the center then that’s precisely where Obama needs to begin chipping away. I don’t think an overnight transformation into a rabid liberal helps Barry build the momentum for the change he has been promising. A lot of the functions of the US government have been taken over by the private sector to the benefit of a few and the detriment of the rest. That will take many years to undo, so now is the time to build the broad national base that will support the changes for Obama and his successors.

If Boehner is a man of principle, he’ll refuse any stimulus funding for his district. Okay, big if.

@Dave H: That sounds about right. The slow and steady thing served him well during the primaries. As it stands, his calm is making the Republicans look like the Hannah Montana fanclub.

@Benedick: Yes, but we’ll see. The strategy for an election is very straightforward, with a clear target and perceptible results. I was following the electoral map daily from summer on, and I could see how the likely voting public wasn’t buying the attacks. (Only the week after the Republican convention — The Bump — did McCain pull ahead in the face of what was otherwise a landslide, and that was all Palin’s speech.)

The public doesn’t vote directly on any given bill, and the progress of legislation isn’t as clear as polls preceding an election. Plus you have everything happening at once in the government itself, and various crises to manage around the world. Winning an election and governing are two very different things.

This much is emerging: Barry likes Consensus. So do I, in much of what I do — everybody on board! But Barry faces opponents who have no interest in consensus, and that’s when you need to start throwing weight around.

There’s a lot he can do with a signature, some of which he’s done already. And there’s a lot he’s kicking to committees, to ultimately provide political cover — consensus — for his actions. (Notice how even coverage of returning caskets has been kicked to a committee.)

It may indeed be a wise long-run strategy — slow & steady & deliberate — but I’m still waiting for indications of how it plays out in practice. The indications were there early in the primaries (you could gauge it by Hillary’s flailing), but I need a bit more data to call it for the presidency itself. The line du jour is that Barry got what he wanted with the bailout — but did he want enough, or did he concede too much before the process started?

@redmanlaw: Story I saw said Blago asked for 10 grand and Burris refused.

If only we’d had the services of Johnny Boner the Cautious and Studious when the Patriot Act was up for a vote.

@blogenfreude: Taegan Goddard pulled his FB post sayin’ that Burris actually gave The Hair some coin.

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