Why Boehner is angry -- and Republicans should worry (Joe Conason)

[swag]

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/03/22/frum

Excerpt:

A few days before Sunday night's vote, Dan Balz noted in the Washington Post that the electorate sounds even angrier at Congress than usual -- a threatening portent for incumbents in November. Even in that poll, however, the lowest status was reserved not for the Democratic congressional leadership, whose numbers have indeed dropped, but for the Republican leaders.

No doubt John Boehner is well aware of that public contempt. Watching the minority leader speak on the House floor, pretending to be a populist demagogue rather than a corporate stooge, his anger seemed less provoked by the specifics of the healthcare legislation than with its likely political impact. If he feels so confident that the people will massively repudiate this bill in the midterm election -- and thus make him speaker --why was he so furious? Why did the bill’s imminent passage turn his usual orangey-tan complexion almost incandescent red with rage?

The answer could be found in the subtext of Boehner’s speech, which did not dwell on the bill’s specific provisions, beyond its alleged expense. He knows that arguing the bill’s specific provisions is very dangerous to his party, because so many of them are quite popular and the public will hold Republicans in disrepute for opposing them.

An informed public was always the ultimate peril for the Republicans in this process, so distorted during the past year by wild propaganda about death panels, government takeovers, and the entire mythology of the Obama administration’s socialist-communist-Nazi-totalitarianism.

. . .

[wildflower]

1. Oh dear...

Why did the bill’s imminent passage turn his usual orangey-tan complexion almost incandescent red with rage?

:D

[butterfly77]

7. My favorite part too...

:rofl:

[thereismore]

2. That is a smart article. Repigs have a chill in their rotten bones. nt

[rocktivity]

3. What you saw was nothing but an old-fashioned temper tantrum

from an egomaniacal sore loser of an overgrown brat.

Unless you prefer the image of an animal who excreting on his kill because bigger animals are about to take if from him.

Either way, Boehner had me in tears, too--from laughing so hard.

:rofl:
rocktivity

[ramapo]

4. ugh...

You have a better sense of humor than I. He made me sick and I had to turn away...as I did with that little weasel, Eric Cantor.

[TlalocW]

5. Republicans love to point out how low congress' approval rating is

But they never want to go further and see why, and for the past several years, the American people have been more pissed off at republicans than democrats because we know who the obstructionist assholes are.

Now that this big bill has passed, if the democrats can be smart, keep their spines, and keep the MOJO going, the November elections are going to be nowhere as devastating to dems as the pubs think they are (although they would claim victory even if the current ratios of both legislative bodies stayed the same, saying it showed that support for the dems had obviously leveled off).

Now if the above happens, it's really the republicans who have something to worry about because anti-incumbent moods are always directed towards OTHER people's incumbents except possibly this time around with the tea-baggers. No democrats is going to have a tea-bagger's vote, but that doesn't really affect them - they never had it in the past when the tea-bagger was (*snicker*) a more sane member of the GOP. But I can see a lot of tea-baggers being upset enough with their GOP congressmen and senators to vote against them in the primaries and then sitting out their possible re-election.

TlalocW

[Dunky360]

6. WHY IS BOEHNER ANGRY?

Hell, I think Republicans were born angry! These jerks were angry as hell when stupidass Bush was in office. And they're still angry! Why? Because they are evil people. Evil people are always angry for no reason. I feel sorry for them. They must be a very sad and lonely bunch.

[butterfly77]

8. I approve this message...

:applause:

[MisterP]

9. "pretending to be a populist demagogue rather than a corporate stooge, his [ecastasy] seemed less

provoked by the specifics of the healthcare legislation than with its likely political impact" fits Pelosi's grandstanding to a T

and I DID see Boner change color faster than a mood ring!

[southernyankeebelle]

10. Me thinks DeMint has his waterloo and it ain't the democrats. I believe

if the Foxpublicans run on repealling this bill they will lose.

[gaijinlaw]

11. Why is Boner angry?

I guess I'll go read the article, but frankly my immediate reaction is something along the lines of:
"Who gives a shit?"

[applegrove]

12. Very perceptive of you.