The TanMan, former Speaker of the House John Boehner, had a few choice words to say about the GOP now that he is no longer an elected official seeking political office. Vox.com reports, John Boehner just confirmed everything liberals suspected about the Republican Party:
Speaking at Stanford University, former House Speaker John Boehner went the full Bulworth.
“You can call me boner, beaner, jackass, happy to answer to almost anything,” he said.
Boehner called Ted Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh,” and said, “I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.” He admitted he would vote for Donald Trump, if it came to it, but not for Cruz.
He repeatedly called the House Freedom Caucus — the loose group of anti-establishment conservatives who are thought to have forced him out of the speakership — “knuckleheads” and “goofballs.” [This includes most of Arizona’s GOP congressional delegation.]
“I love all these knuckleheads talking about the party of Reagan,” Boehner continued. “[Reagan] would be the most moderate Republican elected today.”
It’s easy to laugh this off. After all, didn’t everyone kind of believe this is what Boehner would say after a couple of glasses of Merlot?
But don’t laugh it off. John Boehner was the Speaker of the House as recently as a single year ago. He is, himself, a conservative Republican. And he is saying, flatly, that the Republican Party has been captured by morons, goofballs, and “Lucifer.” He is saying that the party has moved so far to the right that Ronald Reagan wouldn’t recognize it.
Boehner is validating one of the most persistent and controversial critiques of the modern Republican Party. And he has the authority to do so.
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[F]or a critique like this to really have bite, it would need to come from a true, dyed-in-the-wool Republican. Someone whose loyalty to the party couldn’t be questioned. Someone who clearly wanted Republicans to succeed and prosper.
Someone like John Boehner.
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Zoom out, and here is the condition of the modern Republican Party. Despite significant down-ballot strength, it has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, and it looks likely to lose this one, too. The party has completely lost control of its own nominating process, and its choice now is to either elect Donald Trump, a candidate who isn’t really a Republican and might be a historic disaster for the party, or risk a schism by trying to rip the nomination away from Trump amidst a contested convention. Meanwhile, John Boehner, the most powerful Republican elected official from 2008 to 2015, resigned in frustration last year and is now saying his party has been captured by idiots and zealots.
This is not a healthy political party.
Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein have repeatedly warned the media and political observers that the core of Washington’s dysfunction “lies with the Republican Party.” Mann and Ornstein issued their warning years ago, but many have been slow to adopt their conclusions. (Ezra Klein).
The GOTeaP hates Boehner. Telling them “Boehner says” is like telling them a “Michael Moore says”.
He’s 100% right about the party, but he’s also the poster boy for Washington corruption. Remember him actually handing out checks on the floor of the US Senate during a vote for tobacco companies back in the 90’s?
And keep in mind, the media the GOTeaP folks get their “news” from is fractured as well. Beck and Jones are fighting, Rush is confused, Fox News changes who they support for POTUS based on the day’s polls.
I don’t think there is any one voice that the right will wake them up, they’ve spent decades getting here, it’s going to take a while for them to realize it’s time to stop digging.
I’m curious why the issue of Trump’s tax returns has completely disappeared. Cruz and Rubio brought it up in a few of the debates, but there has been no talk about it in months. Mitt Romney released prior year tax returns in January, 2012, after the South Carolina primary.
Do Republicans really want to nominate a candidate with no knowledge of his income? Only one candidate has released full tax returns this year, Hillary Clinton. If Trump doesn’t release his returns, future candidates will probably not either. We will lose an important way to learn more about our possible president.