ADDED: Meade said:
Leslie Stahl: "...and third in line to the presidency."
Oh, I see - after Friday's presser, Obama is now first in line.
December 12, 2010
The "60 Minutes" profile of John Boehner.
Very nicely done, with much crying. Watch the whole thing — plus extras — here. Don't miss the last line.
ADDED: Meade said:
ADDED: Meade said:
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76 comments:
Leslie Stahl: "...and third in line to the presidency."
Oh, I see - after Friday's presser, Obama is now first in line.
Dear John,
1) spend less time in the tanning booth
2) spend less time being wined and dined at the best restaurants by all your lobbyist pals.
3) don't ever bypass Airport Security again. Not while your people are getting naked or groped.
You are a servant of the people. Start acting like it.
Ha! "Compromise" means "do it my way." Can anyone imagine Obama announcing that he's going to compromise with the Republicans because it's the right thing to do?
"spend less time in the tanning booth"
You didn't watch the show! He denies using a tanning booth or artificial tanner, and his wife backs him up. He's just always had dark skin, he says. A picture of him as a dark-skinned young man is displayed.
He grew up in a 2 bedroom house in a family of 14. One bathroom. They went to church every day.
Don't sweat the tearing up. He happens to care a lot about good things. But a scratch golfer has complete control of his emotions when necessary. Crying about threats to your children, or about threats to all the children in the USA seems to be a feature and not a defect. In a sense Boehner really is aware of the dangers to all of us by a DC run by con men. and he wants to see us all come out of this fight alive.
You didn't watch the show!
True. Its a complaint I've had against him since he first started being spotlighted as the next Majority Leader.
He denies using a tanning booth or artificial tanner, and his wife backs him up. He's just always had dark skin, he says. A picture of him as a dark-skinned young man is displayed.
I don't believe him or the evidence. He hasn't earned my trust.
Fen, the picture showed his kids too, and the two year old has his coloring.
Fen...Are you really going to pull an Andrew Sullivan type investigation into Boehner's bathroom and Dermatologist's records? Why not give him the respect that he has earned as a truthful man?
Please, Fen, judge Boehner not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
Fen, the picture showed his kids too, and the two year old has his coloring.
Don't care. Been burned too many times by the GOP.
traditionalguy: Fen...Are you really going to pull an Andrew Sullivan type investigation into Boehner's bathroom and Dermatologist's records?
Of course not.
Why not give him the respect that he has earned as a truthful man?
I want to see what his actions are first. Words are no longer enough.
LOL Meade!
His hair too. Too well groomed.
Sorry, I want my Majority Leader to look disheveled gaunt pale and starving. As if he's spending every waking second fighting on the floor for us.
They prob spray-tanned the kid too.
Okay, just teasing. I'm just very very cynical when it comes to the GOP.
I caught how Leslie Stahl referred to Boehner's emotionalism as "waterworks."
If she had been describing Clinton, she would have characterized it as "compassion" coming from a man who "feels your pain."
Meade...The 60 Minute clip said Boehner is from Reading, Ohio and that is close to Cincinnati. Can you verify any of that for Fen? Boehner looked very real, but where is his birth certificate to prove he is real? His family were JFK Dems, but he made some money and saw what the high tax rates are designed to do to middle class men who are trying to succeed. They are a Rich Man's trick to limit any new rich men from being created. Only after the first 7 million is invested in depreciation shelters does the tax burden nose dive down to 10% instead of 38% + State income taxes. All of the Rockefeller types are crusing along on inherited wealth that pre-dates the Income Tax Act, and they despise those who try to start earning some of their own big money, so they tax them back to nothing.
Good man. And, Fen, he gave up the Pelosi jet and fully stocked bar, didn't he? Something she should have done long ago.
Speaking of journalistic spin, this is interesting, too: Condoleezza Rice Corrects Katie Couric on Her Far Left Iraq War Revisionism (Video)
Fen, it is people like you (including Journ"o"list) that give people like me (who are consultants to the Admin) a bad name. We intend to work with Speaker Boehmer. We celebrate his ascent. We also expect to be in WH till Jan. 2017. N.B.: Fen, this is a great blog by a great Prof. Please be respectful to all views.
Crying politicians are grotesque.
Republican men sure do seem to cry a lot. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I wonder why that is? Aren't they supposed to be the tough guys?
Ann, just because he went to church every day does not make him a good person. I've know plenty of "Good Christians" who go to mass daily who would stab you in the back at the first opportunity. Outward devotion does not mean inward devotion.
Vicki from Pasadena
Synova, Obama's done it more times than Bush ever did (compromise that is)
Vicki
I thought Boehner was okay, and the piece was pretty fair.
A much more interesting interview was Justice Breyer on Fox News Sunday (of all places). He was not impressive, essentially arguing that Supreme Court Justices had freedom to decide things as they wanted just using the "values" of the constritution. He was particularly odd in claming the
2nd Amendment did not create a righ to bear arms, using a strange historical argument and, even more strangely, arguing that a sportsman in Washington DC could take a subway to Maryland to engage in pistol shooting if he wanted to and, therefore, it was not a problem for DC to ban guns - amazing.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4456313/justice-stephen-breyer-on-fns/?playlist_id=86858
The dude can tan twice a day, have affairs with staffers, use way too much cocaine, tap in the airport bathroom, whatever, and I don't care as long as he doesn't raise taxes, erases the deficit, and increases transparency and decreases red tape so that the economy can rev again.
Yeah, Vicki, those fucking churchgoers. Always stabbing people.
Another great insight there, dude. You are a Really Useful Engine.
Stahl is just a FORTRAN programmer and uses 1-based indexing.
victoria wrote: Obama's done it more times than Bush ever did (compromise that is)
Evidence?
Bush and Clinton compromised all the time. That's called governing. They did it graciously. That's called class.
Obama can't compromise without looking like a petulant twit.
I want my Majority Leader to look disheveled gaunt pale and starving
No problem. We have one of those in the Senate.
Don't sweat the tearing up.
It's just going to be a little strange to have a Speaker whose face is physically capable of tearing up. Or sweating, for that matter.
just because he went to church every day does not make him a good person
Althouse didn't claim that it did. She provided a few notable biographical details, and you seized on one to say you know people who share that biographical detail who are terrible.
Stahl is just a FORTRAN programmer and uses 1-based indexing.
Didn't later versions of FORTRAN actually allow zero based indexing? Zero based always made more sense, esp. at the hardware level, where the code didn't have to subtract one every time an array was indexed. At one time, and in particular, when I was still writing in FORTRAN, I actually worried about that sort of thing.
"He's just always had dark skin"
"bypasses Airport Security "
"church every day"
The evidence would indicate "Boehner" may be a muslim from Kenya.
"Can anyone imagine Obama announcing that he's going to compromise with the Republicans because it's the right thing to do?"
Have you been in a coma for two years? This is a signal feature of Obama's failings as President: his compulsive and often needless and preemptive compromises to the Republicans on virtually every matter.
his compulsive and often needless and preemptive compromises to the Republicans on virtually every matter
We don't know if socialism works because it's never been tried. If only your gang had been in charge.
By the way, Robert. Tell us about the American law ceding to other countries or transnational tribunals the ability to try Americans for alleged war crimes. Been waiting six years, dude. And it's Christmastime...
"Republican men sure do seem to cry a lot...I wonder why that is? Aren't they supposed to be the tough guys?"
They're half-convincing replicants, with hearts and brains of marble, but even they have a hard time not breaking up in convulsive laughter when they start reciting some of their canned Glenn Beck-ish "I love and fear for my country and I want to make sure every person has the same opportunities I had" tripe. Being unable to contain themselves, they've learned to mask their guffaws of contempt as sobbing.
Was that supposed to be funny, Robert? Because, let me just tell you, it wasn't a fraction as funny as the conclusory laugh riot about how the American government has ceded to other countries or transnational tribunals the ability to try Americans for alleged war crimes.
Tell us that one again, dude. Please.
Charlie Martin said...
Stahl is just a FORTRAN programmer and uses 1-based indexing.
Hey, at least it's not APL/2.
Obama's done it more times than Bush ever did (compromise that is)
Good one!
I bet you can't name 3 "compromises" Obama has made.
And, Fen, he gave up the Pelosi jet and fully stocked bar, didn't he?
Ya thats a good start. We'll see.
This is a signal feature of Obama's failings as President: his compulsive and often needless and preemptive compromises to the Republicans on virtually every matter.
You can't name any.
Why do people like you assert this?
Obama had 60 Senators and a large house majority.
It is almost as if you're prtending that didn't happen.
Jay, they've fallen back into myth-making mode. Repeating lies over and over again until it becomes
"conventional wisdom".
Their new Alinksy tactic (see Hot Air's piece on Van Jones) is to paint the GOP as extreme bullies.
Didn't later versions of FORTRAN actually allow zero based indexing?
I believe so, but I'm still working with legacy FORTRAN 77 code. So one-based for me, except for the half of the time I'm coding in c.
And yes, errors do arise because of coding half the time in a zero-based language, and half in a one-based language.
"You can't name any."
"Obama had 60 Senators and a large house majority."
Exactly...had Obama wished to, he could very well have tried to implement great reforms and progressive policies--he could have been a new FDR--but instead he chose to surrender to the Republicans from the start.
For example, there was his recent--like, last week--capitulation on the Bush tax cuts.
And there was his refusal to consider genuine health care reform, for which he substituted a Republican program, Romneycare, which is essentially a legally-mandated giveaway to the health insurance companies.
He continues Bush's tradition of giving blowjobs to the bankers and Wall Street execs, paying them for the privilege, and refusing to call for implementation of strict regulation on their activities or requiring that the money we lent them be put back into the economy through mandatory lending to borrowers seeking loans. (Rather, the money we lent the banks went into their pockets in the form of bonuses, necessary, they lied, to "keep all the talent" from leaving their employ. Given the destruction "the talent" has wreaked on the economy, I'd rather they left and do some honest work washing dishes in a prison somewhere.)
He has never investigated members of the Bush administration for war crimes, and has in fact continued Bush's wars and war policies.
Technically, perhaps all of Obama's Republican-friendly actions aren't compromises, per se, inasmuch as they reflect Obama's own inclinations as a centrist and loyal servant of the American empire and its owners, but Obama certainly has not rammed through any "leftist" or even any faintly "liberal" programs.
Synova, Obama's done it more times than Bush ever did (compromise that is)
True enough. I doubt he could have gotten any of his Marxist agenda passed had he not been willing on compromise with the Socialists in his party.
"Their new Alinksy tactic (see Hot Air's piece on Van Jones) is to paint the GOP as extreme bullies."
I love how the right wing radicals are so obsessed with Alinksy and assume the Democrats are following some sort of Alinsky playbook, given that until his name was revived by the righties, he was essentially a forgotten figure, relegated to the culture wars of decades long past. I wonder how many of today's Democrats (or liberals) even know who Alinsky was; I'm sure he's barely read anymore, if at all.
That aside, are you suggesting that the Republicans are not "extreme bullies?"
Hahaha...good luck with that.
Ignorance is Bliss said:
"I doubt (Obama) could have gotten any of his Marxist agenda passed had he not been willing on compromise with the Socialists in his party."
Hahahahahahahahaha!
Never was a commenter's name so apt!
For example, there was his recent--like, last week--capitulation on the Bush tax cuts.
Ok, so you've name one compromise.
That's one.
This,
for which he substituted a Republican program, Romneycare
Is a lie.
It has no basis in fact. ALL THE REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST THIS "REPUBLICAN" BILL.
You forgot that part. And why did they vote against it?
BECAUSE IT WAS A DEMOCRATIC BILL.
You are a liar.
He has never investigated members of the Bush administration for war crimes
They committed no war crimes.
Otherwise, this isn't a "compromise" as nobody but you and a few other deranged lefitsts are advocating it.
There is no constituency within the Democratic party for this. It is not a "compromise"
and has in fact continued Bush's wars and war policies.
It is not a "compromise"
I love how the right wing radicals are so obsessed with Alinksy and assume the Democrats are following some sort of Alinsky playbook
We caught you red-handed with it.
Cook: For example, there was his recent--like, last week--capitulation on the Bush tax cuts.
Doesn't count during a lame duck session. He's be stupid to not try a compromise, because he knows his hand will be worse after the new House is sworn in.
Try finding an example before the Nov 2 election....
as they reflect Obama's own inclinations as a centrist a
Hysterical.
You are at the fringe 10% of the American electorate.
90% of America doesn't agree with you.
Never was a commenter's name so apt!
Well, I am quite blissful.
My comment was intended to be humorous. However, I think it's important to note that on healthcare, President Obama made no effort to compromise with Republicans. He was compromising with the moderate Democrats
mandatory lending to borrowers seeking loans
The CRA was one of the main factors in the real estate bubble, so we don't need more of that idiocy.
Obamacare is designed to destroy the insurance companies, "forcing" the government to insure everyone.
"Compromise" isn't the same thing as "get your ass handed to you".
Just sayin'.
requiring that the money we lent them be put back into the economy through mandatory lending to borrowers seeking loans
Wow. I just noticed that silly comment.
You do understand that this concept is what caused the real-estate bubble right?
requiring that the money we lent them be put back into the economy through mandatory lending to borrowers seeking loans
And right on Queue, Krugman:
The root of our current troubles lies in the debt American families ran up during the Bush-era housing bubble. Twenty years ago, the average American household’s debt was 83 percent of its income; by a decade ago, that had crept up to 92 percent; but by late 2007, debts were 130 percent of income.
All this borrowing took place both because banks had abandoned any notion of sound lending and because everyone assumed that house prices would never fall. And then the bubble burst.
What we’ve been dealing with ever since is a painful process of “deleveraging”: highly indebted Americans not only can’t spend the way they used to, they’re having to pay down the debts they ran up in the bubble years.
Yes, mandatory lending, what could go wrong!
Once I was poor, and now I am rich, an't that a bitch.
"...in line for the presidency..."
scares ya' to death.
(The Crypto Jew)
HDHouse said...
"...in line for the presidency..."
scares ya' to death.
Not so much so as PRESIDENT Biden, but that’s just me, no doubt.
"Obamacare is designed to destroy the insurance companies, "forcing" the government to insure everyone."
Under Obamacare, the government is insuring no one; the law mandates that citizens must purchase health insurance from private insurers. It is these private insurers, flush with millions of new forced customers, who will continue providing health insurance...to those can get it.
"Yes, mandatory lending, what could go wrong!"
"Mandatory lending" doesn't mean giving money to any decrepit shmoe who walks in the door. The banks were doing that previously of their own volition, because they didn't care if the loans got paid back...they were going to package them and sell them off as trash-grade instruments anyway, marked up as Grade A instruments. The banks were carrying on an orgy of fraud, and getting away with it!
Subsequently, when their reckless criminality caught up with them, it having ruined the economy, the banks begged for billions (of taxpayer dollars) to be kept from facing the consequences of their own fraud and thieving--financial ruin and collapse; we gave it to them without conditions and the bankers put much of those billions in their own pockets. What they didn't take outright, they're sitting on and not lending.
That money should have been earmarked to be lent to credit-worthy customers--individuals and small businesses who, now more than ever, need access to loans, and who, now more than ever, find that access cut off.
I do like to see Mr. Cook come in and set up his table in the corner, and make some noise and hand out a few pamphlets.
You do know that there's no current democratic party represenative near Left enough for him. They merely serve the moneyed interests and will be gotten rid of once the revolution comes.
The new requirements for low deductibles and no lifetime limits or pre-existing condition exclusions will push the price of insurance so high that healthy people (and those evil corporations) will opt for the fine, pushing the price of insurance even higher, until no one but the well off can afford it. Then the government must step in to pay for everyone else.
What they didn't take outright, they're sitting on and not lending
The government (and the market) forced them to increase their capital reserves. Otherwise, more banks would go under, at great cost to the government. In 2008, Washington thought that could spiral to complete financial collapse.
If you're credit-worthy, they'll lend you money. The problem now is most credit-worthy people and businesses don't want to because of low returns or need to (my boss is an exception).
Although I'd prefer not to see it, I understand the emotionalism. Men get like this in middle age. We tend cry more after 50 than in all the years before. I think it's partially hormonal, but also, as I think in Boehner, it comes from a deep sense of gratitude, humility and vulnerability that you spent the previous 50 years holding in to avoid looking weak. After 50, you can let go of that crap.
roesch-voltaire said...
Once I was poor, and now I am rich, an't that a bitch.
I get your sarcasm, ro-vo, but is it really apt?
John Boehner grew up in a working class family, struggled to pay his own way through college, and used individual initiative, ethical business practices, and care toward employees and community to become successful. His purpose in serving in government has always been about preserving, for all, the same opportunities given him. He asked not what his country could do for him but what he could do for his country.
Sure you want to sneer at that?
Meade, are you trying to compromise my wit? Okay, I will close my eyes to the lobby locust who surround Mr. Boehner and pretend he is doing good things for the forty million without health insurance.
I wonder how many of today's Democrats (or liberals) even know who Alinsky was;
How do you define "today's"? I realize that Hilary Clinton is no spring chicken, but I'd still consider her and her generation relevant to the political process today. She met Alinsky when she was in a church youth group, and she later interviewed him a number of times. He reportedly even offered her a job.
Also, it's not particularly difficult to find examples of Alinsky's principles being taught in various types of workshops, classes and the like for community organizers and activists. Really, Robert, it's not.
You can look it up.
---
Full disclosure: Earlier this year, I re-read Alinsky's book (later version) and also read "The Starfish and The Spider," a book reportedly read by a number of those actively involved in the Tea Party movement. Interesting stuff, especially read in tandem and then looking around the public/political landscape today.
roesch-voltaire said...
"Okay, I will close my eyes to the lobby locust who surround Mr. Boehner..."
LOOK OUT!!! Everyone run!! It's the lobby locust - some solitary and some gregarious - who surround Mr. John Boehner!!!!!
Robert: "Mandatory lending" doesn't mean giving money to any decrepit shmoe who walks in the door. The banks were doing that previously of their own volition
Wrong again. They were ordered by the Government to make risky loans to minorities with poor credit. Under threat of being hamstrung by regulatory agencies if they refused.
This guy has got to be one of the most disingenuous shits I've ever seen in politics, and I don't even dislike him all that much. But this crying bullshit is the phoniest crap I've ever seen. When honest people become emotional about someone less fortunate, they become determined to see something done about that person's situation. But Boehner just wells up, jiggles his lip and snorts for a second and then turns right back around to talking about himself.
Anyone who buys that is beyond naive. These liars will soon be found out for the frauds that they are.
"How about we start... by cutting... Congress!"
"I'm going to cut my budget, my leadership budget, by 5%. I'm gonna cut all the leadership budgets by 5%. I'm gonna cut every committee's budget by 5%. Aaaaand every member is going to see a 5% reduction in their allowance. Altogether that's 25, 30 million dollars, and likely would be one of the first votes that we cast."
"Ok. But you admit that's not very much money."
"We've got to start somewhere and we're going to start there."
And you can bet that's where he'll end.
"He cries all the time?"
"No. But..."
But he's got a bigger act to put on from this point forward.
This guy cries more than (and as credibly as) Jimmy Swaggart.
“I don't trust a man who doesn't tear up a little watching Old Yeller.”
Let's be reasonable and keep things in proportion, Meade.
I'll always grant leeway for Old Yeller. But if Old Yeller started howling and moping around after being elected Speaker of the House, I'd start to suspect that he felt a little guilty. Almost like he felt an injustice was done by putting him in a place he didn't feel up to handling; after all, he'd probably prefer a nice little shed in the yard and some delicious scraps of meat. He's Old Yeller, for crying out loud!
"Old Yeller was a mongrel
An ugly, lop-eared mongrel
Fancy free without a family tree
But he could up and do it
And prove there's nothing to it
And that's how a good dog should be
Here Yeller
Come back, Yeller
Best doggone dog in the west
Old Yeller was a hunter
A rearin', tearin' hunter
In any chase he knew just how to run
And when he hunted trouble
He always found it double
And that's when Old Yeller had fun
Here Yeller
Come back, Yeller
Best doggone dog in the west"
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