GOP House Minority leader John Boehner is coming to the OC tomorrow (HT to Red County). He’ll be in Newport Beach with Rep. Ed Royce and the details are here.
Boehner is the weepiest politician in DC in recent memory. The guy cries at the drop of a hat. And yes, they are crocodile tears.
Rep. Boehner (is it BANE-rr, or BONE-rr?) lead a House Republican walkout over contempt of Congress charges against former White House lawyer Harriet Myers and chief of staff Josh Bolten, who both refused to testify before Congress on the firing of US attorneys even to exercise their 5th amendment rights. More after the flip.
“Enraged House Republicans staged a walkout from the floor after Democrats sought a contempt of Congress vote for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers.
“We will not stand for this and we will not stay for this,” said Minority Leader John Boehner, speaking from the House floor. “I would ask my House Republican colleagues and those who believe that we should be here protecting the American people to not vote on this bill. Let’s just get up and leave.”
And with that, a few dozen House GOP lawmakers got up and left. They convened on the Capitol steps to address the cameras.
Republicans are angry that House Democrats are taking a one-week recess starting today without tackling a bill overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Senate on Tuesday passed a version that included White House-backed provisions granting retroactive immunity to telecoms, but House Democrats weren’t so ready to compromise.
“Instead of bringing the FISA bill to the floor of the House today, the House decided to take up a political stunt by trying to hold several White House officials in contempt,” said Boehner, flanked by his fellow Republicans outside the Capitol building. “The majority leader said ‘we’re bringing it up today because we’ve got space’…. but we don’t have space to do what’s in our nation’s interest, and that’s to protect the American people.”
The House Democratic leadership vehemently opposes granting retroactive immunity, which they say allows telecom companies that facilitated spying on Americans to get off scot-free. Republicans counter that telecom companies need to be protected from lawsuits in order to ensure future cooperation in terrorism investigations.”
I have some questions for Rep. Boehner. If the telecoms did nothing wrong, why do they need immunity? And should President Bush veto the changes to FISA over telecom immunity, isn’t he really putting the telecoms ahead of protecting Americans? And lastly, how does Rep. Boenher resolve the fact that the Bush administration sought domestic spying on Americans via the telecomms well before 9/11/2001?ÂÂ
I wonder what Rep. Boehner’s position on this would be if proposed by a President Hillary Clinton or President Barack Obama? Get a crying towel out. You’ll be needed it.