People in the News

John Boehner

I could never find it within myself to actively dislike John Boehner, even though I've disagreed with him on almost everything ever since he became Speaker.  Honestly, I've felt pity for him, stuck as he has been in such an untenable position as nominal leader of his divided party.  Maybe it's his inability to control his tear ducts in situations others might not consider all that emotional that appeals to me.  I'm like that too.

Like everybody else, I suppose, I was very surprised when he announced his retirement from the House as of the end of October, but all I can say is, "Congratulations, Mr. Speaker.  You're well out of it."  I wonder if his decision was influenced by his audience with...

Pope Francis

The bloated, bloviating turd who goes by the name of Rush Limbaugh says Francis is a "Marxist."  Was Jesus a "Marxist?"  If so, I guess Francis qualifies as well.  Francis, more than any Pope in my memory (including John XXIII) does his best to emulate the human incarnation of his God.

Yes, Francis is a political force in that we have not yet succeeded, even in "the land of the free [market]," in divorcing politics from morality.  We still want our leaders to do what is good, not just what is best for certain interests with extra millions to spend on election campaigns.  I wonder who gets money from...

Martin Shkreli

Shkreli is the whiz-kid who started managing his own hedge fund straight out of college, but later decided there was more money to be made buying the right to produce lifesaving generic pharmaceuticals and jacking up their prices by vast amounts.  His company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, is best known for increasing the price of one pyrimethamine tablet, a drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, from $12.50 to $750.  A closed distribution system for the drug keeps other producers of generics from offering any competition.

"I can see how it looks greedy," he said, "but I think there's a lot of altruistic properties to it."  Really?  To me, Shkreli embodies exactly the kind of capitalist evil Pope Francis wants us to end.  Well, at least we all can wave bye-bye to...

Scott Walker

Walker was planning his run for president while he still was in college, and he dropped out early to more quickly pursue his untrammeled ambition. With a lot of help from anti-union fat cats like Kathleen Hendricks and the Koch brothers, he managed to win and retain the governorship of Wisconsin by playing on the envy and resentment many private sector workers feel towards public employees.

Walker's hurry to rise to the top of the heap left him singularly unprepared to compete in presidential politics.  Combined with his mediocre intellect, his unpreparedness made his exit from the Republican primary contest pretty much inevitable.  The donors lost interest, and he was gone.  Hopefully, now, Wisconsin will come to its senses, remember its history of progressivism, and undo the damage he and his cadre have done.

Schismatics

According to the Times, the United States has discontinued non-lethal aid to the Syrian rebels after fighters for the Islamic Front grabbed up a couple of warehouses full of stuff we'd contributed to the Free Syrian Army, the administration's preferred rebel group.  I read the article twice, and a couple of things stood out.  First, it was suggested that no Free Syrian Army fighters were around to defend the warehouses.  Second, the Islamic Front has no relationship with ISIS or Al Qaeda.

The administration is "considering" support to the Islamic Front, but by the time consideration is over, you can bet the Islamic Front will have fragmented into a bunch of new militias, along with a bunch of other rebel groups.  The main motivation for a large majority of those groups, at this point, is to steal as much as possible.  Pity the refugees, and the countries to which they have fled.  There will be nothing left if they ever get to go home.

..........

More schismatics:  Despite his "fiscal" dedication to taking food out the mouths of poor children, Paul Ryan is under attack by the very members of Congress (and outside organizations financed by such as the Koch brothers) who were kissing his ass a few years ago.  Then John Boehner came to his defense, displaying what might pass as genuine anger, but with no tears.

It seems there are a few Democrats in the House who genuinely like Ryan, or so they say.  Is he moving to the middle for the sake of the next presidential election?  Can he find the critical point that balances the true crazies against the traditional conservatives?  Can the Republican Party keep from ripping itself apart?

Stay tuned.

Boehner's Dilemma

John Boehner has a problem. Well, okay, he has several problems.

First, despite his nominal leadership of the Republican party, he can't control the troops. Given his long history in the House, this must have come as a surprise to him — if there was anything Republicans have been good at for the past thirty years, it's been party discipline. The Tea Parties seem to have ruined that.

Second, he can't help but feel Eric Cantor's dagger poking at his side, looking for a good soft spot between the ribs. Cantor really wants to replace Boehner as Speaker of the House, and he doesn't seem to mind keeping his party divided against itself to get there.

Boehner is a corporatist, but also a pragmatist. As a corporatist, he prefers not to mess around with the possibility of creating financial meltdown. As a pragmatist, he follows Reagan in the belief that when you get 80% of what you wanted in a negotiation, you've won. When Obama offered up large chunks of Medicare and Medicaid on the altar of "moderation," Boehner was willing to go along with closing a few tax loopholes for the rich.

Cantor saw Boehner's "weakness" as an opportunity to run up to the front of the Tea Party parade with a large bass drum. Although he's been sounding more and more like a Grover Norquist ideologue lately, I suspect Cantor is much better understood as a pure opportunist — a man whose personal ambition far outweighs any party loyalty

After a few drinks the other night, I had this really neat fantasy. It won't come true, of course, but a lot of us would be supremely amused if it did.

John Boehner has lots of friends with money and power. Suppose he quietly encouraged some of them to start a "draft Eric Cantor" campaign for the 2012 presidential race. After all, the current crop of candidates is not especially impressive, and even the Tea Partiers have to be able to see that Cantor has a lot more on the ball than the intellectually challenged Michele Bachman.

I know, very unlikely — but what if Eric Cantor's hubris was great enough to get him to go along with it, and what if he won the nomination?

Why, then you'd have a black man running against a Jew for the highest office in the land! Oh no! Crisis in Redneckland!

As for me, I'd still be poking around the available third-party candidates looking for a place to cast my protest vote — but at least I could have a few good laughs.