Posted by Frank James at 4:05 pm CST
Having just picked Rep. John Boehner, the Ohio Republican, as their new majority leader, House Republicans trying to unearth themselves from the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal now have an interesting challenge ahead of them--portraying Boehner as the champion of reform.
Boehner, a former plastics and packaging company president who's been in Congress since 1990, and led the House's Republican Congress in the 1990s, has not exactly been known as the very model of a congressional reformer.
In fact, In 1995, he drew attention for passing out money from tobacco interests on the House floor to other members. He stopped, according to an aide who was quoted in a column by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert because "there could be an appearance (problem) here."
Boehner was also a key member of former Speaker Gingrich's team, a group of lawmakers who knew how to leverage their positions of power to fatten the treasuries of their political action committees with money collected from corporations and lobbyists. His leadership PAC, Freedom Project, is one of the best-funded on Capitol Hill.
Early in his congressional career, however, Boehner was among a group of lawmakers who demanded the public disclosure of the name of every House member-all 355-who had an overdraft during the House banking scandal. Expect to hear a lot of talk about this in days to come as Boehner and others make a case for his bona fides as a reformer.
What helped Boehner today was that he wasn't Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) Blunt was viewed by many House Republicans as too close to Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader under indictment in Texas for money-laundering.
Boehner also got a lift from his steadfast opposition to congressional "earmarking." That's the practice of funneling taxpayer money, sometimes stealthily, to favored projects. Boehner, like Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican, considers earmarks pure pork.
Boehner's position on earmarks should be a winner this election year. (The position paper Boehner issued for his House majority leader campaign can be viewed here.)
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Comments
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Anything other than Shadegg was a vote for the status quo. Shadegg was a serious conservative who wanted to bring back the spirit of '94. But the Congressional GOP today hardly resembles the bold reformer class of 12 years ago and most of them know it. They like their power and connections better than they do reforming the way Washington does business. Perhaps they'll learn their lesson this November that they dropped the ball, again.
Posted by: Elrod | February 2, 2006 7:34 PM
i don't trust any republican politician, they all seem to put party loyalty above god and country. maybe it's because they're all crooked and tied to each other. read this link about how bad the abramoff scandal might turn out to be...
http://www.madcowprod.com/06202005.html
if even a third of this stuff is true the republican party is probably going to implode in washington the way it has in illinois...
Posted by: Karl B. | February 2, 2006 8:47 PM
speaking of the abramoff scandal, i wonder if any of this is true...
http://www.madcowprod.com/06202005.html
Posted by: Karl B. | February 2, 2006 11:20 PM
boehner won't make much difference, the republican party in washington has some serious problems...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/30/AR2005043001147.html
republicans are either going to stick together and go down together, or some are going to realize it's more important to put God and country before party loyalty... especially when the current party leaders are (apparently) very corrupt...
Posted by: karl b. | February 2, 2006 11:28 PM
The above article might have been improved if Mr. James had actually bothered to talk to Mr. Boehner, or any other Republican, prior to doing the predictable anti-GOP editorializing. As we know from experience, Tribune reporters are too busy rerunning Cindy Sheehan's press releases verbatim to actually talk to the majority party.
Posted by: Bruce | February 3, 2006 10:45 AM
Boehner was chairman of the House Republican Conference in the late 90s before DeLay orchestrated his ouster in favor of J.C. Watts (R-Okla.). Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Dick Armey (R-Texas), majority leader, "led the House's Republican Congress."
Posted by: CheGueverra | February 5, 2006 8:40 PM