PrintJune 28, 2009
Is John Boehner growing a pair?
He tried filibustering the climate bill on the floor of the House by reading some of the amendments into the record. To no avail, of course. You can't filibuster very effectively in the House because of their tighter rein on floor debate.
But, futile though the effort was, John Boehner deserved some kudos for trying to do something to stem the tide. For a guy who has done little in the past 6 months to head off the Obama administration's power grabs, it was at least a welcome change.
And Boehner wasn't through as Molly Hooper writing in The Hill explains:
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday.
When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, "Hey, people deserve to know what's in this pile of s--t."
Using his privilege as leader to speak for an unlimited time on the House floor, Boehner spent an hour reading from the 1200-plus page bill that was amended 20 hours before the lower chamber voted 219-212 to approve it.
Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the bill; 44 House Democrats voted against it. Pelosi's office declined to comment on Boehner's jab. But one Democratic aide quipped, "What do you expect from a guy who thinks global warming is caused by cow manure?"
Even though Sen. Majorty Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) holds the bill's fate in his hands, House Republicans intend to hammer Speaker Pelosi's signature climate-change measure over recess.
Indeed, Boehner previewed what may be the GOP attack strategy in this video, as Allahpundit at Hot Air explains:
Submitted for your approval, a preview of the line of attack Republicans far and wide will be using next year in the midterms distilled to three crystalline minutes. It's all here: The gigantic stimulus waste, the travesty of cap-and-trade, and (soon) the unholy bloat of ObamaCare. Toss in Heritage's now-famous graph of Obama's deficits and Innocent Bystanders' chart of how dismally the stimulus has failed to stem unemployment and you're 90 percent of the way towards a generic GOP congressional campaign commercial for spring 2010.
Not saying Boehner is much of a leader, but anything is an improvement over the lackadaisical manner he has done his job in recent months.
