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While Boehner Takes Millions in Illegal Donations, Republicans Accuse Obama of Selling Access
This has not been a good week for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), but you wouldn’t know it from the lack of media coverage. Earlier this week, an FEC complaint was filed against the Boehner connected super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund by Public Citizen and others for taking $2.5 million in illegal campaign contributions.
Then came from former Rep. Bob Ney’s (R-OH) new book. The congressman who did time in prison for his role in the Abramoff scandal, confirmed what has long been known about Boehner. The National Journal reported Ney’s very unflattering characterization of the Speaker, ‘Boehner “spent almost all of his time on fundraising, not policy.’ He ‘golfed, drank constantly, and took the easy way legislatively.’ Ney recalled Boehner handing out checks on the House floor and said his ties with a tobacco company were so tight that lawmakers could get free cigarettes from Boehner’s office. His golfing, Ney said, was ‘nonstop’ and ‘paid for by lobbyists.’ Ney wrote: ‘If the Justice Department were ever to make John produce receipts for his addiction to golf just for the years from 1995 to 2004, he would be hard-pressed to comply. John got away with more than any other Member on the Hill.’”
The complaint and the book paint a picture of a politician that deserves to be investigated by the media, but instead the our hapless corporate media has chosen to focus on the Republican Party’s claim that President Obama is selling access to the White House through the grassroots group Organizing For Action.
Here is Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell asking OFA’s Jim Messina questions that were completely based on Republican allegations:
After Messina assured Rose that there would be no White House access for donors to OFA, the interview reached the height of absurdity when O’Donnell asked, “Isn’t this exactly a double standard? I mean, you ran a whole campaign about Mitt Romney’s secrecy and access to special interests, and now you’ve got people who can contribute unlimited amounts of money, and the president’s going to go talk to them.”
The problem with this is that O’Donnell’s claims of secrecy and a double standard were undone by a graphic shown during the exact same interview.
This is the graphic that was on the screen in the early part of the Messina interview:
See the last line on that graphic? Donors of $250 K or more made public. That point destroys O’Donnell’s false equivalency between OFA and the Romney campaign’s refusal to disclose information about their candidate’s finances or his big money donors.
There is a real story here, but it is not the Republican talking point that the mainstream media is chasing.
Speaker Boehner has gotten away with a lot for a very long time. He is teetering on top of a house of cards. It is only a matter of time until a strong enough breeze comes along to knock it all down, but our corporate media is too busy trying to pump partisan allegations. They can’t be bothered to chase down real corruption.
What is most frustrating is that the media refuses to connect the dots and discuss the role of special interest money in politics. A grassroots organization like OFA would not have to be concerned with raising big money if the playing field wasn’t so heavily tilted towards wealthy individuals and corporate interests. On the Hill, John Boehner would be forced to do his job if special interest money was removed from our politics.
The media benefits from the corporate dollars that dominate our politics, so there is zero chance they’ll ever discuss a problem that they have helped cause. Instead they will continue to push Republican talking points as news, and ignore the real corruption that is happening daily right under their noses.
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26 Responses to While Boehner Takes Millions in Illegal Donations, Republicans Accuse Obama of Selling Access
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ellen pierce
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 11:03 am
DEPRESSING; if our grassroots leaders can’t get the MEDIAS attention to “out” Boehner and shake off the phoney story about Obama’s need to fight “fire with fire” (even though he’d and his suporters) would like do otherwise. What is so difficult about understanding: if Repubs can raise 100′s of millions that Demos HAVE TO DO THE SAME, while wanting to change the system.
sandy
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 11:03 am
I think Rob Neys book tells it like it is. Boehner looks like a drunk that has run riot. The nesw needs to focus on him. There is a huge story there just dying to get out. I am waiting to hear it.
nabsentia23
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Ney is in an unique position to know. He was knee-deep with Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay (who brought up John Boehner). He was inside the beast itself and paid a huge price for that.
James Potts
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 9:24 pm
The only problem with that is that over the past several years(I cannot pinpoint it for you); probably just after a National Network starting running a national news show; celebrity has taken ahold of the “journalists,” to the point that if one were to look to find any distinguishing thing between the “famous” and the “journalists,” you would be hard pressed. I would like to maintain my Pollyana syndrome, however, there’s so much that goes on in “that other world” that the commonfolk do not have access…well, it sure would be nice to believe that ALL of our “friends” in the news business were as noble as the old movies portray them to have been. We don’t really have the need to know who they voted for, but I believe it would be “fair” to know where their loyalties lie – with “the news” or elsewhere. Hey barkeep, where’s my refill????? blabber, balbaber… wutev
crabby ailes
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 11:04 am
i am a news junkie of the highest order. i havent seen this story anywhere, but here…. amazing how the so called librul ‘jewish’ media have conveniently missed. good get….
no one gripes that boner plays 100 more days of golf, has the congress working 10 days a month, yet the second the prez takes a day off, its front page news, driven by fox and fiends….
happy shabbos…
Shiva(Moderator)
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 11:26 am
geewhiz you are crabby. But you are absolutely right, John Boehner does play a tremendous amount of Goff. And I have read that in quite a few different places
Jane grace
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 9:56 pm
Thank you and hope that Boehner gets ousted soon!
He is an embarrassment to this country.
The Republican Party is dead and hopefully the President can move forward on the platform in which he was elected by the people.
djchefron(Moderator)
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 11:16 am
But thats our liberal media at work.These public readers are a disgrace.I wonder do any of them ever say “hold on a minute this aint right”.
Do I have to expect this both sides double standard .I call it “neo-truth” Its not anything that we researched and fact check its, if anybody say it and it sounds like it might be, lets run with it.
Case in point.Remember the story of Sen.Menendez and the hookers in the Dominican Republic.Well after the story ran right before the election in order for him to lose,turns out it was made up months after the facT.Now you may say well no harm no foul but the original source was the daily caller.Remember this one:The Daily Caller’s Blatantly False Fast And Furious Story mediamatters.org/blog/201...
and this Daily Caller Employees Embarrassed By EPA Story Debacle thinkprogress.org/climate...
The question I think we should be asking ourselves is if any story comes out of this trasH or briebart hell any right wing media why do the MSM run with it complete with screaming headlines only later to be shown to be a lie.How many times do they have to be burned?
Shiva(Moderator)
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 11:22 am
of course we noticed that Darrell IssA is not all over this. He should’ve been when the Keystone pipeline oil investment debacle came along. But no, he was involved in something else. I can’t remember what it was.
John Boehner’s drinking is legendary. And his golfing is as well. He does nothing for his state except try to get reelected and now that pushes come to shove he is in a position where he has no idea what to do. He has to make statements that make the tea party happy and he cannot make any agreements or he’ll lose his speakership. What does that say about the Republican Party of today? Not much.
majii
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 6:18 pm
One of my senators, Saxby Chambliss, also has an addiction to golf. He was golfing with Tiger Woods instead of taking care of Senate business, and none of the GOPers here in GA see anything wrong with him playing golf instead of handling the people’s business. This is a prime example of the double standard that many GOPers use when discussing things that democrats and republicans both do. If PBO plays golf once a month, it’s a sign that he’s “lazy,” but if Chambliss and Boehner play several games a week, it’s ignored. The inability of many GOPers to face facts and tell the truth is a major grievance I have against them, and it’s the reason I reject their claim to be such devoted Christians. Devout Christians don’t have double standards for people and are willing to admit what when one is wrong, he/she is just flat out wrong.
Gigi Jacobs
Mar. 11th, 2013 at 3:34 am
The reason the news is so biased is because all the broadcast stations have been bought out by GE, etc. Even though they are just owned by the big corporations, watch what happens if reporters started focusing attention on the real problems-those newscasters would be gone the next morning. I don’t think it should be allowed for a journalistic show to be owned by a corporations of such magnitudes.
Reynardine
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 12:02 pm
Justitutes and presstitutes at the service of legistitutes.
Reynardine
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 12:09 pm
One of the less remembered of Gulliver’s tales is the visit to the flying island of Laputa, where a powerful person could not hear you unless you paid his servant to deploy a special device that opened his ears. My co-author, Joe Sanchez, was shocked that this island had been so brazenly named. I pointed out to him that, in those days, few of the readers would have known any Spanish. Now, however, you don’t need to.
Shiva(Moderator)
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
You wrote Gulliver’s travels? I always wondered that about you
nabsentia23
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 1:24 pm
“Boehner ‘spent almost all of his time on fundraising, not policy.’”
This is what Boehner learned from his mentor, Tom Delay. It was Delay, not Gingrich that corrupted Congress to the point where clout was no longer determined by one’s congressional record, but by how much money you could raise. If you’ve ever wonder why so many GOP idiots are serving on House committees, this is why. And remember when 2 Congressmen missed the wearing-in ceremony when the 112th Congress convened? They were too busy attending fundraisers to be concerned with some silly constitutional oath of office. GOP Congresspeople or Senators no longer value policy or even legislation. They value fundraising over everything else.
And it’s so clear why the false allegations about OFA are being made. Too bad MSM is complicit in this scheme instead of reporting on it. Yet, there’s only so much diversion the GOP can do before Boehner’s troubles get more attention. This is a big deal. A very big deal! But, it’s amazing to me that Boehner is doing the exact same thing that landed Tom Delay in jail.
Maggie Mclaurin
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 3:25 pm
To the pious GOP, who so love to cite the bible when needing a prop. study and learn Matthew 7:3-5
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Darrell West
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 4:10 pm
It maybe time to remove and replace these scumbag.
majii
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 6:22 pm
IMO, it’s past the time to replace them, Darrell, but as long as republicans continue gerrymandering election districts and millions of Americans keep staying at home on election days, it’s going to remain a difficult task to remove the dead weight from Congress.
Kaarli Sylvester Makela
Mar. 11th, 2013 at 12:07 pm
Yes, this is why I often quote the truism that “All Politics is Local”. Every district affected by Gerrymandering should have activists in place, and dozens of volunteers working with the local Democratic HQ’s.
Jane grace
Mar. 8th, 2013 at 10:01 pm
If you look at the vacation time taken away by President Obama he has the least amount of time of any president.
johannah99
Mar. 9th, 2013 at 5:42 am
WOW. Boener’s an even bigger piece of crap than I thought he was. Why isn’t he in jail????
SamuraiCowboy
Mar. 9th, 2013 at 9:36 am
The supposed “left wing media” will not focus on Boehner because their corporate owners are ultra conservative and take orders from the RNC who also owns Fox News.
Gail
Mar. 9th, 2013 at 10:58 am
Finally, I knew it. I have always known that John Boehner is a lush. You can tell by all the crying jags. And I knew he is corrupt. I can’t wait for the good people of Ohio to vote him out of office
Owen Johnson
Mar. 10th, 2013 at 12:29 am
The problem seems to me to be that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and sound byte is king. How many times do we see angry, lying sound bytes of Boehner at his podium compared to Pelosi saying anything? When Boehner opens his mouth it’s guaranteed to be controversial and the media love that. They know he’s lying but do the viewers? It works too much of the time. Put another way, it takes 15 seconds to make a false allegation and hours to try to correct it. Damn Democrats are too honest!
Dr.R. J. Brown
Mar. 10th, 2013 at 8:07 am
The elected federal employees – collectively – don’t have the spine of a garden worm.
The Platzner Post
Mar. 10th, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Boehner, and the GOP are hypocritical sellouts!!! Sharing on The Platzner Post Facebook www.facebook.com/ThePlatz..., and Twitter twitter.com/ThePlatznerPo....