Boehner Angry GOP Did Not Get Free Pass on Day of Navy Yard Shooting

House Speaker John Boehner, busily plotting three more pointless Benghanzi hearings, accusing Obama of partisanship in his response to the Washington Navy Yard shooting, his long orange face whining, “It’s a shame that the president could not manage to rise above partisanship today.”

You would think he was watching his investments in the Keystone XL Pipeline crash.

He was joined by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince “The GOP is a Religion” Priebus, who tweeted yesterday,

Disappointing that POTUS couldn’t rise above partisanship yesterday…hours after #NavyYardShooting. @Morning_Joe: http://t.co/N2XbFE1gJi

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— Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 17, 2013

Serial adulterer Newt “Drop my Pants for my Country” Gingrich, congenitally incapable of being inoffensive, used his bully pulpit on CNN’s Crossfire:

President Reagan, in the tragedy of the (space shuttle) Challenger, postponed the State of the Union address because he realized the country needed to be in mourning. President Obama should have recognized that an event this painful and tragic, in the nation’s capital, required being president rather than partisan, and being concerned about people rather than concerned about attacking.

Then there is Republican strategist and pundit Alex Castellanos who opined that,

When there is a tragic event like this in the nation’s capital and the local baseball team expresses that it would be insensitive to participate in the national pastime, but the president proceeds with a self-congratulatory press conference to celebrate his miniscule economic accomplishments, it tells you the Obama administration has become tone-deaf. Bill Clinton, who ‘felt our pain,’ would never have made this mistake.

And if you watched Preibus’ tweeted video, you know that Morning Joe went after Obama too:

It was props — he brought his props along and he had this political. And it was a harsh, partisan speech from the president of the United States on any day. But you know what? This president is frustrated and there is — he certainly has every right to do that. But on the day while people were hiding, while people were bleeding, while people were dying, while the nation was locked in on this — he’s talking about harsh partisanship and Republicans wanting to hurt people.

Let’s recap: What was Obama’s supposed mistake?

Addressing the economy and Republican obstructionism. You see, if there is a shooting taking place somewhere, Republicans get a free-pass from criticism.

The Republicans, busily plotting more Obamacare repeal votes and Benghanzi hearings forget, if they ever knew, that they have responsibilities as elected officials. That, not to put too fine a point on it, they have a country to run.

President Obama is aware of his responsibilities and having dealt with the Navy Yard Shootings, which were still taking place as he spoke about them, turned to those other responsibilities and dared to goad the Republicans.

I cannot remember a time when one faction of one party promises economic chaos if it can’t get 100% of what it wants. That’s never happened before but that’s what’s happening right now.

He accused the Republicans of irresponsibility. He also, quite truthfully, pointed out to our do-nothing Congress that “what is also important to remember is that Congress has a lot of work to do right now” and that there isn’t a lot of time in which to do it.

Of course, the Republicans already know what they’re doing: plotting against Obama and figuring out ways of throwing our economy into chaos.

White House press secretary Jay Carney also knew what the Republicans were doing, and he said in defense of Obama, that,

Far from being a partisan speech, the president made clear in his speech that many Republicans on Capitol Hill agree with him that we should not go down the road of threatening to shut down the government or defaulting on our obligations in the name of some partisan agenda item.

Yes, we know where the partisanship was truly lurking yesterday.

Instead of telling Republicans to do their jobs, these GOP drones wanted Obama to preach national unity, so they could get on with their business of destroying the country without attention being drawn to their treasonous actions.

Cockroaches do so hate the light to be turned on them.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.