Page 25 of 496

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 7:32 pm
by Kowani

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 7:59 pm
by San Lumen
https://starherald.com/news/state-and-r ... 1374b.html

Former Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman is seriously considering running for a third term next year.. He served as Governor from 2005 to 2015. Under state law Governors can only serve two consecutive terms but there is no limit on the total number of terms.

His term as Governor is the longest in state history. he became governor due to his predecessor's resignation to become Secretary of Agriculture

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:02 pm
by Shrillland

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:12 pm
by San Lumen


Zeldin could have a chance if Cuomo is the nominee. Giuliani would not.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:46 pm
by Kowani

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:55 pm
by Washington Resistance Army
Shrillland wrote:I saw the reforms, correct me if I'm wrong but most of them are fairly modest. Requiring serial numbers for ghost gun components doesn't really break the 2nd Amendment as I see it, the provision on arm braces could have some issues down the road, the model legislation for red flag laws is the most troubling of all.


The underlined is actually a serious oof for ATF and is quickly going to become unenforceable. It's been an open secret in the industry for years that the ATF's definition of a "firearm" does not match that of the legislation Congress passed and the ATF knows it would fail in court if it tries to argue that a random piece of a gun is a complete firearm so it's dropped every case it's pursued about possession of these things. Adding things like receivers or frames that explicitly do not even function is just gonna lead to more wasted money and dropped cases because ATF doesn't want to create precedent bad for themselves in court.

edit: this is exactly what's been happening with bumpstocks in fact, they've let everyone who has them illegally simply go because they know it'll fail in court.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:16 pm
by North Washington Republic


Tucker Carlson isn’t a “cable news host”, he is a paid pundit.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:17 pm
by Kowani

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:17 pm
by Cannot think of a name
North Washington Republic wrote:


Tucker Carlson isn’t a “cable news host”, he is a paid pundit.

Well, until the change the name of the channel to Fox Punditry...

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:25 pm
by Kowani

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:26 pm
by North Washington Republic


Rep. Kinzinger is in the extreme minority in today’s GOP. So, while good for him for speaking out, it’s not likely going to really have any effect in this.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:28 pm
by Shrillland
North Washington Republic wrote:


Rep. Kinzinger is in the extreme minority in today’s GOP. So, while good for him for speaking out, it’s not likely going to really have any effect in this.


No, Kinzinger will be out next year anyway, nearly the entire party in Rockford-River Valleys has condemned him.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:46 pm
by Talvezout
Shrillland wrote:
North Washington Republic wrote:
Rep. Kinzinger is in the extreme minority in today’s GOP. So, while good for him for speaking out, it’s not likely going to really have any effect in this.


No, Kinzinger will be out next year anyway, nearly the entire party in Rockford-River Valleys has condemned him.


He's either gonna get primaried out, redistricted out, or (very small chance) survive somehow

PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:48 pm
by Shrillland
Talvezout wrote:
Shrillland wrote:
No, Kinzinger will be out next year anyway, nearly the entire party in Rockford-River Valleys has condemned him.


He's either gonna get primaried out, redistricted out, or (very small chance) survive somehow


He won't get redistricted out. At this point, the 13th is the most likely to be absorbed by its neighbours.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 5:40 am
by Zurkerx


It's Tucker Carlson, isn't it? Clicks link.

Shit, I was right: I called it right unfortunately. And my family watches him too...

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 5:45 am
by Zurkerx
“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either”: In new book, John Boehner says today’s GOP is unrecognizable to traditional conservatives and dishes on his time in politics.

John Boehner in a new memoir derides today’s Republican Party as unrecognizable to traditional conservatives like himself, held hostage by both former president Donald Trump and by a conservative media echo chamber that is based on creating “chaos” for its own financial needs.

The former House speaker said that he was happy to be away from Washington on Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump was sworn in as president and completed his hostile takeover of the party to which the Ohio Republican had dedicated decades of his life.

“That was fine by me because I’m not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created,” Boehner writes in “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” set to be released Tuesday.

In the epilogue, Boehner flatly states that he is glad to be out of elective politics given the party’s sharp distancing from its onetime heroes.

“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either,” he writes in the book, a full copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

The memoir, coming 5 1/2 years after he left Congress, serves as a rollicking, foul-mouthed recounting of Boehner’s 25 years on Capitol Hill, as well as his thoughts on the past, present and future of the GOP. Although he never held office during the Trump years, Boehner sets the stage for how the Republican Party ended up with the former real estate developer turned reality TV star as its standard-bearer.

Originally finished well before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as Congress certified President Biden’s victory, Boehner rewrote portions of the book to forcefully blame Trump for what he called “a low point for our country” that left him on the verge of tears.

“Trump incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the b------- he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November. He claimed voter fraud without any evidence,” Boehner writes.

He draws a direct line from anti-establishment lawmakers he dealt with last decade to Republicans in Congress who supported Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election: “The legislative terrorism that I’d witnessed as speaker had now encouraged actual terrorism.”

Boehner has delivered a classic Washington “tell-all,” albeit one with his typical jocular style. His image on the book cover — smiling in a suit, holding a glass half-full of red wine and a lit Camel cigarette in an ashtray — conveys his old-school approach to politics.

There’s some bit of praise for almost everyone, mixed in with digs about their politics. Everyone except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Boehner has nothing but harsh words over Cruz’s actions dating back to a 2013 federal government shutdown where the Texan played a starring role.

Congressional politics has grown only more coarse since Boehner left in October 2015 after serving four years as speaker, ending his battle to maintain power as a couple dozen conservatives rebelled against his leadership.

Now fully ensconced in the influence industry — Boehner serves on several corporate boards and is a senior adviser at the law firm Squire Patton Boggs — he goes out of his way to defend several of the most reviled institutions in Washington: bureaucrats Trump called “the deep state; lobbyists that Trump dubbed “the swamp”; and a press corps that Trump labeled the “enemy of the people.”

Although he addresses serious topics of the present and the past, Boehner makes clear his goal was not to write a “15-point plan to save the world” but an entertaining account of his time in public life.

“Get comfortable. Pour yourself a glass of something nice. You’re going to enjoy this,” Boehner writes, concluding the introduction.

What follows are some of the most notable parts of his memoir:

Boehner meets Trump

Boehner’s first impression of Trump, then a reality TV star, provided an early glimpse of Trump’s quick temper.

Boehner met the future president during a golf outing at Trump National in Westchester, N.Y., when he joined Boehner and two insurance executives for a round. He doesn’t say the date, but notes he was House minority leader then, so this encounter would have been between 2007 and 2011.

Before they set off, Trump asked a young Boehner staffer the names of the executives.

It was only after 18 holes that the two men summoned the courage to tell Boehner and Trump that they’d been calling them the wrong names all day. Boehner laughed, but Trump turned angry. “This sort of glower fell across his face,” Boehner writes. Then Trump got in the staffer’s face and berated him.

“What are you, some kind of idiot?” Trump shouted. “You want to know how to remember somebody’s name? You f-----g LISTEN!”

There “was something dark about” Trump’s reaction, Boehner observed.

“I’d never seen anybody treat a staffer like that — not in politics, not ever,” Boehner writes. “This was more than New York bluster. This was real anger, over something very, very small. We had no idea then what that anger would do to our country.”


Shrillland wrote:
North Washington Republic wrote:
Rep. Kinzinger is in the extreme minority in today’s GOP. So, while good for him for speaking out, it’s not likely going to really have any effect in this.


No, Kinzinger will be out next year anyway, nearly the entire party in Rockford-River Valleys has condemned him.


That's unfortunately the case: one of the few sensible Republicans will likely be gone. Even the likes of John Boehner is now sensible and is glad to be out of politics.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 6:53 am
by Exalted Inquellian State
Remember that page which threatened to say people who unclicked the box would be revealed as traitors? it was made by an independent Trump aloigned group, not Trump himself or the Trump team.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 6:55 am
by San Lumen
Zurkerx wrote:“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either”: In new book, John Boehner says today’s GOP is unrecognizable to traditional conservatives and dishes on his time in politics.

John Boehner in a new memoir derides today’s Republican Party as unrecognizable to traditional conservatives like himself, held hostage by both former president Donald Trump and by a conservative media echo chamber that is based on creating “chaos” for its own financial needs.

The former House speaker said that he was happy to be away from Washington on Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump was sworn in as president and completed his hostile takeover of the party to which the Ohio Republican had dedicated decades of his life.

“That was fine by me because I’m not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created,” Boehner writes in “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” set to be released Tuesday.

In the epilogue, Boehner flatly states that he is glad to be out of elective politics given the party’s sharp distancing from its onetime heroes.

“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either,” he writes in the book, a full copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

The memoir, coming 5 1/2 years after he left Congress, serves as a rollicking, foul-mouthed recounting of Boehner’s 25 years on Capitol Hill, as well as his thoughts on the past, present and future of the GOP. Although he never held office during the Trump years, Boehner sets the stage for how the Republican Party ended up with the former real estate developer turned reality TV star as its standard-bearer.

Originally finished well before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as Congress certified President Biden’s victory, Boehner rewrote portions of the book to forcefully blame Trump for what he called “a low point for our country” that left him on the verge of tears.

“Trump incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the b------- he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November. He claimed voter fraud without any evidence,” Boehner writes.

He draws a direct line from anti-establishment lawmakers he dealt with last decade to Republicans in Congress who supported Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election: “The legislative terrorism that I’d witnessed as speaker had now encouraged actual terrorism.”

Boehner has delivered a classic Washington “tell-all,” albeit one with his typical jocular style. His image on the book cover — smiling in a suit, holding a glass half-full of red wine and a lit Camel cigarette in an ashtray — conveys his old-school approach to politics.

There’s some bit of praise for almost everyone, mixed in with digs about their politics. Everyone except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Boehner has nothing but harsh words over Cruz’s actions dating back to a 2013 federal government shutdown where the Texan played a starring role.

Congressional politics has grown only more coarse since Boehner left in October 2015 after serving four years as speaker, ending his battle to maintain power as a couple dozen conservatives rebelled against his leadership.

Now fully ensconced in the influence industry — Boehner serves on several corporate boards and is a senior adviser at the law firm Squire Patton Boggs — he goes out of his way to defend several of the most reviled institutions in Washington: bureaucrats Trump called “the deep state; lobbyists that Trump dubbed “the swamp”; and a press corps that Trump labeled the “enemy of the people.”

Although he addresses serious topics of the present and the past, Boehner makes clear his goal was not to write a “15-point plan to save the world” but an entertaining account of his time in public life.

“Get comfortable. Pour yourself a glass of something nice. You’re going to enjoy this,” Boehner writes, concluding the introduction.

What follows are some of the most notable parts of his memoir:

Boehner meets Trump

Boehner’s first impression of Trump, then a reality TV star, provided an early glimpse of Trump’s quick temper.

Boehner met the future president during a golf outing at Trump National in Westchester, N.Y., when he joined Boehner and two insurance executives for a round. He doesn’t say the date, but notes he was House minority leader then, so this encounter would have been between 2007 and 2011.

Before they set off, Trump asked a young Boehner staffer the names of the executives.

It was only after 18 holes that the two men summoned the courage to tell Boehner and Trump that they’d been calling them the wrong names all day. Boehner laughed, but Trump turned angry. “This sort of glower fell across his face,” Boehner writes. Then Trump got in the staffer’s face and berated him.

“What are you, some kind of idiot?” Trump shouted. “You want to know how to remember somebody’s name? You f-----g LISTEN!”

There “was something dark about” Trump’s reaction, Boehner observed.

“I’d never seen anybody treat a staffer like that — not in politics, not ever,” Boehner writes. “This was more than New York bluster. This was real anger, over something very, very small. We had no idea then what that anger would do to our country.”


Shrillland wrote:
No, Kinzinger will be out next year anyway, nearly the entire party in Rockford-River Valleys has condemned him.


That's unfortunately the case: one of the few sensible Republicans will likely be gone. Even the likes of John Boehner is now sensible and is glad to be out of politics.

I can believe im saying this but if Boehner could somehow return to the House and become minority leader or possibly majority leader I would welcome it. He did not believe in total obstruction and had morals. If he were in the House he would have absolutely condemned Trump's coup and likely voted to impeach.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:00 am
by Senkaku
San Lumen wrote:
Zurkerx wrote:“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either”: In new book, John Boehner says today’s GOP is unrecognizable to traditional conservatives and dishes on his time in politics.

John Boehner in a new memoir derides today’s Republican Party as unrecognizable to traditional conservatives like himself, held hostage by both former president Donald Trump and by a conservative media echo chamber that is based on creating “chaos” for its own financial needs.

The former House speaker said that he was happy to be away from Washington on Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump was sworn in as president and completed his hostile takeover of the party to which the Ohio Republican had dedicated decades of his life.

“That was fine by me because I’m not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created,” Boehner writes in “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” set to be released Tuesday.

In the epilogue, Boehner flatly states that he is glad to be out of elective politics given the party’s sharp distancing from its onetime heroes.

“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either,” he writes in the book, a full copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

The memoir, coming 5 1/2 years after he left Congress, serves as a rollicking, foul-mouthed recounting of Boehner’s 25 years on Capitol Hill, as well as his thoughts on the past, present and future of the GOP. Although he never held office during the Trump years, Boehner sets the stage for how the Republican Party ended up with the former real estate developer turned reality TV star as its standard-bearer.

Originally finished well before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as Congress certified President Biden’s victory, Boehner rewrote portions of the book to forcefully blame Trump for what he called “a low point for our country” that left him on the verge of tears.

“Trump incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the b------- he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November. He claimed voter fraud without any evidence,” Boehner writes.

He draws a direct line from anti-establishment lawmakers he dealt with last decade to Republicans in Congress who supported Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election: “The legislative terrorism that I’d witnessed as speaker had now encouraged actual terrorism.”

Boehner has delivered a classic Washington “tell-all,” albeit one with his typical jocular style. His image on the book cover — smiling in a suit, holding a glass half-full of red wine and a lit Camel cigarette in an ashtray — conveys his old-school approach to politics.

There’s some bit of praise for almost everyone, mixed in with digs about their politics. Everyone except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Boehner has nothing but harsh words over Cruz’s actions dating back to a 2013 federal government shutdown where the Texan played a starring role.

Congressional politics has grown only more coarse since Boehner left in October 2015 after serving four years as speaker, ending his battle to maintain power as a couple dozen conservatives rebelled against his leadership.

Now fully ensconced in the influence industry — Boehner serves on several corporate boards and is a senior adviser at the law firm Squire Patton Boggs — he goes out of his way to defend several of the most reviled institutions in Washington: bureaucrats Trump called “the deep state; lobbyists that Trump dubbed “the swamp”; and a press corps that Trump labeled the “enemy of the people.”

Although he addresses serious topics of the present and the past, Boehner makes clear his goal was not to write a “15-point plan to save the world” but an entertaining account of his time in public life.

“Get comfortable. Pour yourself a glass of something nice. You’re going to enjoy this,” Boehner writes, concluding the introduction.

What follows are some of the most notable parts of his memoir:

Boehner meets Trump

Boehner’s first impression of Trump, then a reality TV star, provided an early glimpse of Trump’s quick temper.

Boehner met the future president during a golf outing at Trump National in Westchester, N.Y., when he joined Boehner and two insurance executives for a round. He doesn’t say the date, but notes he was House minority leader then, so this encounter would have been between 2007 and 2011.

Before they set off, Trump asked a young Boehner staffer the names of the executives.

It was only after 18 holes that the two men summoned the courage to tell Boehner and Trump that they’d been calling them the wrong names all day. Boehner laughed, but Trump turned angry. “This sort of glower fell across his face,” Boehner writes. Then Trump got in the staffer’s face and berated him.

“What are you, some kind of idiot?” Trump shouted. “You want to know how to remember somebody’s name? You f-----g LISTEN!”

There “was something dark about” Trump’s reaction, Boehner observed.

“I’d never seen anybody treat a staffer like that — not in politics, not ever,” Boehner writes. “This was more than New York bluster. This was real anger, over something very, very small. We had no idea then what that anger would do to our country.”




That's unfortunately the case: one of the few sensible Republicans will likely be gone. Even the likes of John Boehner is now sensible and is glad to be out of politics.

I can believe im saying this but if Boehner could somehow return to the House and become minority leader or possibly majority leader I would welcome it. He did not believe in total obstruction and had morals. If he were in the House he would have absolutely condemned Trump's coup and likely voted to impeach.

I am once against asking liberal center-left Democrat types to develop long-term memories

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:05 am
by The Reformed American Republic
San Lumen wrote:
Zurkerx wrote:“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either”: In new book, John Boehner says today’s GOP is unrecognizable to traditional conservatives and dishes on his time in politics.

John Boehner in a new memoir derides today’s Republican Party as unrecognizable to traditional conservatives like himself, held hostage by both former president Donald Trump and by a conservative media echo chamber that is based on creating “chaos” for its own financial needs.

The former House speaker said that he was happy to be away from Washington on Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump was sworn in as president and completed his hostile takeover of the party to which the Ohio Republican had dedicated decades of his life.

“That was fine by me because I’m not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created,” Boehner writes in “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” set to be released Tuesday.

In the epilogue, Boehner flatly states that he is glad to be out of elective politics given the party’s sharp distancing from its onetime heroes.

“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either,” he writes in the book, a full copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

The memoir, coming 5 1/2 years after he left Congress, serves as a rollicking, foul-mouthed recounting of Boehner’s 25 years on Capitol Hill, as well as his thoughts on the past, present and future of the GOP. Although he never held office during the Trump years, Boehner sets the stage for how the Republican Party ended up with the former real estate developer turned reality TV star as its standard-bearer.

Originally finished well before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as Congress certified President Biden’s victory, Boehner rewrote portions of the book to forcefully blame Trump for what he called “a low point for our country” that left him on the verge of tears.

“Trump incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the b------- he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November. He claimed voter fraud without any evidence,” Boehner writes.

He draws a direct line from anti-establishment lawmakers he dealt with last decade to Republicans in Congress who supported Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election: “The legislative terrorism that I’d witnessed as speaker had now encouraged actual terrorism.”

Boehner has delivered a classic Washington “tell-all,” albeit one with his typical jocular style. His image on the book cover — smiling in a suit, holding a glass half-full of red wine and a lit Camel cigarette in an ashtray — conveys his old-school approach to politics.

There’s some bit of praise for almost everyone, mixed in with digs about their politics. Everyone except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Boehner has nothing but harsh words over Cruz’s actions dating back to a 2013 federal government shutdown where the Texan played a starring role.

Congressional politics has grown only more coarse since Boehner left in October 2015 after serving four years as speaker, ending his battle to maintain power as a couple dozen conservatives rebelled against his leadership.

Now fully ensconced in the influence industry — Boehner serves on several corporate boards and is a senior adviser at the law firm Squire Patton Boggs — he goes out of his way to defend several of the most reviled institutions in Washington: bureaucrats Trump called “the deep state; lobbyists that Trump dubbed “the swamp”; and a press corps that Trump labeled the “enemy of the people.”

Although he addresses serious topics of the present and the past, Boehner makes clear his goal was not to write a “15-point plan to save the world” but an entertaining account of his time in public life.

“Get comfortable. Pour yourself a glass of something nice. You’re going to enjoy this,” Boehner writes, concluding the introduction.

What follows are some of the most notable parts of his memoir:

Boehner meets Trump

Boehner’s first impression of Trump, then a reality TV star, provided an early glimpse of Trump’s quick temper.

Boehner met the future president during a golf outing at Trump National in Westchester, N.Y., when he joined Boehner and two insurance executives for a round. He doesn’t say the date, but notes he was House minority leader then, so this encounter would have been between 2007 and 2011.

Before they set off, Trump asked a young Boehner staffer the names of the executives.

It was only after 18 holes that the two men summoned the courage to tell Boehner and Trump that they’d been calling them the wrong names all day. Boehner laughed, but Trump turned angry. “This sort of glower fell across his face,” Boehner writes. Then Trump got in the staffer’s face and berated him.

“What are you, some kind of idiot?” Trump shouted. “You want to know how to remember somebody’s name? You f-----g LISTEN!”

There “was something dark about” Trump’s reaction, Boehner observed.

“I’d never seen anybody treat a staffer like that — not in politics, not ever,” Boehner writes. “This was more than New York bluster. This was real anger, over something very, very small. We had no idea then what that anger would do to our country.”




That's unfortunately the case: one of the few sensible Republicans will likely be gone. Even the likes of John Boehner is now sensible and is glad to be out of politics.

I can believe im saying this but if Boehner could somehow return to the House and become minority leader or possibly majority leader I would welcome it. He did not believe in total obstruction and had morals. If he were in the House he would have absolutely condemned Trump's coup and likely voted to impeach.

The previous establishment isn't full of virtue. He is just like Trump just without being an asshole on twitter.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:33 am
by Ifreann

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:42 am
by Borderlands of Rojava
Zurkerx wrote:“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either”: In new book, John Boehner says today’s GOP is unrecognizable to traditional conservatives and dishes on his time in politics.

John Boehner in a new memoir derides today’s Republican Party as unrecognizable to traditional conservatives like himself, held hostage by both former president Donald Trump and by a conservative media echo chamber that is based on creating “chaos” for its own financial needs.

The former House speaker said that he was happy to be away from Washington on Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump was sworn in as president and completed his hostile takeover of the party to which the Ohio Republican had dedicated decades of his life.

“That was fine by me because I’m not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created,” Boehner writes in “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” set to be released Tuesday.

In the epilogue, Boehner flatly states that he is glad to be out of elective politics given the party’s sharp distancing from its onetime heroes.

“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either,” he writes in the book, a full copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

The memoir, coming 5 1/2 years after he left Congress, serves as a rollicking, foul-mouthed recounting of Boehner’s 25 years on Capitol Hill, as well as his thoughts on the past, present and future of the GOP. Although he never held office during the Trump years, Boehner sets the stage for how the Republican Party ended up with the former real estate developer turned reality TV star as its standard-bearer.

Originally finished well before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as Congress certified President Biden’s victory, Boehner rewrote portions of the book to forcefully blame Trump for what he called “a low point for our country” that left him on the verge of tears.

“Trump incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the b------- he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November. He claimed voter fraud without any evidence,” Boehner writes.

He draws a direct line from anti-establishment lawmakers he dealt with last decade to Republicans in Congress who supported Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election: “The legislative terrorism that I’d witnessed as speaker had now encouraged actual terrorism.”

Boehner has delivered a classic Washington “tell-all,” albeit one with his typical jocular style. His image on the book cover — smiling in a suit, holding a glass half-full of red wine and a lit Camel cigarette in an ashtray — conveys his old-school approach to politics.

There’s some bit of praise for almost everyone, mixed in with digs about their politics. Everyone except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Boehner has nothing but harsh words over Cruz’s actions dating back to a 2013 federal government shutdown where the Texan played a starring role.

Congressional politics has grown only more coarse since Boehner left in October 2015 after serving four years as speaker, ending his battle to maintain power as a couple dozen conservatives rebelled against his leadership.

Now fully ensconced in the influence industry — Boehner serves on several corporate boards and is a senior adviser at the law firm Squire Patton Boggs — he goes out of his way to defend several of the most reviled institutions in Washington: bureaucrats Trump called “the deep state; lobbyists that Trump dubbed “the swamp”; and a press corps that Trump labeled the “enemy of the people.”

Although he addresses serious topics of the present and the past, Boehner makes clear his goal was not to write a “15-point plan to save the world” but an entertaining account of his time in public life.

“Get comfortable. Pour yourself a glass of something nice. You’re going to enjoy this,” Boehner writes, concluding the introduction.

What follows are some of the most notable parts of his memoir:

Boehner meets Trump

Boehner’s first impression of Trump, then a reality TV star, provided an early glimpse of Trump’s quick temper.

Boehner met the future president during a golf outing at Trump National in Westchester, N.Y., when he joined Boehner and two insurance executives for a round. He doesn’t say the date, but notes he was House minority leader then, so this encounter would have been between 2007 and 2011.

Before they set off, Trump asked a young Boehner staffer the names of the executives.

It was only after 18 holes that the two men summoned the courage to tell Boehner and Trump that they’d been calling them the wrong names all day. Boehner laughed, but Trump turned angry. “This sort of glower fell across his face,” Boehner writes. Then Trump got in the staffer’s face and berated him.

“What are you, some kind of idiot?” Trump shouted. “You want to know how to remember somebody’s name? You f-----g LISTEN!”

There “was something dark about” Trump’s reaction, Boehner observed.

“I’d never seen anybody treat a staffer like that — not in politics, not ever,” Boehner writes. “This was more than New York bluster. This was real anger, over something very, very small. We had no idea then what that anger would do to our country.”


Shrillland wrote:
No, Kinzinger will be out next year anyway, nearly the entire party in Rockford-River Valleys has condemned him.


That's unfortunately the case: one of the few sensible Republicans will likely be gone. Even the likes of John Boehner is now sensible and is glad to be out of politics.


Yeah despite all the constant love Reagan gets in the GOP, if he ran today with the positions he had, he would be called a globalist and a R.I.N.O. The modern GOP is not even like how it was 10 years ago.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:44 am
by Borderlands of Rojava
The Reformed American Republic wrote:
San Lumen wrote:I can believe im saying this but if Boehner could somehow return to the House and become minority leader or possibly majority leader I would welcome it. He did not believe in total obstruction and had morals. If he were in the House he would have absolutely condemned Trump's coup and likely voted to impeach.

The previous establishment isn't full of virtue. He is just like Trump just without being an asshole on twitter.


People dislike Trump because he's so real about how much of a horrible human being he is. It seems like alot of people like fakeness so they miss the politicians of old who were also crooks and murderers but pretended they weren't.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:47 am
by Picairn
San Lumen wrote:I can believe im saying this but if Boehner could somehow return to the House and become minority leader or possibly majority leader I would welcome it. He did not believe in total obstruction and had morals. If he were in the House he would have absolutely condemned Trump's coup and likely voted to impeach.

Nah Republicans in Congress have been shit since Gingrich. The Bush era was awful and obstruction under the Obama era is also terrible.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:50 am
by San Lumen
Picairn wrote:
San Lumen wrote:I can believe im saying this but if Boehner could somehow return to the House and become minority leader or possibly majority leader I would welcome it. He did not believe in total obstruction and had morals. If he were in the House he would have absolutely condemned Trump's coup and likely voted to impeach.

Nah Republicans in Congress have been shit since Gingrich. The Bush era was awful and obstruction under the Obama era is also terrible.

The decline of the GOP started under Obama.