MORE ON BOEHNER….Here’s a few paragraphs about John Boehner from an LA Times story about Republicans and the lobbying community:
As House Republican Conference chairman from 1995 to 1998, Boehner played a key role in the party’s effort to systematically build stronger ties to businesses and lobbyists. It was an effort that included DeLay’s vaunted “K Street Project” to encourage lobbying firms to hire Republicans.
Beginning soon after the GOP took control of Congress in 1995, Boehner held weekly meetings with about a dozen of the most powerful lobbyists in the speaker’s suite in the Capitol.
He was heavily criticized in 1996 for distributing campaign checks from tobacco interests to colleagues on the House floor. It was not against the rules, but was said to be unseemly.
Yep, he’s a real reformer. And the really pathetic part of all this is that, relatively speaking, Boehner is the good guy in the race for Republican Majority leader. The favorite, Roy Blunt, is so close to the lobbying community that they’ll probably erect a statue of him in Farragut Square someday ? one hand on a lobbyist’s shoulder and the other holding a check, no doubt.
The K Street Project isn’t a fall from grace, it’s part of the DNA of the modern Republican Party. It’s a joke to pretend that they can repudiate it without tearing down the entire party itself first.
