House GOP Leader Boehner's Disastrous Dixie Foray: Republicans, Dems, Tea Party Ally To Denounce Alabama Meddling

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A member of the Madison County Republican Executive Committee calls John Boehner "persona non gratia" and recommends he hunker down in a D.C. bunker. Another local GOP official says he's trampling the Alabama leadership. An uncivil welcome appears to be in store for Boehner, the man-with-the-tan from suburban Cincinnati. The Ohio Republican is headed to Huntsville, Ala., to raise money for U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith, viewed by many as a political turncoat who quit the Dems to run for reelection this year as a Republican. Locals are putting together a protest and warning the GOP's House leader to mind his own business and stay out of town. Boehner's decision to headline Griffith's Monday fundraiser has become so controversial in Alabama's 5th Congressional District that it has managed to unite area Republicans, the Tea Party, Democrats, union activists, college students, and the local chapter of Health Care For All -- bipartisanship that crosses all political lines.

The Huntsville Tea Party calls party switcher Griffith an "opportunist who cannot be trusted." It went on to describe Boehner's willingness to raise funds for the former Democrat as "Boehner is displaying the same indifference to local concerns by meddling in the Republican primary. Such behavior deserves no reward."

Republicans sound just as harsh. Hugh McInnish, a member of the county executive committee in Huntsville said: "Mr. Boehner has no business here in North Alabama, and the local Republican Committee has in effect said so. He would be better advised to bunker down within the confines of his Inside-the-Beltway-Fortress and stay there. He is persona non gratia." In neighboring Athens County, the local News Courier newspaper reported that Republican leaders are concerned Boehner is helping raise funds for only one Republican candidate:

“Recruitment of qualified Republican candidates is very difficult and John Boehner has not helped that process,” said Rex Davis, who, along with Don Hudleston, encouraged members of the Limestone County Republican Executive Committee to attend the protest. “Why would anyone want to run for office as a Republican and be trampled by the National Republican Party against the will of the local Republican leadership?” Another protestor said Boehner should not be involved in Alabama politics. “Our message to Rep. John Boehner is stay out of the Fifth District’s business. The Tea Party movement began and is continuing today because the people are being ignored. Government officials have forgotten who they work for and ‘We the People’ are tired of it and determined to take our country back,” said Deborah King, founder of the Athens-Limestone Tea Party Patriots.

OH-08 GOP John Boehner: He Doesn't Know Israel Is A Middle East Democracy

Map Courtesy of FOX News
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (TDB) -- The highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. House apparently doesn't understand that Israel -- the closest ally of the United States in the Middle East -- is a democracy. Either that, or the House GOP leader is so remarkably blind in his support for President Bush that he would stretch the truth and go out of his way to snub a friendly nation. Matt Hurley at the conservative Ohio blog Weapons of Mass Discussion has John Boehner's statement on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War, which he reprints. Hurley doesn't note Boehner's slip into ignorance that praises the war as paving the way "for the first democracy in a part of the world that needs it most."

Ooops. Israel has been around since 1948, electing governments and prime ministers and parliamentarians who serve in the Knesset. It is a multi-party state. There is a segment of the world that does not consider Israel the first democracy in the Middle East, but they tend to be islamists, militants, or supporters of the Palestinian movement that someday hopes to drive the Jews in Israel into the sea. Boehner surely must not have meant to side with the islamists by slighting Israel's nearly 60 years as a democracy. Or did he distort the truth hoping to confuse Americans, who may not know the region's geography? Israel shares borders with Jordan, which is becoming a constitutional monarchy; Lebanon, which is struggling to regain some footing as a democracy; Egypt, which is a republic but has an authoritarian government, and Syria, which is considered a Baathist dictatorship. Turkey is in the region, too, and is considered a Middle Eastern a democracy. Tukey border Iraq, Boehner's "first democracy." And some of the Persian Gulf states are moving toward democracy.

The complete text of Boehner's statement on the war's 5th anniversary is here. His error about Israel appears in the first paragraph:

"In the five years that have passed since the start of this conflict, our men and women in uniform have heroically ousted a terrorist dictator, freed a nation, and planted the seeds for political reconciliation that will pave the way for the first democracy in a part of the world that needs it most. Today, after countless obstacles to our success over the past five years, Iraq's fledgling democracy is at long last taking important steps toward the ultimate goal of self-rule."

Ohio's John Boehner: A Strange Blog Appears Under His Name

CINCINNATI, Ohio (TDB) -- Somebody seems to have created a blog this month that trades off Republican John Boehner's name as a vehicle to sell advertising on the Internet. At most, the House Minority Leader who represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District appears to be nothing more than a high-profile prop whose sole purpose is to attract hits to the site. It works by coupling Boehner's name to a mere snippet taken from a legitimate news article. Sometimes the paired combination is so pared down it makes little sense.

This entry appeared earlier in the month and is fairly typical:

"Tuesday, October 16, 2007 6:21 AM GMT
Nine-term lawmaker says this is his last
Marjorie told me about this - "House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, said Hobson will be missed, noting that he and Hobson both came to Congress in 1991. ..."
Read More
Posted by Barbara Osborne from Mesquite, TX
0 Comments"

That's everything except the ads on the page. Of course, Boehner holds a high position and snags the search engines, so the blog gets traffic. Is this a form of reverse spam? Is there even a name for the practice?

House GOP Leader John Boehner: When Was He Really In The Navy?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The official entry for U.S. Rep. John Boehner in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress says he served in the United States Navy in 1968. But something doesn't seem to add up. Either the congressional bio is not quite correct, or the House Minority leader is not quite correct. He seems to recall serving in the Navy's Seabees in 1969.

This is what The Daily Bellwether knows so far:

Boehner, who represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District, enlisted in the Navy after high school and has said he was discharged within weeks because of a bad back -- either after six or eight weeks. It has always been assumed he served briefly in 1968, as the bio states. To his credit, he volunteered for military duty during the Vietnam War. Boehner was not in the crowd that tried to dodge the draft or avoid serving his country.

Last year, the Minority Leader visited the Mississippi Gulf Coast with a congressional delegation to view devastation and cleanup efforts after Hurricane Katrina. Boehner was met by the local newspaper and recalled in some detail how he was with hundreds of Seabees and "had seen this picture before.'' He described working with the Seabees assigned to clean up rubble from Hurricane Camille. A link to the story that was published on March 4, 2006 is found on this Web site for people who live in Pass Christian, a small village on the Gulf Coast. (You have to scroll down the page to a headline called Tour de Force.)

But Hurricane Camille did not strike the United States in 1968. Camille made landfall on Aug. 17, 1969. It was one of the worst storms in U.S. history and packed winds reaching nearly 200 mph. If Boehner's official bio is correct, he wasn't supposed to be in the Navy when Camille slammed into the United States.

The Daily Bellwether has the pertinent paragraphs from the Sun Herald in Mississippi that report Boehner's recollections of his duties with the Seabees after Hurricane Camille:

"Posted on Sat, Mar. 04, 2006
Tour de force
Members of Congress see Coast damage firsthand
By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com
Congressman John Boehner has been here before. Actually, Boehner (R-Ohio), the recent successor to Tom DeLay as House Majority leader, has seen all this before, too - except it happened more than 36 years ago.
Boehner was a Seabee who arrived for a brief tour at the Gulfport Naval Construction Battalion Center in the early summer of 1969 and was there when Hurricane Camille left the Gulf Coast in ruins.
Decades later, Boehner found himself wandering through what must have seemed like the same piles of debris Friday, except this time he was here helping South Mississippi via the legislative branch of government.
"I've seen this picture before, but this is a whole lot worse," said Boehner, touring with 33 other Congress members as part of a visit arranged by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
Boehner said he was with the hundreds of Seabees after Camille who cleared roads, built schools and removed debris. He was re-deployed a few months after Camille, but the devastation seemed incredible to him then, and more incredible that it happened again.
Boehner said during a vacation several years ago, as he and his family passed through Gulfport, he told his young children about the giant ship that had landed across U.S. 90 during Camille. His kids did not believe him, until Katrina came and images of the casino barges and other ships strewn on the road made them believers.
Friday's tour of this part of the Coast, from Bay St. Louis to Keesler Air Force Base, made believers out of many in the delegation, too, some who wield real power to help."

Boehner's House Web site doesn't mention anything about his time in the Navy. No help there.

Something doesn't add up. At this point, there are questions without answers. Maybe Boehner enlisted in 1968 but didn't get to active duty until 1969. Yet it hardly seems possible he could have completed Navy Boot Camp and reached a Seabee battalion in just two months of active duty. Or maybe he did.

Perhaps some Navy veterans can offer insight.

Ohio's John Boehner: DCCC Says GOP House Leader Is Quiet Now Over Republican Boodling Report

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- House Democrats have accused Rep. John Boehner -- the GOP Minority Leader from Butler County -- of a double standard when it comes to Republican members of Congress who are under a corruption cloud. Boehner wanted Louisiana Democrat U.S. Rep. William Jefferson booted off a committee, then expelled when he was targeted by the FBI. But Boehner hasn't said a word about Alaska's Don Young, a member of his party who may have taken gifts and bribes for political favors.

Jennifer Crider, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the shot at the Ohioan's purported hypocrisy:

"Apparently, Minority Leader John Boehner didn't mean it when he said that the 'clear likelihood of of serious transgressions will lead to suspension from important committees.' Don Young is being investigated for bribery -- one of the most 'serious transgressions' a Member of Congress faces -- but he still sits on the Committees overseeing the issues important to the company that allegedly bribed him. Clearly, Republicans haven't leared their lesson about holding their Members accountable for their wrong doing."

The DCCC's blast is HERE and followed news reports last week about Young's problems with an on-going corruptions investigation that has brushed up against several political figures in Alaska.

When Jefferson was in the headlines, Boehner was outspoken about ethics and cleaning the crooks out of Congress. Cynics and skeptics might suspect he only wants to clean out Democrats. Others say there is another double standard at work -- Jefferson is a black man, and the Republicans targeted him especially because of race.