I just watched some of the 60 Minutes piece on John Boehner and from I gather, he’s a regular Joe who used to be a moderate before he made a fortune in plastics and realized the importance of attending to the needs of our Galtian overlords. Also too, he enjoys a good cry now and then.
I saw some Slate/TNR-type piece that I won’t link to about how Boehner’s sensitive guy shtick was just the ticket for House Republican in this political climate. I shudder to think what kind of contrarian cleverness the piece contained, but I do think Republicans are lucky to have a Quiet Storm type speaker who keeps the crazy somewhat on the DL and turns on the waterworks when things get tough.
But we should all remember: Vladimir Putin never cries.
Hunter Gathers
There’s nothing worse than a middle-aged man who cries at the drop of a hat. Wanker.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
Pretty sure I worked at more crummy jobs than he did. So, meh.
But I don’t find Boehner all that scary, from the liberal perch where I sit. I think he can be worked with, probably more than we could with Gingrich.
SST
This article made me really glad I don’t live in Russia. Even if black people leave the Democratic Party in 2012 and we get President Palin, at least I won’t get murdered in a lawless, rural town. So I got that goin’ for me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/world/europe/12russia.html?ref=world
EIGRP
Didn’t he say crying makes terrorists stronger?
urbanmeemaw
Sheesh! I live in an area that has spawned the Bengals and Boehner. And Schmidt. I’ll have to put a paper bag on my head when I come here, I guess. I’ll just slink away now….
jurassicpork
The moment you’ve all been waiting for is here. The 3rd annual Assclowns of the Year is up, with 50, count ’em, 50 of 2010’s biggest assclowns. So pop some popcorn, take a pull off the eggnog and curl up to your monitors because this one will split the skies.
On the spit this year:
George W. Bush (45)
Glenn Beck (26)
Lady Gaga (50)
BP (4)
The Cat Food Commission (17)
The Pope (8) and much, much, MUCH more!
P. S. Boner made the #11 spot.
Martin
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective: Boehner’s problem is that he can get his caucus to say no, but not to say yes. The House is going to be a disaster for the next 2 years.
BGinCHI
If Putin did cry his tears would leap out and kick Chuck Norris’s ass.
Tears of Fury!
Hawes
It’s true. Vladimir Putin is Russian for Chuck Norris.
KG
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective: Reading some of the conservative blogs, I’d say, Boehner isn’t going to be much of a leader. There’s already a revolt over the tax deal. I have a feeling if he actually tries to be a grown up and govern by working with Obama and the Democratic leadership in the Senate, he’s going to get run out on a rail.
Ross Hershberger
Crocodile tears. Wait until January when you see the teeth.
BGinCHI
@Ross Hershberger: It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a commercial for crocodile tears during Beck’s show.
FlipYrWhig
Boehner’s going to have a hard time living up to the legacy of his illustrious predecessor Dennis Hastert, who, you’ll remember, did… that… thing… you know, that time where he said that that person was… um… no, wait, when he spoke out about… wait, who was that again?
Jewish Steel
Will someone unmoderate my last comment c.12?
Contains a harmless linkie.
JPL
salacious crumb
Hell No You Can’t!!!
oh man just the sight of John Boehner crying because millionaires would have to pay a bit more in taxes so that children could get affordable health care..wow..never thought I’d see that day…
jeffreyw
Harmless linkie
Bubblegum Tate
@Hunter Gathers:
The whole “manly macho man who is perpetually on the verge of crying like a child with a skinned knee” thing is a very common trope in contemporary conservative circles, particularly in conservative evangelical circles. I’m not entirely sure what it’s supposed to signify, but it seems like a necessary component in one’s public image these days, and it was that way well before Glenn Beck started turning crocodile tears into millions of dollars.
Jewish Steel
@jeffreyw:
Ha! Not a red tail, rt? What is that?
General Stuck
@FlipYrWhig:
I think they tossed Hastert into a small office with a truckload of twinkies, and pretty soon he couldn’t leave, until 2007, then they called the engineers.
stuckinred
@jeffreyw: sup bubba? the ceviche was a big hit!
SST
Every play of 50+ yards against Dallas should be accompanied by a screen shot of Jerrah’s face. That should be a law. And if Obama doesn’t make that happen, I won’t vote for him
JPL
Boehner’s tears signify Compassionate Conservatism. It’s the new I’m sorry that I had to hurt you but it’s for your own good.
Kryptik
It’s not just the constant crying that makes Boehner such a wad. It’s the fact that they’re such blatant crocodile tears and put on to continue the whole conservative persecution complex bullshit.
Jewish Steel
Stalin’s Tears Vodka. Google it. It’s a thing.
Delia
Thank you for this post. Now I know I don’t have to watch 60 Minutes tonight. I only wonder now if Boehner went to a drama coach to learn how to cry on cue.
Corner Stone
@SST: Why? It’s not like Jerry’s face can change from play to play.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kryptik: It is the general waddishness that makes him such a wad. I don’t know that it is something one can break down into its component parts without losing the je ne sais quoi that makes him himself.
ETA: Plus the orangeness.
cermet
@JPL: Simple – asswipe Bushwhack, cheney’s boy toy, who was, is, and forever will be wrong about everything he ever say’s, said that he saw into Putin’s eyes and read his soul; putin, being 100% KGB and since bushwhack said he had a soul, it then follows that putin has no soul and hence, can not cry real tears – QED and Cole is correct.
jeffreyw
@Jewish Steel: I’m terrible at IDing birds, I’d guess a Cooper’s hawk.
hitchhiker
Last night I watched that film about Lee Atwater (Boogie Man). The title is a play on his status as the incarnated Satan/his love of playing in rock bands.
Two thoughts related to our current fiasco . . . first is that Atwater just liked to fuck with people, especially people who he perceived to be disrespectful of him or his clients. There were several clips of sullen southerners talking about the joy of sticking it to fast-talking, arrogant yankees. Atwater came across to me as a fascinating personality who ought never to have been allowed near our government. He was idiotically vengeful, especially for someone who really could not have cared less about the principles that were supposedly at the bottom of things.
There’s a scene where Bob Novak says openly that the Republicans really don’t have much interest in figuring out how to govern, they just enjoy fighting. It’s liberating, I suppose. (Novak also said that Democrats do have ideas — wrong ones, in his estimation — and that’s part of their problem.)
Second is that whatever was unleashed with Atwater — I mean the direct line that goes from him to Limbaugh to Rove to Savage to freerepublic.com to Hannity to O’Reilly to Palin to Beck, with all the tentacles each of them sends into the culture — is not going to get reined in. It’s too much fun for them, and it’s too satisfying to keep on sticking it to their opponents.
Boehner will be interesting to watch as he tries to look like someone who really wants to govern. The Atwater descendants just can’t stand that, but the level of nervousness in the middle class outside of Fox World requires that someone explain what the plan is.
jeffreyw
@stuckinred:
Pozole! It was a big hit here.
Currants
@Jewish Steel:
I think it’s a Cooper’s Hawk–we’ve had one pick off a jay from the feeder (giving rise to my friend’s comment that bird feeders are like a McDonald’s drive-thru for hawks).
Jewish Steel
@jeffreyw:
Cool! Raptors are rad.
My father was a falconer, if he were with us, he’d be able to ID.
Oh, he’s not dead. Just a conservative crank. Hence, not “with us.”
jeffreyw
@Jewish Steel:
I have more here.
Click on this one and the next three. Way cool by accident.
robertdsc-PowerBook
All I can see when I hear Boehner’s name is “HELL NO, YOU CAN’T!” and that we did just that. Fuck him and his GOP terrorist buddies.
Ross Hershberger
Doesn’t look like the Coopers that prey on the pigeons around our bird feeders. Though I have seen those here. I’d say Merlin, but I’d be guessing. Wife says Merlin too.
Currants
@Currants: FYWP. I did edit out the extra apostrophes. And clicked save. First time it ever let me edit–shoulda guessed.
Just Some Fuckhead
Based on how distant his wife seemed sitting right beside him, and how reluctant she was to either look at him or touch him meaningfully, I’d speculate Boehner’s blubbering goes deeper than being emotional over ascension to Speaker.
Ross Hershberger
Hawk in back yard. I think this is a Cooper’s.
Ross Hershberger
hawk, again.
maye
@Just Some Fuckhead:He has an under the radar rep in DC as a wino and a womanizer. The real power behind the throne is Cantor.
SST
@Corner Stone: Yeah, it’s shame the ‘Boys have been playing better of late. I root harder for the meteor in Cowboys-Giants games than I do for any other football matchup.
Just Some Fuckhead
@maye: There’s yer answer then. He’s spent his life trying to impress his wife the wrong way and sold his soul in the process. She married a janitor, she could care less if he’s a big shot businessman or politician. Now he’s got the brass ring but not her. It must pain him that she can’t see how awesome he is and how he did it all for her.
maye
@Just Some Fuckhead: or maybe they just can’t stand each other.
The Republic of Stupidity
@FlipYrWhig:
As I recall, Denny was a wrastlin’ coach before going into gubmint work… I wonder if he instructed his young charges in the fine art of inserting a finger up yer opponent’s anus during a match…
Saaaaaaaaay… didn’t Denny’s name come up in an investigation into Turkish attempts to buy a little influence in Congress around the Armenian genocide resolution?
Then there was that nasty business around Mark Foley…
And something about a land deal back in Indiana…
But I remember Denny sayin’ something about not liking being outta power as the real reason he retired early from his last term…
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
Love love love posole. I make it in the crockpot with chicken instead of pork.
jeffreyw
@Mnemosyne:
I could eat that!
the fenian
Did CBS even mention the handing out of the tobacco lobby checks on the floor of the House?
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
I usually make it with chicken breast because that’s what I keep on hand, but it can get a little dry being cooked all day, so a mix of breasts and thighs is better.
(Awright, awright, you dirty-minded punks, move along now.)
Breezeblock
I fucking hate this country.
Well, the political aspect. It is a fucking joke.
If by “joke”, I mean something that is so unfunny, it makes you cry.
Mike in NC
Corrected for accuracy.
Lolis
@Breezeblock:
Yep, I feel you.
Over at Daily Kos, one of the top diaries is by Bruh1. He has despised the president since the primaries. He attacked me during the health care debate about how unfair it was that I wrote about the disabled and sick people whose lives will be saved by the bill. He thought that was irrelevant to whether the bill should pass. Now he is trying to pretend like he has empathy. Crocodile tears alright.
Just Some Fuckhead
@the fenian:
Nah, Leslie Stahl was too busy fawning all over him to do any real journalism.
GregB
Everytime a millionaire gets a tax cut John Boehner cries a river.
For a party that has of late been obsessed with telling people to man up, this is indeed a rather odd shtick.
Chuck Butcher
I really wonder if the House will do a damn thing other than not pass a budget and play stupid investigative games. I suppose time will tell, but I’m not exactly confident that they’ll actually try to do government rather than sideshow.
Chuck Butcher
Damn for the past several days this site has not once had the text explode in IE8, now it can’t hold itself together for shit.
Hope springs … and all that/
Hal
Hilarious. Dems get attacked as effete nancy boys for ordering a latte, and Hillary Clinton had her durability called into question for tearing up a little; but Boehner’s tears just show he cares.
A news media that had every Al Gore sigh measured decibel by decibel is just proving once again how un-liberal they really are.
junebug
Sorry, OT, but I just can’t let this one go. I know there are more hits is the third in line to be president crying or putin and manly men, but this slight to the president seems to me to be indicative of all that is talk radio and Boner’s party. They just lie and lie and lie.
I’m hoping that all good juicers might find the time to freep this guy’s youtube. It’s a hateful lie that he’s got up and he is blocking anyone from posting pics or vids to prove him wrong.
As for Boner crying, it’s faked. I’ve never run into anyone who believes in bootstraps crying. Ok, sure, he could be a first.
It’s fake.
Fuzz
Vladimir Putin’s tears cure cancer, too bad he never cries.
/Chuck Norris’d
Ozymandias, King of Ants
Damage to the left hemisphere of the brain can also cause you to be excessively prone to crying at the slightest thing.
Just sayin’.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
Really, you think a bunch of congress theatrics is a revolt?
When I think revolt, I think bombing of Barcelona.
I have $25 says the thing passes.
Corner Stone
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective: Dude, you haven’t made good on a bet here in your life.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Corner Stone:
I’ve lost one actual bet, with DougJ, and he and I are on top of it. The details have been worked out right here in public.
What else you got, you lying cocksucker?
Maybe you can’t tell the difference between proposing a bet and actually making one? I bet you can’t.
Wile E. Quixote
@Hal:
No kidding. I don’t know who I want to shoot more. Conservatives or journalists.
Corner Stone
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective: Come on now old timer. You bet me $100 that McCain wouldn’t take more than 40% of the vote in 2008. You said you really wanted my money.
I know you’re practically in a home by now but let’s not act like this was a slip.
Corner Stone
Ooooo, just saw this.
Dee Loralei
DougJ up top, you know who else doesn’t cry in public? Nancy SMASH Pelosi! God I love that woman.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Corner Stone:
To my knowledge, I made it with DougJ. Doug and I agreed on the terms, and the resolution of the debt after the event. We negotiated the actual vote point at length, all in public. After I lost, we agreed to roll the debt over onto another bet, but we have not named the bet. That was all his idea, I asked for his address to send him the money and he demurred — again, all here in public. So your “never made good on a bet” line was way out of line.
Are you saying that you thought you were part of that bet? I was not aware of it. You are just now bringing it up … even though I brought it up with Doug right here on numerous occasions after the election?
If so, just send me an address and I will send you a check.
Corner Stone
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective: Plus, I’m enjoying the idea of being a cocksucker.
God damn I wish I had that kind of action. Life is tough for a single dad.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Dee Loralei:
Her eyes make her look like a trapped possum, but she has a rather respectable legislative record.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Corner Stone:
I’m glad for ya, but I really have no experience in that area.
Eating shit and barking at the moon, I am your man. Cocksucking, no joy.
Corner Stone
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective: Ah, all my bets here are for charity. I had one with You Don’t Say, which I paid in full, and one ongoing with Midnight Marauder re: DADT.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Corner Stone:
Well then just name the charity. I sent money to somewhere once in a payoff deal here but I don’t remember who the deal was with. Actually it was off blog, on the mailing list, and I don’t think you were on that list. I don’t remember. Too many names and too long ago. Maybe another listmember has the info.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Corner Stone:
Alright, well if you think I owe you money and have a charity in mind, send me the details in email. I am signing off here for the night.
Wile E. Quixote
I’m sick and tired of crying conservatives. Jesus, what a bunch of fucking punks and weaklings. I spent eight fucking weeks in Harborview after getting creamed by a pick up truck while riding my motorcycle, went through 10 surgeries to save my left leg below the knee, ended up losing my leg anyways and went through four more surgeries and walked out with a shiny new pair of crutches and no left foot and I didn’t cry as much as Glenn Beck does during a single episode of his show. Every time I see Glenn Beck or another conservative shedding tears I think “I’d like to give them something to cry about. Oh yeah”.
Chuck Butcher
@Wile E. Quixote: Still ride?
Yutsano
@Chuck Butcher: Incidentally you detonated a hyphen bomb, but it’s in a mostly dead thread so I doubt most folks will notice.
Wile E. Quixote
@hitchhiker:
Yeah, we really need to start going Bomber Harris on the Republicans. I want to do to Republicans and conservatism in America what Bomber Harris and the RAF did to Germany and what Curtis LeMay did to Japan. That’s the only thing these people understand. Conservatives are just like the Nazis, as Churchill said “The hun is either grovelling at your feet or going for your throat”. We need to work harder to beat these people down and once we’ve got them beat down and have our boots on their neck and a gun to their heads keep them there so that they never rise again, just like we did to the Nazi Germans and the Imperial Japanese.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@jurassicpork:
I thought parts of it were pretty funny until I got to where they listed Obama, referring to him as “Toby”. Sorry, but that isn’t funny. I expected Obama to be on the list, no problem with that, but “Toby” is a bit too much and I’m being polite in describing it as such. Referring to the lazy non-voting public as “cunts” crosses that not funny line too.
I am sure that there will be plenty of others who will love it though.
Chuck Butcher
@Yutsano:
That was a minus sign in front of 15. WTF ails this thing?
Wile E. Quixote
@Chuck Butcher:
No, I don’t. I could, there are kits that allow you to convert your shifter to solenoid action, like a race shifter and I know other amputees who had accidents similar to mine who still ride but I dont because it would make my mom cry, and she cried enough when I was in the hospital. I’m also kind of afraid of it now. I have this fear that if I started riding again that something really really bad would happen to me.
I still think motorcycles are cool though, and tell everyone I know who rides not to let what happened to me fuck it up for them. Do you want to know what one of the worst things about it was? I had only had the bike for two days. I picked it up on Wednesday and Friday afternoon I was in an ambulance and heading to Harborview.
I just don’t do well on two wheeled vehicles. All of the broken bones I’ve ever had were on bicycles or motorcycles. When I was six I broke my arm emulating Evel Knievel and trying to jump a ditch. I ended up with simple and compound fractures of the tibia and fibula from the motorcycle accident and three years later broke my scaphoid when I was in a head on collision while riding my bicycle.
bob h
Are the incoming Tea Party loons going to respect a man who cries like this? I think the Crazy gets the upper hand in the House pretty soon.
Michael
I’ll add that Jerry Jones is a complete douche as well, and the Wingnut Wurlitzer aspects of that segment didn’t go unnoticed. The barely hidden subtext was that the players (you know, the guys who the fans pay to watch and emulate by buying fan gear) are making way to much money at the expense of those courageous owners.
Fuck Jones and the horse he rode in on.
The Grand Panjandrum
He rides his horse bare chested as well.
The Grand Panjandrum
@bob h:
They elected a former cheerleader to the White House. Twice.
kth
I watched about 90 seconds of the segment. The gist of the part I saw was that Boehner was a close personal friend of Ted Kennedy, therefore he can’t be a wingnut. That was all I could stand to watch.
debbie
When he accused Obama of “heated rhetoric,” I couldn’t believe it. Just what was it the Republicans were doing the past two years? And when he started crying just because his wife (the invisible one) said she was proud of him, I decided he was clearly unbalanced.
bemused
I wonder what mental health experts make of Boehner’s weird propensity to uncontrollable crying or he’s just a weepy drunk.
IrishGirl
@bemused: I think you may have hit on the problem….he’s a boozer. I’ve had that impression of him as well. I would bet that he’s a smoker and a boozer. It’s just something around the eyes.
But if it isn’t the drinking, then I’m betting its that faux humility crap that Christianist/Evangelist leaders show on TV. It’s all about a desire to project sincerity and during the weeping and wailing, they may actually feel that way and may actually mean what they say. The only problem is, five minutes later they’ve moved on. I would never, ever trust a man like that. The constant weeping has exactly the opposite effect on me.