Dems Celebrate Boehner Comment, But Will It Work?
Dems celebrated when House Min. Leader John Boehner compared financial regulatory reform to "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon." The majority, facing dire political straits, is racing to tag House GOPers as out of touch with average Americans, more in the pocket of Wall Street than Main Street.
Boehner's comments, made in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, follow in the footsteps of several controversial statements made by House GOPers in recent weeks. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) called Pres. Obama's BP escrow account "Chicago shake-down politics," while Rep. Joe Barton's (R-TX) apology to BP -- and subsequent reversal -- embarrassed the GOP.
On Wednesday, Pres. Obama called Boehner out for his comments during a town hall meeting in Racine, WI. Obama: "I was stunned to hear the leader of the Republicans in the House say that financial reform was like using a nuclear weapon to target an ant," Obama said.
"He compared the financial crisis to an ant. The same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes and their lives savings," said Obama, who called Boehner "out of touch."
In a statement, Boehner fired back, characterizing Obama's remarks as "childish partisanship."
"The President should be focused on solving the problems of the American people -- stopping the leaking oil and cleaning up the Gulf, scrapping his job-killing agenda, repealing and replacing ObamaCare -- instead of my choice of metaphors," Boehner said in a statement.
The 3 comments will "definitely" tie in with one another, insisted DCCC spokesperson Ryan Rudominer. And Obama took time to point to Barton's apology too.
"The top Republican on the energy committee even had the nerve to apologize to BP for the fact that we made them set up this fund," Obama said of Barton. "He actually called the fund 'a tragedy.' A tragedy? A tragedy is what the people of the Gulf are going through right now. That's the tragedy."
"Boehner sent a wake-up call to the American people about the dangers of turning back the clock to a Republican Congress. We will be going district by district to press Republican incumbents and candidates to answer whether they agree with Leader Boehner that Wall Street reform is unnecessary and Social Security should be cut," Rudominer said in an email.
The DCCC has so far only issued press releases, hitting both incumbents and challengers.
But with an electoral landscape looking so bleak, it's unlikely that a few GOP missteps are going to save many seats.
"Just as the Democrats have learned to ignore the voices of everyday Americans who are outraged by a job-killing agenda in Washington, voters have learned to tune out these distortions and manufactured allegations from Pres. Obama and his party," said Paul Lindsay, an NRCC spokesperson. "The only thing minimized today was the office the President holds and the image of his party that is already in a precipitous free fall."
Update: The original post misstated the number of releases the DCCC has issued.
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