TenuredVulture wrote:He's my representative. I've met him, and he's the most socially awkward politician I've ever met. The fact that he seems to have no interest in the actual 4th district may be a problem going forward, but word is he's considering a run for the Senate in 2014.

Houshphandzadeh wrote:I have 2% less in my checkbook now!

guess it's regular fries this weekend

Q: How about that insurrection -- doesn't that prove that Boehner is a weak leader who can't control his caucus?

LaTourette: I think it's ridiculous. They should kick them all out of the Republican conference. The picture in Politico of a sitting Republican member of Congress on the floor with an iPad showing a screen with a whip count to deny the Republicans the speakership of the House is asinine. This is what I'm talking about: These guys are OK when it comes to ideology and dogma, but they don't have a clue how to participate in the legislative process.

I don't know what their objective is. If it was to deny the speakership to Boehner and hand it to Mrs. Pelosi, I don't know how their cause would have been furthered. If it's to force the vote to a second ballot to make some demands, well, who the hell do these people think they are? Twelve out of 233, and they're making demands? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Q: Is there any way for Boehner to assert some leadership now that he's been reelected and bring the insurgents into line?

LaTourette: He resisted, the entire last Congress, until the very end, the temptation to punish anybody. I sat on the steering committee, and there were cries from all parts of the conference: 'These guys are ruining everything!' He wouldn't chastise them or do anything until the recent mini-purge.

I don't think his inclination is to punish people. But I have to tell you, I don't know how he does it. You look at the very beginning of the last Congress, H.R. 1, the omnibus, there were hundreds of amendments from the stupid to the sublime. One was offered to defund the president's teleprompter. Another was to defund the electrical upgrades needed to bring the White House up to code. But Boehner's deal was, OK, go for it, let people participate. There was an expectation that, given the opportunity to improve the bill, they would then vote for the bill. But beginning with that bill there have been 20 to 50 members who will make adjustments to the bill that guarantee you're not going to get one Democrat to vote for it, and then they still vote against the bill themselves and deny Boehner the 218 votes he needs to bargain with.

...

Q: What do you think the future holds for the House Republicans?

LaTourette: It's a mess. I'm an optimist -- I do hope that when they go down to their retreat these guys take it seriously when Boehner says, 'Listen, we've got to get to 218 votes.' These people have to be willing to sit down and find a bill that gets 218 Republican votes. But I really don't see it coming. I don't.

Boehner can't be a leader if he doesn't have guys behind him to lead. But I do know that he thinks this deficit and debt problem is just going to eat up the country. If anybody would meet him halfway or even a little less than halfway in the White House or the Senate, he would put his speakership at risk to make the big deal.

...

Q: How about you? You recently resigned from Congress after nine terms.

LaTourette: I'll go back and find something productive to do with my life. As opposed to the last 18 years.

Rev_Beezer wrote:anyone watch the alex jones/piers morgan thing? Holy crow, Jones is insane. I don't like Piers Morgan either, but Alex Jones seriously looked like he was about to have a stroke.

jerseyhoya wrote:If Romney had won and selected the actual VP nominee for the Democratic Party from 2000 as his Secretary of Defense, the Democratic reaction would have been nothing but applause, presumably