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Swamp thing lives.

Trump a disaster, says guy whose tenure as House Speaker was a disaster



A normal person would wonder why anyone runs to John Boehner for a take on what's happening in Washington. Only the tenure of sexual predator Dennis Hastert saves Boehner from being the worst Republican House Speaker in the nation's history. He allowed Barack Obama to run runshod over him on everything from spending to health care to immigration enforcement, and didn't even seem to mind it all that much. He was forced out by the base of his own party, which was tired of him making excuses for doing nothing with the majority he was given by voters in 2010, and again in 2012, and again in 2014. He may not have been responsible for the Obama agenda, but he was willing to use none of the power he had to try to stop it. John Boehner failed as Speaker of the House. The country is in much worse shape than it needs to be because he had the job.
No one should ever listen to anything he says. And yet here he is being treated as some sort of sage wise man, which can only mean one thing: Yep, much to the delight of the Associated Press, he's been publicly trashing Donald Trump:
Former House Speaker John Boehner says that aside from international affairs and foreign policy, President Donald Trump’s time in office has so far been a “complete disaster.” Speaking at an energy conference Thursday in Houston, Boehner praised Trump for his approach abroad and his aggressiveness in fighting Islamic State militants, according to the energy publication Rigzone. “Everything else he’s done (in office) has been a complete disaster,” the Ohio Republican said, according to the publication. “He’s still learning how to be president.” Boehner said he’s been friends with Trump for 15 years, but still has a hard time envisioning him as president. He also said Trump shouldn’t be allowed to Tweet overnight. David Schnittger, a spokesman for Boehner, confirmed the comments on Friday.

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According to Rigzone, Boehner said that the Republican tax reform effort “is just a bunch of happy talk” and that the border adjustment tax — a major priority for Boehner’s successor, Speaker Paul Ryan — is “deader than a doornail.” He said he was more optimistic about tax reform earlier in the year, but “now my odds are 60/40.” Earlier this year, Boehner said he was pessimistic about another congressional Republican priority — repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Boehner said that while Republicans would fix some problems of Obama’s law, repeal and replacement is “not going to happen.”
That was pretty much the way Boehner viewed everything conservatives wanted to see happen when he was Speaker. It's not going to happen. The politics don't work. Republicans are too scared. It's too much work to rustle up the votes and Boehner doesn't know how to do it, or doesn't feel like trying. Or all those dumb conservatives who want these things don't know how Washington really works, and they should just shut up. That was Boehner's attitude his entire tenure as Speaker. This was largely because he completely accepted all the dysfunction of Washington and chose to become a creature of it, rather than trying to rise above it and actually achieve worthwhile things.

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There is much that's been absurd and wrong during Trump's presidency, but almost without exception, the absurdity takes root in the Beltway establishment's reaction to Trump, not in the actions of Trump himself. They're the ones leaking classified information to the press. They're the ones who making ObamaCare repeal so much more difficult than it needs to be. They're the ones who don't want to give up their profligate spending. They're the ones afraid of the media. Basically, they're doing all the things Boehner used to do when he was Speaker, so I guess it's no wonder he sees no problem with their behavior and faults Trump instead. Boehner is the ultimate Beltway swamp creature. He's now bitter and angry and thinks his forced retirement gives him the right to criticize the people trying to do what he failed - largely for lack of effort or concern - to do himself. I don't know how much success Trump will ultimately have draining the swamp, but the fact that this particular swamp creature is back in Ohio mowing his lawn and ironing his shirts is one clear case of addition by subtraction. But there is one thing on which I agree with Boehner. Concerning the fact that he is no longer in Washington, Boehner reported told his audience: “I wake up every day, drink my morning coffee and say, ‘Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah,’” So do I, bro. So do I.


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Dan Calabrese -- Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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