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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) advised pro-drilling House Democrats to “put up or shut up” during a press conference Wednesday morning. “Today the Republican leaders in the House are sending a letter to 22 of our Democratic colleagues [who] say they want more energy yet they continue to vote with Speaker Pelosi to block our ‘all of the above' plan,” said Boehner, who joined his GOP colleagues for the second time during the now three-week-long energy protest. “They can’t have it both ways. Either they are for more energy and vote that way or they are not, and we...

Boehner: GOP will be here 'every day until she brings us back' A defiant House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Republicans will continue their floor protest on gas prices, including during both the GOP and Democratic national conventions, until they get a vote allowing more offshore drilling. Boehner also claimed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic incumbents will pay a political price on Election Day if they don't allow such a vote. In an inteview on Friday, Boehner said Republicans will stay on the floor "every day until she brings us back, until the Speaker brings us back....

John Boehner extended an invitation to John McCain yesterday to join the House Republican caucus in their rebellion against Democratic stonewalling on a vote on drilling.  McCain had offered to come off the campaign trail if Barack Obama would also agree to do so and join Congress in an open debate and an open vote to rescind the federal moratorium on drilling in the OCS and interior.  The House Minority Leader tells McCain to come regardless of Obama’s participation: In a briefing with bloggers in House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office August 5, Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz, said he would...

Washington - The U.S. House of Representatives truly became the People’s House on Friday, August 1 when hundreds of American citizens and families joined Republicans on the House floor to protest Democratic leaders’ decision to send Congress home for a five-week break without voting on energy reform legislation. This historic event was not just about gas prices; it was about the power of democracy. Throughout the summer, the Democratic leadership in the House had refused to allow a vote on legislation to help lower fuel costs and put us on the road to energy independence, despite widespread public support for...

The Republicans have taken their share of lumps -- especially during the current presidential campaign -- for not embracing Web 2.0 technologies and tools as warmly as the Democrats. But that perception may be altered sharply after Friday's mini-uprising on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that saw members Twittering, streaming live video and posting video to YouTube to protest the lack of a vote on an offshore drilling bill when the traditional means of communicating with the public, such as C-Span and microphones, were shut down after the House went into adjournment for several weeks of vacation....

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The following letter was just delivered to Speaker Nancy Pelosi on behalf of the American people and the Republcan Conference requesting that she reconvene the House and allow a vote to provide relief to Americans suffering because of skyrocketing gas prices: An Open Letter to Speaker Pelosi   On Friday August 1, 2008, at 11:23 a.m., your Democrat majority in the House of Representatives adjourned the House for five full weeks.House Republicans believe that Congress should not go on vacation until we take action to lower gas and energy prices for struggling American families. For the last...

On Friday, Republican congressional members made an impromptu and unprecedented refusal to leave the House floor after Nancy Pelosi abruptly shut down the House of Representatives during another members speech. The action, which did not take place in front of cameras attracted hundreds of tourists, federal employees and others to the House chambers to listen to the passionate exercise in freedom. Following the events on Friday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (OH) and Whip Roy Blunt (MO) called upon congressional members and specifically Republican congressional members to return to...

Washington, Aug 3 - House Republicans will be back on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives again Monday to continue the unprecedented protest that began last Friday, when dozens of Republicans joined hundreds of American citizens on the House floor to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to send Congress home for the rest of the summer without a vote on legislation to lower gas prices and move America toward energy independence. In an urgent memo sent to GOP Members and staff Saturday (“A Call to Action on American Energy”), Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Roy...

Washington—In what could only be described as an extreme tactic, the GOP has threatened the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi, R-CA, if there is no vote on offshore drilling. The move is being led by House Minority leader, John Boehner, R-OH. Boehner has had to deal with delay after delay from House Democrats since June, and has been unable to get a vote on offshore drilling. This move represents the last efforts of the Republican minority to bring relief to the American people.

House Republican leaders are threatening to attempt to keep the chamber in session beyond next week if they do not get a vote on the energy package they introduced last week. In a memo circulated to the GOP caucus, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) implored his members to vote against adjournment for the August recess if the minority cannot secure a vote on offshore drilling or their “all of the above” energy plan. Since June, Democrats have used the suspension calendar to attempt to move their own energy bills, but have not been able to win enough Republican votes....

“Republicans in the House and Senate want an immediate vote to put lawmakers on record” “Republicans on Capitol Hill have been hammering away for weeks … demanding action” “House and Senate Republicans have been working for weeks to coordinate their message on the need for an energy fix to bring down gas prices” CQ: “House Republicans … filed another discharge petition seeking a floor vote on legislation they say could lower gas prices pretty quickly. The bill, the fifth piece of energy legislation the House Republicans have filed discharge petitions on in recent weeks, would cut the number of localized...

Boehner calls Dems' energy bill 'joke' U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner Thursday called the Democrats' efforts to free up the strategic oil reserve a joke. At his weekly news conference, Boehner, R-Ohio, said Democrats have been making one excuse after another for why we can't have more American-made energy. Boehner, fresh from trips to Colorado to inspect oil shale reserves and Alaska where he looked at conditions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, said tapping those reserves would not lead to environmental catastrophe. The only people standing in the way of this are (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, (Senate Majority...

With the five-week August recess just nine days away, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her colleagues in the Democratic leadership are doing everything they can to keep Members from having to vote on more American energy production to help lower gas prices.  Their months-long campaign of inaction in the face of soaring gas prices not only pits Democratic leaders against the American people – who support more production as part of any comprehensive energy plan – but it also pits them against an increasing number of rank-and-file Members of their own party.  This morning’s Politico details the Democrats’ strategy...

Boehner Rejects 'Contract With America' Republican Candidates On Their Own in Congressional Elections By RUSSELL BERMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | July 23, 2008 WASHINGTON — In the 2008 congressional elections, it will be every Republican for himself. Republicans on Capitol Hill are rejecting a sequel to the successful "Contract With America" campaign that won them the majority in Congress in 1994, a top party official said yesterday. "There will be no effort to try to nationalize the elections," the House Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner, told reporters at a lunch sponsored by the American Spectator magazine and Americans...

Some 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle Sunday, ten of my House Republican colleagues and I completed an American energy tour focused on real solutions to help lower gasoline prices and energy costs for families and small businesses. Our trip started Friday with a visit to Golden, Colorado, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) — a government facility operated by private-sector scientists and engineers dedicated to perfecting cutting-edge solar, wind, fuel cell, biomass, and other emerging energy technologies to reduce our nation’s costly and increasingly dangerous dependence on foreign sources of energy. The work done at NREL is...

The foundation for a Great Wall of separation between members of Congress and the American people has been laid this week by the Democratic leadership of the House Administration Committee. Taking notes from the Chinese, he proposed a “Great Wall” of the House that will render the political discourse between Americans and their elected officials nearly as free and open as the political discourse between to the Chinese people and their unelected officials. As if Americans don’t already feel alienated from Washington politics enough, the new rule regarding increasingly influential internet dialogue poses a serious threat to free speech and...

So what’s the problem? Why all the anxiety? Why don’t Republicans in the House of Representatives accept the quiet assurances of the FCC and settle down? The answer, of course, is talk radio. It is the only form of communication that conservatives have through which they can certainly and consistently connect with the general public. Most major television and print media are dominated by liberals, but conservatives are successful on talk radio.

Washington is broken. You need look no further than $4 per gallon for gas to see how political gamesmanship in Washington is impacting your life. Two years ago, congressional Democrats promised “change” but what we’ve seen instead is business-as-usual. Just recently, lawmakers in the U.S. House killed an effort to remove from the Farm Bill three special provisions that would benefit a ski resort in Vermont, the San Francisco salmon industry and forest fish in Montana. And congressional Democrats have just introduced yet another tax hike -- $54 billion on small businesses – to bankroll more Washington spending. I don’t...

The Talk Shows Sunday, May 18th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Rick Dutrow Jr., trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.; Republican strategist Mike Murphy; Democratic strategist Bob Shrum. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Gov. Charlie Crist, R-Fla.; Republican strategist Ed Rollins; former Govs. Mario Cuomo, D-N.Y., and Roy Romer, D-Colo.THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Commerce Secretary Carlos...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sensing trouble in the fall, the House GOP leadership on Wednesday addressed recent losses in special Congressional elections by unleashing a new agenda aimed at changing that party's image. House Republican leaders pushed the retooled message, which they call "Change You Deserve." They rolled out the first version Wednesday, which focuses on working mothers and military families. "This agenda is a reflection of House Republicans' commitment to providing American families with the change they deserve: common-sense solutions to the challenges they face in their daily lives," according to the agenda provided to CNN. "Today's families face challenges...

Yet top House Republicans say they are willing to stand against Democratic initiatives they see as flawed, even though they might have some natural election-year appeal. “There really are things we disagree with, and we are going to work to stop,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, who makes no apologies for joining with Mr. Bush. “We have worked very closely together — the White House, House Republicans, Senate Republicans — to stop bad things from happening and trying to move our own agenda. We have had a very close partnership.” Democrats have learned a...

Anteiglesia is not a term with which today’s politicians are particularly familiar. But, perhaps, they should be. In the Spanish Basque country, in the Middle Ages, anteiglesia was the name given to the periodic meetings of the local townspeople who gathered “in front of the church” to robustly discuss the important issues of the day and vote the people’s will. It was in some ways similar to the “town meetings” some politicians stage today – but not really. At the ancient anteiglesia, what was said actually mattered. This was brought to mind earlier this week when former House Speaker Newt...

House Republicans are spreading the word about the La Raza earmark in the pork-laden housing bill that I’ve been reporting on (see here and here). Fresh from the desk of House GOP leader John Boehner: Democrats are prepared to bring to the House floor legislation purportedly written to assist Americans impacted by the recent housing slump. But in recent days, it has become increasingly clear who this legislation is really out to serve: scam artists, speculators, and trial lawyers. That’s right: the bill forces taxpayers to pay for a massive $300 billion bailout at the expense of innocent victims who...

Operating outside public view, the House Democratic majority is taking extraordinary steps to maintain spending as usual while awaiting a Democrat as president. Remarkably, the supine House Republican minority hardly resists and even collaborates with its supposed adversaries. There has been little or no public Republican protest over seizure of the appropriating process by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her clique. For the second straight year, no appropriations bill other than defense is scheduled for passage. Instead, spending details are crafted in the Speaker's Office, negating President George W. Bush's veto strategy. In a little-noticed maneuver April 23, Pelosi won...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A recent secret survey of the House Republican minority by the party's whip organization showed a two-to-one margin opposed to imposing a moratorium on earmarks. House Republican John Boehner, who personally sponsors no earmarks, has indicated the party's position should be based on what GOP House members want. That led to the whip check. Reformers had contemplated calling for a vote on earmarks by a closed-door session of the House Republican Conference, assuming it would be difficult for many members to vote no. But the lopsided outcome of the whip check dissuaded reformers from requesting a vote....

Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $1 million to House Minority Leader John Boehner, ending a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call. McDermott, a Seattle Democrat, paid $1,093,297 to the Ohio Republican's campaign committee earlier this month, spokesman for the two men said Monday. The payment is in addition to $64,000 McDermott paid Boehner in January, as part of court-ordered punitive damages in the long-running case. A federal judge ordered McDermott to compensate Boehner for attorney's fees after Boehner sued McDermott for leaking the contents of a cell phone call that was illegally recorded in 1996. A...

CONFER: Why your loved ones have left NY The chances are very good that you know someone who has left New York. According to the US Census Bureau, from July 2006 to July 2007 the Buffalo-Niagara region lost 5,166 people and since 2000 the Rochester area has lost over 7,300 of its residents. The numbers are staggering but they tell little of the toll on our society. Emotionally, it can be quite taxing for families to be torn apart by this mass exodus with many older parents and grandparents wondering if they’ll ever see their children and grandchildren again. Socially,...

WASHINGTON — Rep. John Boehner, the U.S. House minority leader, returned from Libya last week with a cool souvenir, thanks to Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Visiting Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Israel with other members of Congress, Boehner, R-Ohio, was summoned while in transit to a meeting with Gadhafi in a white tent in the desert, he said. In the middle of their talk about terrorism, nuclear weapons and other serious matters, an aide to Gadhafi came over with what looked like a glasses case. Gadhafi then presented a pair of shades to the Republican leader, saying, "Desert not kind...

Cool Shades For House GOP Leader, Courtesy Of Gadhafi By STEPHEN KOFF   Rep. John Boehner     WASHINGTON — Rep. John Boehner, the U.S. House minority leader, returned from Libya last week with a cool souvenir, thanks to Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi.Visiting Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Israel with other members of Congress, Boehner, R-Ohio, was summoned while in transit to a meeting with Gadhafi in a white tent in the desert, he said.In the middle of their talk about terrorism, nuclear weapons and other serious matters, an aide to Gadhafi came over with what looked like a glasses...

A federal judge has ordered Rep. Jim McDermott to pay House Minority Leader John Boehner more than $1 million in legal fees in a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call. Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered McDermott to pay Boehner $1.05 million in attorney's fees and costs, plus about $40,000 in interest. McDermott, a Washington Democrat, also had to pay more than $60,000 in fines and damages, as well as nearly $600,000 in fees to his own lawyers. McDermott said Tuesday he would not appeal the judge's ruling. "It's...

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) challenged Republicans on Tuesday to get off their “dead asses” and start raising money for the National Republican Congressional Committee. And the Republican leader wasn’t the only lawmaker berating his GOP colleagues to raise more money for the committee’s March 12 fundraising dinner: According to sources in the room, NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) also used a closed-door session at the Capitol Hill Club on Tuesday to challenge Republicans to raise more campaign cash. The normally upbeat Cole told Republicans that if they don’t start raising more...

Earlier this month, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle came together to pass an economic growth package to help get our economy moving again. I hoped this same spirit of bipartisanship would extend to other critical issues, with our national security our first and foremost priority. Sadly, this was not to be. On Thursday, House Democratic leaders left Washington for a 12-day break after failing to pass critical legislation designed to ensure that our intelligence officials are able to monitor foreign communications of suspected terrorists overseas, such as Osama Bin Laden and other key al-Qaeda leaders, while also adding...

See link for video -- John Boehner leads Republicans out of the House, protesting the Democrats not addressing FISA extension.

Now that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has solidified the likelihood he'll become the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, the inevitable went down this morning: House Republican Leader John Boehner endorsed him. "John McCain is an American hero and will make an excellent President of the United States," Boehner said at an endorsement appearance with other House GOP leaders. "McCain has a solid conservative record as one of the most vocal opponents of wasteful spending, a staunch defender of America's national security and a strong believer in the sanctity of human life."

The Talk Shows Sunday, February 10th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): President George W. Bush. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.; Joe Trippi, former John Edwards campaign adviser; Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff to President Bush.THIS WEEK (ABC): Gov. Tim Kaine, D-Va.; former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb.LATE EDITION (CNN) : House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio; former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $64,000 in damages to House Republican leader John Boehner -- the first payment in a decadelong dispute over an illegally taped telephone call involving Boehner and other GOP leaders. The payment, which includes $50,000 in court-ordered punitive damages, $10,000 in statutory damages and $4,169 in interest, is the first of what could be more than $850,000 in fines and fees owed by McDermott, D-Wash.

The House Republicans have begun their retreat meetings at Greenbrier, and Robert Novak says that's not the only context of retreat that will come of them. The GOP doesn't appear inclined to put the lessons of 2006 into play in 2008 on battling against pork, and instead will offer half-measures that will ensure business as usual on Capitol Hill: When House Republicans convene behind closed doors today at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., they have a chance to make two bold moves to restore their reputation for fiscal responsibility. First, they could declare a one-year moratorium on...

The aptly named Republican "retreat" last weekend at the ritzy Greenbrier resort in West Virginia should have included Democrats because Republicans are behaving just like them. There was President Bush arguing for his "bipartisan stimulus package" and supporting government handouts with borrowed money. Republicans can always cut a bipartisan deal if they behave like Democrats. House Republican Leader John Boehner implored his fellow Republicans to "sacrifice" by agreeing to a one-year moratorium on earmarks to "prove" Republicans are the party that can fix Washington. Someone should have pointed out to Mr. Boehner that the word "fix" is also used to...

The Republican retreat at Greenbrier has produced the first signs that House leadership wants to rescue the party's credibility on fiscal discipline. John Boehner and the pork crusaders dragged the rest of the caucus almost literally kicking and screaming to challenge the Democrats to a one-year moratorium on all earmarks. It's not perfect, but it's a start: House Republicans called on Friday for “an immediate moratorium” on earmarking money for pet projects. They urged Democrats to join them in establishing a bipartisan panel to set strict new standards for such spending. As an interim step, House Republican leaders said, they...

White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. — House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) challenged House Republicans to make a few sacrifices in the next year that will help the GOP sell their agenda to voters in the fall elections. The Republican leader is scheduled to lead his members in a broad, potentially rancorous debate over lawmaker-requested projects Friday during their annual retreat here. The reform proposals include a one-year moratorium on earmarks for all Republicans, the creation of a special panel to review the process, including the abuses that have occurred, and a litany of smaller guidelines to curtail wasteful...

The press secretary for House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) is leaving the office to take a position with a new startup company, Boehner announced in a release Friday. Spokesman Brian Kennedy is leaving to take a position as vice president of Responsible Resources, a startup non-profit organization, according to the release. Michael Steel, the top Republican press officer on the House Ways and Means Committee, will replace Kennedy. Steel is communications director for Ways and Means ranking member Jim McCrery (R-La.), who recently announced he would not seek another term in Congress. Steel previously worked as a press secretary...

“Now the money sucks for two reasons,” Boehner said in a Politico interview. “People are mad at the president; they are mad at the party. And then [there is] this whole immigration fight. People just turned off the spigot.” Boehner has undertaken a study, consulting corporate image experts, to “re-brand” the party. But so far, no big ideas have emerged. Some of his own colleagues regard Boehner as more of a transitional figure, between the Gingrich-DeLay era (in truth, both men drove Boehner to distraction) and the next generation of leadership.

The Talk Shows Sunday, December 9th, 2007 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.; actor John Cusack.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Ten years ago Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA7), known in more recent years as Baghdad Jim for his unqualified support of that city's former tyrant, was serving on the House Ethics Committee. Two Democratic Party activists, who had illegally recorded a telephone conversation between Representative John Boehner and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, delivered the hot tape to McDermott. McDermott made a the first of a series of truly bad choices. Rather than pursuing his passion for Gingrich through the channels of the Ethics Committee, he delivered the tape to a reporter in what the trial judge ruled was a malicious attempt...

House Republican leader John Boehner just stood up on the House floor to put forward a motion to censure Rep. Pete Stark (D) over the congressman's "heads blown off for the president's amusement" remark on the House floor last week. Democrats will move to table -- or kill -- the motion. They will likely succeed. A vote is being taken on the tabling motion now.

Preview and Analysis for Weekend of October 13th and 14th, 2007 Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows: NBC's "Meet the Press" Comedian Bill CosbyDr. Alvin Poussaint CBS's "Face the Nation" Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.Jim VandeHei, Politico.COM Fox News Sunday Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.John Boehner, R-OhioBill KristolCharles KrauthammerMara LiassonJuan Williams CNN "Late Edition" Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat AzizErik Prince, founder of Blackwater USASen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski*Former president Jimmy Carter*Jessica Yellin, CNNJoe Johns, CNNEd Henry, CNN ABC's "This Week" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority LeaderSam DonaldsonCokie RobertsGeorge Will The reboot...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) are heading toward a clash over the size and scope of a special investigation into a controversial vote last month that Republicans are calling “the stolen vote.” In a letter to Pelosi Friday, Boehner asked for $1 million for professional investigative staff, consultants and other expenses. He also asked for an expansion of the probe to include “exceedingly controversial events in the House that occurred in close succession in early August,” such as the malfunction of the automatic voting system and alterations of the Congressional Record.

<p>House Minority Leader John Boehner, speaking to a private gathering of Republican activists last night, called the Senate's immigration compromise bill a "piece of shit" but said that he had promised President Bush earlier in the day that he would let his teeth be a barrier to such thoughts in public.</p>

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi Speaker House of Representatives United States Capitol Dear Speaker Pelosi: I am writing concerning the Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007, established by the House on August 3, 2007 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the overturned 215-213 vote on a Republican measure that sought to add language to the Agriculture Appropriations bill prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. Now that you and I have appointed six distinguished Members of the House to serve on the panel, I hope you will join me in ensuring that the select committee is provided...

As Congress returns this week, Republicans are ready to pick up where we left off when August recess began last month. From fighting for lower taxes to insisting on more restrained federal spending to giving our troops the support they need to wage and win the War on Terrorism, we’re ready to continue working on the most important priorities facing the American people. At the same time, we also return to Washington with some unfinished business leftover from before the August recess: continuing to hold congressional Democrats accountable for the most egregious action of their short-lived majority -- or any...