Boehner chosen as new Majority Leader

NRO ^ | 2/2/06

[ZGuy]

IT'S BOEHNER, 122-109

[Torie]

Yes, I absolutely recommend it. It gets a near A+. It is a great book for political junkies, because its focus is on politics. As a teaser, Lincoln to win the presidency had to add to the Yankee abolitionist base, the German Protestants (while keeping the nativist and temperance vote, which was tricky), and assorted moderate business oriented Whig types, who did not want to disrupt their Southern markets, in order to grab Illinois, Indiana, and most importantly, Pennsylvania, the latter of which had a long history of voting for the Dems. How he did it is fascinating.

[ohioWfan]

Oh..........that's a teaser alright!

Heading over to Amazon.com right now..... ;)

[ohioWfan]

A brilliant, gentle warrior.

If you ever get a chance, go to his museum at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME.

It's a fascinating place.

[Txsleuth]

Don't tell me...let me guess....

The new thread about the Immigration Reform meeting that Cornyn and several other GOP Senators had???

I read that article...and exited before I got BURNED...by the flaming that was sure to happen at that thread...LOL

[B4Ranch]

Bush is leaving--Boehnert isn't

Don't be too sure. They both may end up in the unemployment lines if they don't start listening.

[COEXERJ145]

Of course. They are doing their best to show how unhinged they really are.

All of them need a good dose of Thorazine.

[Txsleuth]

Thanks for the warning...

[Torie]

A book that I am lapping up now, not as well written, or organized, but loaded with material that expands on these themes, and the nexus of religion, ethnicity and politics, both in America and Britain, is The Cousins' Wars by Kevin Phillips. It is particularly good in filling in some of that largely blank canvas of America after the Plymouth and Boston colonies were formed, and the other colonies, and before Ben Franklin appeared on the stage.

[ohioWfan]

Thanks for that recommendation too.

Sounds fascinating, and indeed there is a large gap in the study of American history after its settlement until the Revolution and the founding of our country.

[Torie]

Have you read Cousins' Wars?

[Torie]

One little oddity I learned from Phillips, is that Virginia imposed a head tax per Catholic imposed on ship captains who brought over Catholics. Maryland had a little putsch to do away with the Catholic Calvert family regime in that state. The New England colonies lost their charters for awhile, and were appended to New York, and when they got them back after the Glorious Revolution in Britain, the charters had a mandate that all "Protestants" must be treated equally, doing away with the paticularist Congregationalist mandate.

For a long time, America was not really plugged into the ideals of the Declaration of Independence at all, slavery aside.

[gopgen]

Right, they took absolutely no position when Trent Lott was under fire for his comments about Strom Thurmond.

Right?

[onyx]

LOL! Thanks.

[Torie]

Taft lived quite a long time, considering he weighed 300 hundred pounds. It must have been good genes.

[rcrngroup]

You don't know what you're talking about. He's a fiscal conservative.

Maybe you don't know what you're talking about.

"As chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Boehner helped shepherd Bush's No Child Left Behind education bill through the House. In 2002, Bush traveled to Boehner's district on Ohio's western border to sign the measure into law".

Isn't this the education bill that was almost exclusively written by left-wing Ted Kennedy for President Bush (another example of Bush's pandering to the DimWits) and then ramrodded through conservatives to get them to vote for it? I'm not giving any kudos to any of them who caved in on this either.

The point is, that many grass root conservatives feel that Boehner is part of the same embedded group of Republicans who have not followed through on reducing the size and cost of big government. Otherwise we would not have a federal government that is 40% greater in spending now than what it was 5 years ago. I don't know what his track record is in curbing & turning back illegal immigration either.

[Torie]

I suspect a solid majority of Republicans supported no child left behind. You may not care about dysfunctional inner city schools, and their continuing existence a stark impeachment of the ideal of equal opportunity, but the bulk of the Bush base does. Of that I am quite confident. Find some other Achilles heel.

[onyx]

Taft was 6'0" according to this: http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-u-s-presidents-by-height-order

At 300 lbs., he was a HUGE guy.

[Torie]

Taft when he left the White House was 340 pounds. He was a vertitable medical time bomb.

[rcrngroup]

What, President Bush couldn't find anyone else besides Ted Kennedy to write the bill, that was accepted virtually as is?

And if that isn't enough of an Achilles heel, than maybe the fact that big government spending has grown by 40% in the past 5 years under a Republican administration, Republican House & Senate should be sobering enough. If Boehner & other Republicans work hard to reduce & scale back the size of big government to what it was in 2000, than I will be more than satisfied with his performance and other Republicans as well.

[byteback]

To impose business with the enforsement responsibility is an unfunded mandate. At least I know you are a big tax type of guy as long as business pays up.