These guys keep shooting themselves in the foot.

“This lady clearly has as agenda that’s different than most Republicans, she was out there promoting herself,” Boehner said, noting that he has encouraged all members of the GOP conference to support Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Mr. Boehner, with respect, this was blindly obvious to all of us outside the Beltway. You guys have spent $900,000.00 on a leftist who returned the favor by stabbing you in the back.

If you are clueless as to who you are backing for office, exactly how can we trust you on the bigger issues? The character of a man is best revealed in how he handles the small things.

Via her Facebook account, of course:

Mark my words - tomorrow is the game changer! Tune in to hear common sense solutions that bury the false accusations that conscientious members of Congress have no solutions to meet America’s health care challenges.

If you’re like me, shaking your head wondering why all the miscommunication between Washington and the American people who have been saying, “Please hear what we’re saying about our desire for health care reform,” then tomorrow will be a refreshing time of clarity for all.

As she notes, preview here. This will be interesting to see for two reasons; first off, as Dan Riehl notes this should provide Rep. Boehner’s address with a bit more traffic than these things usually get.  I’ll be interested to see whether or not it’ll be a significant spike, but it should be something.  Second: if you were holding out hope that former Governor Palin was going to play third-party advocate… you might as well stop.  This is her way of saying that NY-23 is a special case, not a general one; and that she’s still in, and in with, the GOP.

[Insert tired, yet labored Halloween cliche here.]

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

I’m translating this into English, of course - but not too much; Boehner made it clear Monday that the White House was disinterested in getting anything except a rubber-stamp on health care.

Earlier this year, GOP leaders sent a letter to the president in May stating that they would like to work with the administration to find “common ground” on healthcare reform.

But the administration responded with a tersely worded letter indicating that they had healthcare reform under control.

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UPDATE: By the way, if you agree, call John Boehner today at (202) 225-4000 and suggest Mitch Daniels give the Republican Response.

On Wednesday, September 9, 2009, Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress to pitch his his healthcare plan to the American people using the ultimate bully pulpit, some free press, and Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden standing behind him clapping, though not smiling due to their botox injections.

The GOP will air a response that at least some of the networks are going to cover.

I would encourage the GOP to put together an impromptu town hall forum with the Republican doctors in congress answering questions.

In lieu of that and because there problem is not much time to get it done, the GOP should let Gov. Mitch Daniels give the response to the President.

Gov. Daniels runs one of the few states running a budget surplus right now.

He has the fiscal knowledge and real world experience to explain, in laymen’s terms, the impact of Obamacare.

In 1993, Gov. Campbell of South Carolina gave the response to Bill Clinton’s healthcare speech.

A Governor should give this response because it will be at the state level that the greatest impact is felt. Don’t believe me? Why, Governor Mitch Daniels explains why here.

The Republican Leadership should choose to highlight its fiscally responsible Governors who have turned around their states. They did it with Bobby Jindal. They should now do it with Mitch Daniels.

The Republicans are engaging on this front. Good for them.

Congressmen Boehner and McCotter released the following statement:

Section 1233 of the House-drafted legislation encourages health care providers to provide their Medicare patients with counseling on ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration’ and other end of life treatments, and may place seniors in situations where they feel pressured to sign end of life directives they would not otherwise sign. This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law. At a minimum this legislative language deserves a full and open public debate – the sort of debate that is impossible to have under the politically-driven deadlines Democratic leaders have arbitrarily set for enactment of a health care bill.

“This provision of the legislation is a throwback to 1977, when the old Department of Health Education and Welfare proposed federal promotion of living wills for cost-savings purposes described as ‘enormous.’ At that time, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago decried this effort by saying: ‘The message is clear: government can save money by encouraging old people to die a little sooner than they otherwise would. Instead of being regarded with reverence, and cherished, human life is subject in this view to a utilitarian cost-benefit calculus and can be sacrificed to serve fiscal policy and the sacred imperative of trimming a budget.’

“With three states having legalized physician-assisted suicide, this provision could create a slippery slope for a more permissive environment for euthanasia, mercy-killing and physician-assisted suicide because it does not clearly exclude counseling about the supposed benefits of killing oneself.

“Health care reform that fails to protect the sanctity and dignity of all human life is not reform at all.”

That’s exactly right. The Democrats can say all they want that they just want to improve comfort and save costs at the end of life, but their actual rhetoric suggests something more. Look to the example I posted earlier about Oregon.

A man who could not afford chemotherapy was told by the government that they’d help him commit suicide instead of helping him live.

It’s not hyperbole. It is already reality.

That’s House Minority Leader John Boehner’s response to CoS Rahm Emanuel’s rather… well, sad… statement that the White House has turned the economy around:

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Back last month, House Minority Leader John Boehner made the following comment about government-run health care options:

“Listen, if you like going to the DMV and you think they do a great job, or you like going to the post office and think it’s the most efficient thing you’ve run into, then you’ll love the government-run health care system that they’re proposing because that’s basically what you’re going to have,”

…to which a variety of people who do, indeed, love the DMV/Post Office as examples of government-run agencies reacted in various levels of reflexively sardonic befuddlement.  The DMV comparison was usually skipped over, in favor of the USPS: after all, what’s wrong with them?  44 cents for a stamp, send it out, gets where it’s going.  Great, right?

Sure.  Until they can’t make payroll.

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There are some calls out there right now to boycott the NRCC over the 8 cap-and-trade votes cast by the GOP.

Are we going to seriously punish Dave Reichert for voting for cap-and-trade when he barely won his district in 2008 and something like 70% of his district both supports cap-and-trade and thinks environmental issues are the most important issues in Congress? If so, don’t delude yourself into ever thinking we’ll get the majority back.

Some Republicans have to vote in ways the majority of us find detestable in order to stay in Congress.

But then there is Bono Mack, Castle, and Kirk. They did not have to vote that way. I am most troubled by Congresswoman Mack and think we should beat both her and her useless husband.

Of note, and one reason I do not think we should do to the NRCC what we are doing to the NRSC (in addition to a boycott of the NRCC totally obscuring exactly why we need to punish the NRSC), even the House GOP leadership quickly threw the eight yes votes under the bus.

When is the last time you have seen the Senate GOP do that?

On Friday night, the House GOP sent out a press release blasting the passage of H.R. 2454 and listed the names of all eight Republicans who voted for it. The Senate GOP would never do that.

Not only that, but John Boehner took to the floor of the House to engage in a quasi-filibuster of the legislation. Please note that those criticizing Boehner for not making it a full filibuster are under the impression that he could have done so. Boeher was speaking with “unlimited” time, which actually meant he was speaking for as long as the Speaker would allow him — a big difference and something he cannot afford to abuse.

Boehner tied up the House for an hour by daring to read the legislation and then the House GOP Leadership sent out a release blasting the eight Republicans who voted for cap-and-trade. I dare Mitch McConnell to be so bold.

McConnell’s typical idea on something like this would be to get an amendment allowing drilling for oil in one square inch of ANWR, then declare compromise a success and vote for the thing. Hopefully, in this battle, he will be a fighter not a squish. He should remember what John Boehner did both before and after the vote, then act the same way.

In today’s “Weekly Republican Address,” House Republican Leader John Boehner asks, “Where are the jobs?”

It’s a good question. After all, to justify spending trillions of borrowed money on President Obama’s so-called stimulus, energy and health care bills, Obama and the Democrats promised the unprecedented spending would create jobs:

The president and Democrats in Congress claim this spending binge is necessary to put Americans back to work. They promised unemployment would not rise above 8 percent if their trillion-dollar stimulus was passed.

But our nation has lost nearly three million jobs this year. Unemployment has soared above 9 percent. And now the president admits that unemployment will soon reach double digits.

After all of this spending, after all of this borrowing from China, the Middle East, our children and our grandchildren, where are the jobs?”Where are the jobs?”

You can watch Leader Boehner’s address in the following video:

Here’s another question. Why do Congressional Democrats continue to pursue economic, health care, energy, and  environmental policies that will destroy more American jobs and drive future generations into deeper debt?

Congressman John Boehner is on the floor of the House of Representatives engaging in a rare House filibuster. Boehner, given unlimited speaking time, is reading the text of Henry Waxman’s 300 page amendment to the Cap and Trade legislation.

Here’s what I need you to do:

Go here right now to get your Congressman’s phone number.

Call your Congressman right now.

Tell him to vote no on Waxman-Markey, H.R. 2454, the cap and trade legislation.

Several Democrats who were voting yes are now undecided.

Call your member now.

No thanks.

It’s not that I don’t want the GOP in charge, it’s just I’ve never seen running against a personality to be an effective approach. God knows Jim Marshall would be toast in GA-08 if running against Nancy Pelosi were a winning strategy.

And perhaps we don’t need to make it about incumbent personalities, but actual, factual, challengers to Democrat incumbents.

Oh, and, unless it was intended to be a soft launch, this is the proverbial impact.

Whoops! I was channeling Maureen Dowd there, for a moment*.

Anyway, the title is of course from Hot Air Headlines, and it refers to this story:

GOP leader: Pelosi should show proof or apologize

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A key Republican leader demanded Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi produce evidence to back up her assertion that she was misled by the CIA on the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

[snip]

“Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“If the speaker is accusing the CIA and other intelligence officials of lying or misleading the Congress, then she should come forward with evidence and turn that over to the Justice Department so they be prosecuted. And if that’s not the case, I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world.”

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Just hours after the House Democratic leadership forced President Obama’s $3,600,000,000,000.00 budget for fiscal year 2010 through the House Budget Committee, the House GOP unveiled their alternative to the president’s astronomical spending bill (the GOP document can be seen here, courtesy of good friend and RS contributor Dan Spencer).

President Obama has pulled out all the stops in pushing his multi-trillion-dollar budget, which even USA Today has called “unprecedented in size [and] breathtaking in scope.” He has returned to campaign mode, mobilizing as much of his Obama/Organizing for America volunteer force as possible (a number which, it turns out, is significantly lower than that which was willing to help him get elected in the first place) and sending them door-to-door to evangelize for a document they haven’t read (and which will saddle them, their children, and their grandchildren with ridiculous amounts of debt). He has called for public input and participation in a TeleTownHall held today.

And, last night, in a move reminiscent of his actions during the actual campaign, Obama threw down the figurative gauntlet to detractors from his $3,600,000,000,000.00 spending plan, saying “To a bunch of the critics out there, I’ve already said, show me your budget! I’m happy to have that debate.”

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The Republicans are in a fighting mood:

Last Friday, ten House Republican leaders sent a letter to President Barack Obama. In it, they offered to work across party lines and Congressional divisions with the new president to achieve the latter’s stated commitment “to fiscal transparency and accountability and ensuring that [all] spending commitments are paid for without burdening our children and grandchildren with excessive debt,” and to “slash[ing] earmarks to no greater than 1994 levels and ensur[ing] all spending decisions are open to the public.”

The Republican leaders wrote:

In keeping with these pledges to the American people, we urge you to veto the so-called “omnibus” spending bill passed this week if the Senate fails to reject it.

Like the trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill that was rushed through Congress without any Member having read it, the $410 billion legislation passed this week openly defies your commendable objectives of fiscal transparency and accountability. It contains nearly 9,000 “airdropped” earmarks, most of which were not even considered in committee let alone on the House floor as is routine — compared to roughly 4,000 in 1994. …

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Update: An emailer points out that the 54 Rs and Ds who abstained from voting on the motion must have made President Obama, with his history of over 100 “present” votes in the Illinois state legislature, very proud.

Minority Leader John Boehner’s Motion to Recommit, which would have frozen federal spending at current levels and stripped the 9,000 un-reviewed earmarks from the $410,000,000,000.00 omnibus spending bill currently working its way through Congress, was voted down 160-218 this afternoon.

Every Republican who voted did so in support of the measure, as did 8 Democrats (Reps. Altmire, Childers, Donnelly, Ellsworth, Giffords, Minnick, Mitchell and Nye; h/t Connie Hair at HE for the names).

26 Republicans and 28 Democrats abstained from voting on the motion altogether.

The 26 Republicans who abstained from voting on this motion are listed below the fold. Is your Congressman one of them?

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We’ve received word that House Republicans plan to force a vote this morning on a spending freeze that would lock in federal spending at current levels and strip the $410,000,000,000.00 “omnibus” spending bill of all 9,000 “un-scrutinized earmarks.”

Though certain to fail, this is another laudable move from a GOP minority that unanimously opposed the nearly $1,000,000,000,000.00 in pork-barrel waste that made up President Obama’s “stimulus” package.

GOP leaders have also called on Obama to veto the omnibus when it passes the Democrat-led legislature, but the likelihood of the man who already signed that $1,000,000,000,000.00 spending bill (while declaring the pork-laden monstrosity “free of earmarks”) is, in my estimation, a bit less than the likelihood of his actually taking up Rush Limbaugh on the latter’s offer of a public debate.

Update: The AP says the following:

The top Republican in the House is seizing on the latest spike in unemployment to call for a freeze on government spending and to urge President Barack Obama to veto a $410 billion spending bill.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the jump in unemployment to 8.1 percent and the loss of 651,000 jobs in February is a sign of a worsening recession that demands better solutions from both parties.

Boehner criticized the spending bill as chocked full of wasteful, pork-barrel projects. The Senate postponed a vote on the bill until Monday amid the criticism.

Boehner said he hoped Obama would veto the bill. He urged the president to work with House Republicans to impose a spending freeze until the end of this fiscal year.

Update 2: Boehner’s office had the following to say about the Motion to Recommit:

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A post-Porkulus video from the Whip’s office:

Kudos once again to the House GOP, which held the line in unanimity not once, but twice, against the Democrats’ Porkulus charge.

Senator McConnell, the day you rein in Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe and lead your caucus in holding the line on a transformational piece of legislation like this, we might have space for a kinder word — or even a fun video — for you here at RedState.

However, letting the three votes needed to pass an increase of $800,000,000,000.00 in debt slip away cost you a good bit of goodwill here, at least with me.

Congrats again to Reps. Boehner and Cantor.