John Boehner, the former House Speaker who represented Ohio for 12 terms in Congress as a Republican, is going scorched earth on the GOP.
In a jawdropping excerpt of his soon-to-be released memoir On the House published Friday by Politico, Boehner takes no prisoners — going after the party of which he was once a leader in devastating fashion.
The excerpt opens with Boehner recalling an orientation he gave to incoming GOP congressman elected in a 2010 red wave. Turns out he thought little of that freshman crop.
“I had to explain how to actually get things done,” Boehner said. “A lot of that went straight through the ears of most of them, especially the ones who didn’t have brains that got in the way. Incrementalism? Compromise? That wasn’t their thing. A lot of them wanted to blow up Washington. That’s why they thought they were elected.”
He added, “To them, my talk of trying to get anything done made me a sellout, a dupe of the Democrats, and a traitor. Some of them had me in their sights from day one. They saw me as much of an “enemy” as the guy in the White House.”
Indeed, Boehner argues that the party’s disdain for former President Barack Obama largely fueled the GOP, during that time.
“People really had been brainwashed into believing Barack Obama was some Manchurian candidate planning to betray America,” Boehner wrote.
The blowback Boehner got for acknowledging Obama was born in the United States during a 2011 appearance on NBC served as something of a signal for him of a turning point in the GOP.
“My answer was simple: ‘The state of Hawaii has said that President Obama was born there. That’s good enough for me,’” Boehner said. “It was a simple statement of fact. But you would have thought I’d called Ronald Reagan a communist. I got all kinds of shit for it—emails, letters, phone calls. It went on for a couple weeks. I knew we would hear from some of the crazies, but I was surprised at just how many there really were.”
The excerpt’s devastating coda, in which Boehner summarizes the party’s descent into “crazytown,” previewed the emergence of another prominent Republican with whom Boehner locked horns.
“There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else,” Boehner wrote. “Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator Ted Cruz.”
The post ‘Crazytown’: Fmr. House Speaker John Boehner Goes SCORCHED EARTH on GOP Including ‘Reckless A**hole’ Cruz in Jawdropping Book Excerpt first appeared on Mediaite.
