John Boehner Briefed Rush Limbaugh On Debt Plan Before He Briefed His Own Caucus
Stories like this make you wonder whose really in charge:
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) outlined the GOP’s debt-ceiling plan to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh on Monday before showing it to his conference.
On Monday during his radio program, Limbaugh talked about the call he received from Boehner. Limbaugh’s support of the plan would be advantageous to Republicans because it might help rally the conservative base.
The conservative radio host said Boehner outlined his two-step plan that includes $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and a $1 trillion hike in the debt ceiling. In the second step, a commission would be appointed to come back with additional deficit-reduction proposals, which the Congress could then vote on.
Limbaugh said Boehner told him he was working on the plan with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He also said President Obama was irritated at being left out.
“Boehner told Obama that, Obama got aggravated even more that he’s been left out of that,” Limbaugh said.
In a nod to the conservative anger over the fall-back proposal McConnell had put forward earlier in the month, Limbaugh said: “I’m told that Senator McConnell has been in a better position than he has been lately … he’s on the same page with Boehner now.”
In some sense it makes sense for Boehner to reach out to Limbaugh in this manner. The man has a huge audience of politically engaged conservatives and, if you want to keep the base on your side, it’s not a bad strategy to have the guy they listen to on your side. Additionally, Boehner’s plan was being made public while Limbaugh’s show was on the air yesterday and there’s a certainly PR advantage to having Limbaugh rally the base behind you while you’re rallying the caucus behind you.
At the same time, though, there’s something just odd about the idea that the Speaker of the House would talk to a radio talk show host before he’d talk to his colleagues.
I think we can pretty much mark this day as the end of the American experiment.
Stories like this make you wonder whose really in charge:
It doesn’t make us wonder, Doug. It confirms exactly what we’ve been saying for at least a solid decade. It’s just been inconvenient to listen while the GOP was still doing things you wanted them to do. Only now, when they’re stampeding off a cliff, and taking you & me & the rest of the country with them do you start to notice the cult of personality (and incompetent, venal personalities at that) the GOP has been run by.
It does make some sense, he was informing the audience, to give them a heads up by proxy, now seeing as this site consults the Journolists first, well there is a parallel,
there is absolutely nothing suprising about this.
@narciso: The fact that you think there’s total equivalence between a group of bloggers and the GOP’s Congressional leadership speaks volumes…
Maybe they enjoyed a good cry together over how trying it is to destroy the economy.
Umm, no, nice try though…the only way there would be a parallel is if Nancy Pelosi ever briefed Michael Moore or someone like that before she briefed her own caucus about a piece of legislation…
David Frum was right on the money when he remarked that the GOP thought Fox worked for them; but learned it is the other way round.
Y’all are right. Rush runs the country secretly from his broadcasting booth, in conjunction with the illuminati, the CFR, and the Bilderbergers. And he is actually getting his marching orders from aliens who have been living underground at Area 51 since the 50’s.
You folks are losing it big time and it’s hilarious. By the measuring stick used here, I’m now waiting expectantly for the left (and Mataconis) to finally admit that Obama is a created tool of Ayers and the Democratic Socialists.
Too funny….
it’s always good to have a Drug dependent ,4 times married pedophile on your side, typical of the right. Just waht were hie trips to the Dominican republic all about anyway