Matt Taibbi's Theories on Boehner's Tears, and What Really Scares Americans

Before delving into the disturbing psyche of House Speaker John Boehner, as Matt Taibbi did in the current issue of Rolling Stone, Imus asked the former resident of Russia about New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, whose massive metals company is “one of the worst environmental violators in the world,” according to Taibbi.
 
“He’s a very shady character, who was made an instant gazillionaire, mainly because he had friends in the government,” Taibbi said, pointing out that Prokhorov’s “friends” are, in reality, gangsters. Needless to say, Taibbi was caught by surprise when the NBA approved Prokhorov’s purchase of the Nets. “I was like, ‘They let him in the country?’”
 
Less slimy, but not by much, is Boehner, who Taibbi called “the quintessential, inside-the-Beltway hack,” who is “all about raising money, and delivering favors to campaign contributors.” And his ability to cry on demand is just the cherry on top of an already deliciously evil sundae.
 
Imus shared with Taibbi his wife’s belief that Boehner’s emotions, while over-the-top, are real; they’re just not about the issues he claims they’re about. Taibbi, however, attributed the waterworks to something else entirely.
 
“I think it’s more like a nervous tick, actually, than an emotion,” he said. “He cries at really odd times, and it doesn’t seem like he’s really sad when he’s crying, or overwhelmed with emotion. It seems like a nervous response.”
 
For example, Boehner shed some tears in 2008 during a debate on the House floor about the TARP bailout. “The argument is, ‘We need to give $700 billion to J.P Morgan,’ and he’s crying about that?” Taibbi said. “It’s hard to imagine he was driven to tears by his overwhelming concern for Jamie Dimon.”
 
Taibbi has been surprised that in the wake of the shootings in Tucson, Arizona, where six people were killed and 13 wounded, among them Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, no attention has been paid to rhetoric Boehner used last year about former Rep. Steve Driehaus during the health care debate.
 
“He said that Driehaus, because he supported the health care bill, may be ‘a dead man’ when he goes back to Cincinnati, that he shouldn’t be able to walk the streets in that city,” Taibbi said. Though Driehaus told Taibbi he tried to dissuade Boehner from speaking so strongly, Boehner had brushed him off. “He said, ‘You know I didn’t mean it that way.’ But he never apologized.”
 
Taibbi continued, “ Politicians know what they’re doing when they use language like this. They know it eggs people on. They have to have some kind of accountability. And here’s John Boehner: he’s the head of his party, and he’s done this, and he hasn’t taken the time to reexamine his own behavior.”
 
Based on information gleaned from firsthand reporting, Taibbi is acutely aware that many Americans fear the government is going to literally come to their homes and strip them of their rights, their wealth, and, their guns, and it’s not because nobody is telling them so.
 
“I understand this guy in Arizona was a schizophrenic, and this could have happened at any time,” Taibbi said. “In the context of everything else, I think it’s worth it to have this discussion of what we’re all doing. I use a lot of crazy language too.”
 
While Taibbi noted that the goal of public figures employing terms like “Don’t retreat, reload!” is to entertain, and not to incite violence, he added, “It’s also dangerous for a certain segment of the population.”
 
Not as dangerous, perhaps, as making videos of yourself and your spouse acting out foot fetish fantasies, as New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan and his wife allegedly did, and then leaking those home movies on the internet.
 
“I don’t know much about feet, other than I have a couple of them,” Imus noted. “But that girl’s got some fugly feet.”
 
-Julie Kanfer

Comments

[Canada Doug]

After years of cowboy boots I will bet "the Ranch FarM"
that old Imus got some pigeon toad feet
Canada Doug
CANCER SUCKS.COM