On MSNBC's Political Nation Friday evening, host Al Sharpton interviewed Ryan Grim, Washington bureau chief for The Huffington Post. They spoke about House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH):
GRIM: So, you`re right, the record that he is amassing is probably one of the most extreme records that a House Speaker has put up in decades.
SHARPTON: Well, based on your last statement, he being probably the most extreme Speaker we`ve seen in decades, should President Obama even bother negotiating with him?
GRIM: No, he probably shouldn`t. He should do the opposite approach.
If these guys really think Boehner is probably the most extreme speaker in recent history, they must have mighty short memories. Does the name Nancy Pelosi sound familiar, Reverend Al?
She served as speaker from 2007 to 20011. Before the election that brought her to power, she said she didn’t “really consider ourselves at war” with terrorism. That may partially explain her votes as the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. In the years prior to 9/11, despite her having inside knowledge of the threats confronting the U.S., she regularly voted against intelligence funding.
Dependably pro illegal immigrant, pro abortion on demand, and pro big labor bosses, Pelosi voted more liberal on social policy issues than 96 percent of her colleagues, according to the nonpartisan National Journal. Her grade from the National Taxpayers Union for the year before Democrats took control of the House was an F, as it had been for the entire previous decade.
Her extremism even extended to for the Boy Scouts. The president of the U.S. serves as honorary president of that organization. In 2000, she and ten other members of Congress wrote to President Clinton, requesting he resign from the Boy Scouts because of the organization’s “unacceptable” policy of banning homosexuals from leadership positions. Out of over 200 House Democrats, fewer than a dozen Democrats signed the letter. Pelosi was one of them.
As speaker, she shoved through ObamaCare, about which she remarked, "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it." She pushed Obama's stimulus. These are but two of the many reasons why the national debt increased from $8.7 trillion to just under $14 trillion during her term as speaker.
In light of all this, John Boehner is probably the most extreme speaker we've seen in decades. The Rev and Grim should take their comedy routine on the road. They'd probably have a bigger audience.
