A SPEAKER LOBBYISTS WOULD LOVE

You don't know him, but THEY do.

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A SPEAKER LOBBYISTS WOULD LOVE
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You don’t know him, but THEY do.

“They” are the corporate executives and lobbyists who regularly ply Rep. John Boehner of Ohio with golf junkets, fancy dinners, trips on corporate jets, and bushel baskets full of campaign cash.

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Boehner, nicknamed “Suntan Johnny” because of his constant golf outings financed by these special interests, is the House Republican leader. Even though he’s been in the House since 1991, back when Daddy Bush was president, and even though he’s one of the most powerful officials in government, very few Americans have ever heard of him – and fewer still are aware of his obsequious service to corporate power. Even in Boehner’s home state, seven out of 10 voters (including most Republicans) don’t know him. Worse, of those who have heard of him, a majority have an unfavorable opinion.

But if the GOP wins control of the House in November’s elections, get ready to wish you’d never heard his name, for Boehner will become House Speaker, giving him the power to move the corporate agenda – running right over over working families, consumers, the environment, and the rest of us. Indeed, lobbyists for Wall Street, big insurance corporations, and drug giants are drooling at that prospect. To make their legislative fantasies come true, these corporate influence peddlers are shoveling millions of dollars into his campaign coffers, including his “Boehner for Speaker” slush fund.

This is Jim Hightower saying… Earlier this year, Boehner shamelessly wooed Wall Street banksters by promising to kill reform proposals that would rein in the Street’s rampant greed – in exchange for getting more political money from them. They agreed, and he tried mightily, but he couldn’t get it done. As speaker, however, he can… and will. This is not a guy you really want to get to know.

“Speaker Boehner? Big Givers Think So,” USA Today, September 30, 2010, http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20100930/1aboehner30_st.art.htm

“John Boehner? Who’s That?” New York Times, September 30, 2010,

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