The Tears of a Clown

It’s like watching the proverbial train wreck unfold right before your eyes. John Boehner is drug addicted and not in control of his emotions, and he is third in line to become President of the United States, should both President Obama and Vice President Biden be unable to serve (sort of like being the runner-up in the Miss America contest). Someone please pull the emergency cord before it’s too late and we find Boehner “driving that train, high on Merlot”

I am sure there have been abusers of drugs and alcohol in the House and Senate and in the Oval Office before. Richard Nixon drank heavily throughout his final days as the leader of the free world. Now that was a scary situation, but under the circumstances, I can understand his need to hit the bottle. He was under great stress and strain. But John Boehner is under no such duress, yet he is a heavy smoker and drinker, both of which he has admitted he cannot control and has no intention of quitting. As a result, he is an emotional wreck, unpredictable and a potential threat to our nation, should he have to take command of the country’s leadership.

Boehner is frequently crying and over-emotional at public events and during sessions of Congress. He sobbed uncontrollably during a 60 Minutes interview last year (Boehner Crying) and again last week during an interview with Bob Schieffer of CBS News (maybe he has a thing for CBS).

The evidence strongly supports intervention -- Boehner’s stability is suspect. So far he has been given a free pass from the public and the press. Why is he not under greater scrutiny for public crying and sobbing, like Edmund Muskie in 1968 or Hilary Clinton during the New Hampshire Democratic primary of 2008?

Boehner himself admits that he is addicted to drugs (tobacco is a drug as classified by the AMA) and is unable to quit. Read his own comments on the subject from this news article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/12/ftn/main6858709.shtml

If you want to use drugs and alcohol, and are willing to accept the consequences, then I’m not one to interfere with your choices. As long as it doesn’t affect other’s health or well being, if you want to abuse your body and mind, it’s your choice.

However, if you are third in line for the Presidency then your drug use should be the concern of all citizens.

“The limbic system, which consists of the hippocampus and septal area of the brain, controls memory and emotions. The affect of alcohol on this system is that the person may experience some memory loss and may have exaggerated states of emotion.” From Bloodalcohol.com

John Boehner is clearly suffering from the effects of alcohol use, as evidenced by his frequent public emotional breakdowns. He displays exaggerated states of emotion with the slightest provocation. I can understand the recent speech on the floor of Congress regarding the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabriella Giffords, in which he could barely speak through his tears. That was a difficult situation for Boehner, as he no doubt was full of emotion and personal guilt for not speaking out against gun violence and voting to repeal the assault weapons ban in 2003.

But when he is simply talking about his boyhood jobs, or how he wants the American dream to come true for the youth of our country, and cries uncontrollably with heavy sighs, blubbering like an overly dramatic soap opera star, you have to question his mental stability.

He should have the good sense to resign from Congress and allow a more capable and stable person to take over the House leadership. He needs to go into treatment and cure his addictions. I am sure his family is troubled by his frequent emotional breakdowns and they would be relieved if he quit Congress and sought help. We all would be relieved if John Boehner found a way to manage his addictions and become emotionally fit to serve our country again.

But if the alcohol and tobacco have impaired his judgment to the point where he cannot see what is best for him and the country, we the people will have to pressure the Republican leadership to remove Boehner from office. Write your congressman and write to the Republican leadership and demand that they remove Boehner from office before he becomes the nation’s train conductor. Or that proverbial train wreck might just become a reality for you and me.

First Time Out

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Are you ready for the Sarah Palin show at the Tea Party convention tonight? I will watch with interest, as this is a fascinating slice of political life in America. Here we have a group of patriotic Americans that sat on their hands during the entire Bush administration, now erupting with outrage at the goings on in their government. After the Patriot Act, after the coverup and marketing of the Pat Tillman killing, after the marketing of the capture and rescue of Jessica Lynch, after VP Dick Cheney told the American people that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, after the incompetence of the response to Katrina....shall I go on....okay, after record deficits, after record spending, after nominating Harriet Meirs to the Supreme Court, after a near collapse of the economy, after a three page response by the Treasury Secretary to the near collapse of the economy....shall I go on? Okay, after Alberto Gonzalez...okay, okay I give up....Let me get to the point. After all of these failures and lies and incompetence, the Tea Party forms in April 2009 and a group of Americans decides they've had enough and want to take their government back. Where were they in 2005? 2006? 2007? 2008? Let me tell you where they were and why they stayed hidden until now.

The American people have always been a NIMBY type of society. Keep the problems on the other side of town and we'll be fine. Put the garbage dump over there, not here. As long as the train runs through the poor section of town, fine, but don't put those tracks within my earshot or there will be hell to pay. But when it comes to a MIMBY, or Minority In My Back Yard, it is a different story. In a MIMBY situation many Americans responded by selling everything and moving to the suburbs. Sadly, for others the response was to surround the new neighbor's house with pointy white hoods and torches and drive the problem out of the neighborhood.

So am I saying the The Tea Party is the equivalent of the KKK? No, I'm not. Tea Party members are smarter than that, so they would never admit to straight up racism and hatred and the obvious dismissal of their cause. But don't you find it interesting that the first time an African American moves into the "people's house," the neighbors surround it with white tea bags and threaten to "take our government back?" Or they claim that President Obama is a Socialist, Marxist, Hitler and baby killer? Why now? Why not two years ago?

So what do you make of the Tea Party?

If the Tea Party was about loss of confidence in government, budget deficits, tax policy, spending or health care it would have formed on April 15, 2007, when there was clear evidence that the economy was on a downward spiral and the government had no plan or response. Isn' t that the time to form a Tea Party and revolt against the government's inability to work effectively on behalf of the American people?

In my opinion this is an issue of race, and the inability for some Americans to accept an African American as the leader of our country. There is an African American in the neighborhood and it's time to revolt, with the excuse that somehow the government is no longer representing the people. All the other stuff is cover for a MIMBY attitude that has taken shape in the form of the Tea Party.

So the Tea Party will surround Sarah Palin tonight and worship her brand of political activism. And the pundits will question whether this is a serious political movement or a fad. My belief is we better get used to the Tea Party, and count on the MIMBY phenomenon to be active and vigorous for the next three years, at least.