Empty Words

Just when we finally figured he was acknowledging reality, he backtracked. Again. And we're pretty much back where we originally thought we were.

Last week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) openly mocked his own House Republican Caucus for refusing to pass comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). For a moment, it looked like Speaker Boehner was finally admitting in public what everyone on Capitol Hill discusses in private. And maybe, just maybe, there was finally an opening for CIR to pass the House.

But alas, it's not to be. Even after publicly mocking his own members, Speaker Boehner is once again declaring CIR dead in his lower House of Congress. Once again, his words have been proven to be empty. And once again, he's trying to blame President Obama for something Boehner himself admitted his party has done.

So we're back where we thought we always were. House Republican "leaders" occasionally make a big splash over their alleged "principles for immigration reform"... Only to kill their own zombie-fied "principles" over and over and over again because "argle bargle- OBAMA SCANDAL!!!- argle bargle".

So CIR is officially... Still available. No really, HR 15 still awaits action in the House. All it needs is for supposed "pro-reform Republicans" like Rep. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) to sign its discharge petition.

American families like Isaac Lugo's, Maria Esmeralda Conejo's, and Bryan Rivera's have been waiting far too long for craven (& often hypocritical) politicians to go beyond mere lip service. They've been waiting for real, concrete reform. And even though it's been 10 months since S 744 passed the Senate, the House still hasn't followed through on that long ago promised companion bill.

These American families don't need any more empty words. Neither do our communities. Neither does our economy. We need real reform. And if Speaker Boehner insists on providing nothing but more empty words, then those supposedly "pro-reform Republicans" need to stop uttering empty words and start offering real action.

Not the ENDA It

Today, we're supposed to believe House Republican "leaders" are all too willing to "work with President Obama" on a "number of issues". It just so happens that the "number of issues" that House "leaders" want to "work with President Obama" on are the very ("TEA" flavored) issues that the President has vowed to veto and the Senate simply won't pass (so they never even have a chance of reaching President Obama's desk). So much for that "Republican spirit of cooperation".

But wait, there's more! House Speaker John Boehner (R-Country Club) really wants everyone in America to know just how willing he is to work with the President. And how so? Oh, he's just promised again to block legislation that would give LGBTQ workers a fair shake.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told attendees last week at his first-ever meeting with the LGBT Equality Caucus there was “no way” the Employment Non-Discrimination Act would pass this year, according to a gay lawmaker who attended the meeting.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who’s gay and one of the caucus co-chairs, volunteered information Tuesday night about the meeting in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol when the Washington Blade asked him about his views on the absence of the ENDA from the State of the Union address.

“A number of us did meet with, actually the caucus met with Speaker Boehner,” Takano said. “He said no way was it going to get done in this session.”

Once again, we're seeing "Republican rebranding" at its finest. We're supposed to be wowed by the fact that Speaker Boehner actually meeting with the House LGBT Equality Caucus for the first time ever. What he failed to realize is that actions speak louder than words. And when even the words sound awful, that just worsens the problem.

Why are we supposed to believe Speaker Boehner's promises to cooperate with The White House and the Senate when he refuses to cooperate with them on bipartisan legislation like ENDA. It not only passed the Senate last November, but did so on a solid 64-32 bipartisan vote that included the likes of Senator Dean Heller (R-Remember Him?). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Fierce) has already offered Speaker Boehner one sickening olive branch. Why is Boehner so quick to throw it back, and do so with so much shade?

It's not as if ENDA has no chance of passing passing the House if it were allowed a floor vote. Au contraire, the bill now has 200 cosponsors in the House! Just this week, the now (in)famous Michael Grimm (R-Ummm, He's No Pushover?) became the 200th overall cosponsor and 6th Republican cosponsor. Why wouldn't Speaker Boehner bring to the floor a bill with this much bipartisan support in both houses of Congress?

Is he truly having trouble with "basic plumbing lessons"? Does he actually believe freedom from wrongful discrimination is "unnecessary"? Or is he really so afraid of the 21st Century Know Nothings that he'll scuttle yet another bipartisan backed bill in another desperate, futile attempt to placate them?

Whatever the case, this isn't the end of ENDA... Far from it.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words.

Last week, we looked at the increasingly evident failure of the Republican Party's "rebranding campaign". Even as party "leaders" have attempted to "soften their image" and "change the optics" of the Republican brand, the 21st Century Know Nothings have been pulling G-O-TEA politicians in the opposite direction. And so far, it looks like the 21st Century Know Nothings have the upper hand.

Case in point: Sharron Angle. She refuses to go away. Instead, she's become the de facto leader of Nevada Republicans. And now that she's hawking a brand new voter ID voter suppression initiative, Nevada Republicans will have an even harder time trying to convince minority voters that they "care about all Nevadans" and actually care about earning their votes. Why bother with that when Sharron Angle can just prevent them from voting in the first place?

And that brings us back to Sue Wagner. Her departure from the Republican Party should serve as a wake-up call. Once upon a time, she was considered to be the rising star most likely to become Nevada's first female Governor. But now, she's just another example of Republicans' rebranding FAIL.

On Tuesday, Republican "leaders" were hoping that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers' (R-Washington) "official Republican response" (as opposed to all the other ones) would help quell all the talk of their party's "rebranding" failure. Instead, it's been overshadowed by this Republican response.



Rep. Michael Grimm's shocking, violent confrontation of a reporter has not just turned the media's attention to Grimm's own troubled past, but also to the Republican Party's troubled present. This week was supposed to be all about the "new face of the party". Yet ironically enough, the "new faces" shown this week look an awful lot like the old ones we've come to recognize.

This week, the usual crew of "Republican leaders" are claiming their party is not trying to shove some crazed Culture War down Americans' throats, the critical mass of their own party continue to prove the opposite. After all, actions speak louder than words.