John Boehner

Mark Levin Discusses 'Liberty Amendments' With NewsBusters: 'Media Are a Mouthpiece for the State'
By Noel Sheppard | October 4, 2013 | 1:07 AM EDT

Mark Levin is a conservative talk radio host with a tradition of writing some of the finest non-fiction books of our time. Following in the footsteps of his best-sellers “Liberty and Tyranny” and “Ameritopia” comes “The Liberty Amendments,” a serious proposal to bring America back to its constitutional roots and away from the statism that progressives have created in the past hundred years.

Mark is a dear friend of the Media Research Center’s, and we welcome him once again to NewsBusters (video follows with  transcript):

MSNBC's Wolffe: 'Spoiled Children' GOP 'Will Not Be Trusted' 'For a Generation'
By Brad Wilmouth | October 2, 2013 | 4:40 PM EDT

On Tuesday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC.com Executive Editor Richard Wolffe -- formerly of Newsweek -- predicted that, because Republicans embraced the Tea Party, setting up the path to a government shutdown, Republican party members are "destroying their brand" and "will not be trusted" "for a generation to come." Wolffe began:

Tina Brown: GOP Donning 'Suicide Vests,' Boehner a 'Rallier of These Crazy People'
By Matt Hadro | October 2, 2013 | 12:32 PM EDT

On Tuesday's AC360 Later, Tina Brown said that Republicans are fighting ObamaCare with "suicide vests" and that President Obama looks "statesmanlike" in talking to Iran but not the GOP.

"Maybe Vladimir Putin can break the logjam here," The Daily Beast co-founder quipped. She added, "it is just incredible to me to watch these Republicans putting on their suicide vests and thinking this is going to have some kind of outcome for America."

MSNBC's Wagner Touts Guest Bartlett's Call for 'Well-Deserved Death' for 'Tea Party'
By Brad Wilmouth | October 1, 2013 | 4:41 PM EDT

On the Monday, September 30, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, substitute host Alex Wagner read a tweet written by guest Bruce Bartlett in which the former George H.W. Bush administration official expressed hope that the Tea Party would soon "die a well-deserved death."

After Bartlett referred to "Tea Party clowns" as he hoped that Republican leaders would manage to "put them down or limit their influence," Wagner expresed her approval of her guest calling Tea Party Republicans "clowns" as she began her response:

The Toilet Paper: New York Daily News Mocks Boehner As Leading a 'House of Turds'
By Tim Graham | October 1, 2013 | 8:42 AM EDT

Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty tweeted on Tuesday morning: “Once again, NY Daily News (Remember “Cry Baby”?) goes for the iconic #shutdown cover.” As in 1995, the Daily News is mudslinging at a GOP House Speaker during a shutdown.

“HOUSE OF TURDS,” said the cover, as Speaker John Boehner seems to sit in Abe’s chair at the Lincoln Memorial with something dark dripping from his hands. Blood? Feces? The caption over this “photo illustration” slammed Boehner and the Tea Party:

Halperin: Obama's Shutdown Strategy Banks On The Press Blaming Republicans Like They Did In the '90s
By Mark Finkelstein | September 30, 2013 | 7:54 AM EDT

The list of things on which Barack Obama has been wrong goes on to the crack of doom.  But there's one thing on which the President is surely right. In devising his strategy for dealing with the shutdown, the prez can count on the MSM to blame Republicans.

Mark Halperin bared the president's calculus on today's Morning Joe, saying the Obama admin has little incentive to negotiate because it believes a "sympathetic" press will blame Republicans like they did in the 1990s, accusing them of being "obstructionist."  View the video after the jump.

MSNBC Guest Attacks Boehner and Cantor During Segment on... Amanda Knox?!
By Paul Bremmer | September 25, 2013 | 10:04 AM EDT

MSNBC has been relentlessly ripping into congressional Republicans as of late, and it appears their mockery is so pervasive that it can spread into completely unrelated discussions. On Saturday’s Weekends with Alex Witt, investigative journalist Nina Burleigh took a cheap shot at House Republican leaders Eric Cantor and John Boehner during a segment about the Amanda Knox saga.

Burleigh said she did not think Knox and her boyfriend should return to Italy to face retrial for the murder of Knox’s roommate. She warned of the Italian justice system: “I wouldn't go back there because their system is such that they can put them into jail again right away and hold them. And so you know, why would you go back?”

MSNBC's Sharpton Slams 'Tea Party-Fueled Madness' Running 'This Country Into the Ground'
By Brad Wilmouth | September 23, 2013 | 5:38 PM EDT

On Friday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton complained that the "Tea Party-fueled madness" of the GOP threatening to shut down the government would "take away health care from millions of people."

He went on to charge that Speaker John Boehner possesses "genuine political cowardice" because he is allowing the Tea Party to "run this country into the ground."

Sharpton began the show:

Politico Gushes Over Obama’s ‘Dazzling’ Smile, Blasts ‘Extreme Views of His Die-hard Opponents’
By Randy Hall | September 19, 2013 | 9:37 AM EDT

In an effort to report on the popularity and status of President Barack Obama now that he's well into his second term in the White House, Politico website writers Todd S. Purdum and John F. Harris posted two articles on Wednesday. The first is entitled “What's wrong with President Obama?” and the second missive is called “And what's right with President Obama?”

The second article claims that Obama's personality is one of his strong points: “His smile remains dazzling, even if he flashes it less often.” That drew several responses from people on the Twitter social media website, including @KentBushart, who charged that the message is “Pure Presidential love from glue-sniffers at Politico.”

CBS Plays Up The Absence of Republican Speakers at King Anniversary
By Matthew Balan | August 29, 2013 | 5:17 PM EDT

On Thursday's CBS This Morning, Jeff Pegues spotlighted the lack of GOP speakers at the 50th anniversary commemoration of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech: "Noticeably absent from this event, the GOP...the two most senior Republicans in the House...were invited to speak but declined." However, Pegues failed to mention that the event organizers didn't make much of an effort to get Republican Tim Scott, the only current black U.S. senator, to speak.

The correspondent also zeroed in on former President Bill Clinton's dubious claim during his speech at the commemoration – that "a great democracy does not make it harder to vote than to buy an assault weapon." [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]

WashPost's Henderson Sees 'Raucous' GOP 'Freelance Artists' Playing to 'Overwhelmingly White' Districts
By Brad Wilmouth | August 7, 2013 | 12:30 PM EDT

On Tuesday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, after host Al Sharpton complained that House Speaker John Boehner's refusal to condemn birtherism feeds an inability to compromise with President Obama, Washington Post political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson agreed with Sharpton and asserted that Speaker Boehner "has not tried very hard to get the more raucous members of his caucus in check," and referred to some Republican House members as "freelance artists" in "overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly conservative" districts.

After guest and liberal talk radio host Joe Madison complained about Republicans trying to repeal ObamaCare, Sharpton raised one of Boehner's responses to birtherism. Sharpton:

TIME Writer Presents One-Sided Push For Earmarks, Backroom Deals
By Paul Bremmer | August 6, 2013 | 4:56 PM EDT

Wouldn’t it be great if Congress reinstated earmarks and started legislating from behind closed doors? That was the argument pushed by political reporter Zeke Miller in a Tuesday article on TIME.com’s Swampland page entitled “The Bipartisan Call to Bring Back the Smoke-Filled Room.” Miller presented  a thoroughly one-sided view of the subject, refusing to acknowledge the considerable downside of a lack of legislative transparency.

According to Miller, this idea to resurrect the proverbial smoke-filled room is championed by Colorado’s liberal Democratic governor, "John Hickenlooper, a potential 2016 democratic [sic] candidate for president" who "has a creative — and controversial — idea for ending Washington, D.C.’s partisan gridlock: start legislating from behind closed doors and bring back the earmark.”