Ruh-Roh! Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is not just furious that Speaker of the House John Boehner blocked a vote on relief to Hurricane Sandy victims before adjourning last night but he's telling New Yorkers and New Jerseyans not to contribute to Congressional Republicans as a result.
On Fox News' America's Newsroom today, King told a sympathetic Arthel Neville:
Within 10 days after Katrina, $60 billion was appropriated. Nine weeks after Sandy, not one penny has been appropriated. And let me just make this one point. These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars. They’re in New York all the time filling their pockets with money from New Yorkers. I’m saying right now, anyone from New York and New Jersey who contributes one penny to Congressional Republicans is out of their mind. Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.
...Why the Republican party has this bias against New York, this bias against New Jersey, this bias against the Northeast. They wonder why they’re becoming minority party. Why we’re gonna be a party of the permanent minority. What they did last night was so immoral, so disgraceful, so irresponsible. They’re supposed to be the party of family values. And you have families that are starving, families that are suffering, families that are spread all over living in substandard housing. This was a disgrace. They are inexcusable. And they have had it. As far as I’m concerned I’m on my own. They’re going to have to go a long way to get my vote on anything.
But you know the people planning to run against them have their people committing these to DVD for future use. The pwnage is gonna be epic.
Wonder if this has anything to do with Boehner’s dropping the F-bomb on Harry Reid at the WH last Friday:
John Boehner to Harry Reid: “Go F— Yourself” House Speaker John Boehner couldn’t hold back when he spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last Friday. It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal. “Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present. Reid, a bit startled, replied: “What are you talking about?” Boehner repeated: “Go f— yourself.”
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/01/02/john-boehner-to-harry-reid-go-f-yourself/#disqus_thread
To paraphrase Alderman Swayzak {JT Walsh} in Backdraft: “Speaker Boehner, you see that glow in the corner of your eye? It’s your career dissapation light, and it’s going into overtime.”
.
And the other real difference with Katrina is that the money went so fast because (A) Dubya needed to do something QUICK to make up for his dilly-dallying during the storm and (B) the GOP in 2005 wasn’t as batshit insane as the GOP of 2012/13. King might want to recall what’s happened with the GOP since 2009. The GOP primaries, which have always catered to the “die-hard” party voters, have now been taken over by the Teabaggers who don’t seem to have a problem when they’re the beneficiaries of government largesse but hate all the “moochers” (especially the ones with a touch too much melanin and who also “talk funny”—though they’re not too worried about funny-talking folks who sound like Larry the Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy) getting government money.
Boehner’s done- that comment destroyed what 2014 chances he has left. And he’s done twice either way with King. In fact, as odd as it sounds… dropping an F-Bomb in King’s face is his only shot at saving some of his own. On the grounds that being consistent with both sides will open up some spin opprotunities when he calms down.