John Boehner just ups and cries lately. Why is he crying, are they just crocodile tears? Like TPM’s Josh Marshall I am also: Having a hard time reconciling the teary John Boehner of late with the cold, hard, nicotine-stained pol we've all known for the last 20 years. No doubt it’s complex.
Long ago on a flatbed railroad car in New Hampshire what might have been snow flakes but what was believed to be public crying (over come with emotion!) rapidly ended the 1972 presidential primary bid of Maine’s Democratic Sen. Ed Muskie. Times have changed and public displays of emotion are more accepted. They also help ratings. We all now know that Glenn Beck uses Vick’s Vapo-rub under his eyes to bring on the tears for his followers.
The American Dream may be the cause. On CBS’s 60 Minutes when asked about his crying he said “Making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream like I did is very important” and choked up and cried. One of Boehner’s fellow congressmen explains that he is "one of the more sensitive people" in Congress and that he often gets touched enough to cry.
Hunter S. Thompson famously blamed the exotic drug Ibogaine for Ed Muskie’s tears but I wouldn’t go so far in this situation. Maybe the simplest explanation could be true here. Unlikely as it may seem, maybe Boehner is just a sensitive guy.
However the NY Times Opinionator blog’s Timothy Eagan notes the future Speaker of the House’s record, is a genuine crying shame for the middle class.
But a look at Boehner’s record during his two decades in Congress shows a man who has voted against nearly every boost for the working stiff. There’s no empathy for those with the longest shots at the American Dream in his voting pattern. Instead, we see a politician who is hard-hearted in his legislative treatment of the people now coping with the kind of economic conditions in which the Boehner family grew up.
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