Thursday: Obama Says, John Boehner Is Bad Guy. Sunday: New York Times Says, John Boehner Is A Bad Guy

Obama gave a speech on Thursday where he repeatedly went after House GOP Leader John Boehner. This left many folks why Obama was picking a target no one outside of Ohio and political geeks had even heard of. My theory is, he simply needed a target for his daily Two Minutes of Hate leading up to the elections to rally the base and if he has to build one to do it, so be it.

Of course we should never underestimate the willingness of the lapdog media to help out the cause. To wit, today's front page piece (not sure if it's above the fold) in the NY Times headlined, "A G.O.P. Leader Tightly Bound to Lobbyists". To be honest, I haven't read it yet but I'm sure it meets the usual high standards the Times' normally applies when writing about Republicans and lobbyists (cough)Vicki Iseman(cough).

Boehner's team is fighting back.

In one key passage, the Times cites a lobbyist who says he "won" Boehner's backing on a number of high-profile matters. This is the passage, emphasis added:

"One lobbyist in the club -- after lauding each staff member in Mr. Boehner’s
office that he routinely calls to ask for help -- ticked off the list of recent issues
for which he had won the lawmaker’s backing: combating fee increases for
the oil industry, fighting a proposed cap on debit card fees, protecting tax
breaks for hedge fund executives and opposing a cap on greenhouse gas
emissions."

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel says he received a fact-checking email from Times reporter Eric Lipton Friday evening asking if Boehner did in fact oppose the cap on greenhouse gases, the tax change for hedge fund executives, the debit card fee cap, and increased fees on oil and gas companies. "Yes, that is correct," Steel responded to Lipton, adding "I can tell you why, if you care." Steel says he received no further notes from Lipton.

Interestingly Gibbsy is all over this story on Twitter.

Now that the Times has set the standard of going after Boehner and Obama's mouthpiece has given it his seal of approval, you can be sure we'll see more pieces like this throughout the MSM this week. American's need to get to know Obama's new Public Enemy Number 1 and they need to know him on Obama's terms.

The President whined last week about how "they" talk about him like a dog but it's clear the relationship is between Obama and the MFM is like the old RCA logo which was captioned, "His master's voice". In this case, Obama isn't the dog and the MFM knows who its master is.

posted by DrewM. at 10:59 AM

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