GOP Leader's 'Punk Staffers' Advice Sparks Tension

[sabra]

Source: CNBC/Reuters

The tension level in the debate on U.S. financial reform rose on Thursday as Democrats slapped back at a Republican leader's comment about "punk staffers" and a pivotal vote neared in the Senate.

White House economic adviser Larry Summers criticized remarks made by House Republican Leader John Boehner, who said at a bankers' conference: "Don't let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves."

Boehner told the bankers on Wednesday that even if the Senate produces a reform bill in the next few weeks, it could take a year to merge it with a bill approved by the House in December. That measure passed with no Republican votes.

Summers, speaking at an event at the National Press Club, said, "I do not think that those who want to address these issues are 'little punk staffers' who need to be stood up to."

The former Treasury secretary also said the banking industry has spent about $1 million on lobbying per member of Congress in recent months, and has as many as four lobbyists per member working the issue.

"We in the administration do not believe that the prominent issue is allowing bankers to stand up for themselves," Summers said, urging Congress to act soon on reform legislation.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/35933939

[louis-t]

1. That's it puggies, keep it up.

The more this is reported, the more pissed off voters will get at repugs.

[BlueIdaho]

2. Ah the Boner... An Asshat if there ever was one.

Good to see the republicans are working hard every day to protect their "base."

[ShockediSay]

10. Save this statment for the next election

Repugs represent bankers having their way with the vast majority of Americans

[yellowcanine]

3. Takes one to know one. Boehner is a punk all right.

Just sayin'.

[Lautremont]

4. What a devastating slap-back!

Republican: "Don't let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves."

Democrat: "I do not think that those who want to address these issues are 'little punk staffers' who need to be stood up to."

Oscar Wilde could not have penned a more wounding, rapier-like riposte.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tom_paine]

7. Yep. I would have never guessed 30 years ago that the Corporate M$M and RW Lie Machine would fuse

What's amazing is that, as per Ed Bernays' & Josef Goebbels' immutable laws of propaganda, bolstered by the finest in scientific research in behavioral and statistical/mass psychology, most people STILL believe the media is liberal.

:rofl:

As a heterosexual "3rd Classer" - not even from actually being incredibly leftist in my views but more from my moderate beliefs being radicalized by the mad path our nation has taken - I have often speculated that the only way it could be worse than being conscious and self-aware is if my genetics had made me homosexual instead of heterosexual.

You have it worse, by being conscious, self-aware AND homosexual. I sympathize, and certainly can relate to your bitterness as a "3rd Classer", myself.

I will say this, though it may be a longshot. If the American Corporatists can do what the German Industrialists failed to do, and that is maintain control over the demons they unleashed in the National Mind, then maybe homosexuals and 3rd Classers won't be liquidated in Slave Labor Camps - though we may have "Slave Wages Labor Camps" in a Far-Right Corporate Neofeudalism as opposed to "good old fashioned nazi-style totalitarianism", as you predict.

Funny thing is, as the "de riguer social order! Created & propagandized by Washington itself" or as I like to call it "BushoCorporate Lies Laundered Into Conventional Wisdom", says we ARE a Christian nation...

...even though Washington, Jeffrson, Franklin and Paine were Deists, and the Treaty of Tripoli (signed by many of the Founding Fathers) SAYS, "The United States of America is in no way founded on Christianity."

But what power does reality or what the Founding Fathers themselves said have to do with the "de riguer social order! Created & propagandized by Washington itself" or as I like to call it "BushoCorporate Lies Laundered Into Conventional Wisdom".

It's like living in a funhouse, or perhaps an American version of 1931 Germany.

[AlbertCat]

8. or perhaps an American version of 1931 Germany.

I'm sorry, but I can't imagine the (future) Nazis being this stooooopid.

[Alcibiades]

9. They were exactly this stupid

The attitude is exactly the same: instead of actually dealing with your opponent's debating points, find a way to dismiss him/her as somehow unworthy, i.e. not patriotic enough, unmanly, socialistic, etc. That's exactly how the Nazis did (and do) argue.

[daleo]

6. i.e. "dont' let those punk voters scare you". n/t