Guardian UK: Meet the House of Representatives of 2011: bland, far-right and corporate

[marmar]

Meet the House of Representatives of 2011: bland, far-right and corporate
The new Republican era is under way with John Boehner as the next speaker

Michael Tomasky
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 January 2011 20.59 GMT


Well, here we go. After an interminable reading of the roll – yes, the names were called of all 435 members of the 112th House of Representatives – that was dull even by C-SPAN's standards, the clerk announced at exactly 1.38pm this afternoon that John Boehner had received enough votes to be the next speaker. The new Republican era was underway.

I remember very well the last time the Republicans took over the House of Representatives, under Newt Gingrich 15 years ago. Gingrich was as outrageous and demagogic then as he is now—in 1991 he participated in the ghastly gay-baiting of the then-speaker, a Democrat, based on absolutely no evidence of any sort. But there was, all the same, something … I can't quite type "likeable", but original about him. He thought, as they say, outside the box. I'll never forget that in his maiden speech as speaker, after he accept the gavel from the very man he'd so cruelly slimed, he invoked Franklin Roosevelt. You could hear liberal Democrats in the chamber gasp. That took chutzpah. Yes, Gingrich kept it interesting.

About this bunch, there is nothing interesting. Most of them are as bland and odourless as they are mercilessly and unashamedly in the employ of corporate America. The ones who aren't that are so far to the right that even corporations, at least some of them, are suspect, insofar as they can be woven into the fabric of dark conspiracies about how the government and the banks and Hollywood are out to capture "your" freedom and make "you" submit to coastal, elitist norms.

Who are these people? Here's a small sampling.

Speaker John Boehner, one hears repeatedly, grew up the poor son of a publican and one of 12 children in the very conservative suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. One hears less often that his net worth now is between $2m and $7m. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/05/house-of-representatives-2011

[anamandujano]

1. "bland" -- yes, "odourless" -- not really

Gingrich is interesting like the mafia is interesting.