It's about inspiring confidence, John

[sunwyn]

This showed up in local Middletown Ohio Journal today. I am in the 8th district and I can fully relate. http://www.middletownjournal.com/o/content/oh/story/opinions/editorial/2006/10/05/mj100506editorial.html


It's about inspiring confidence, John

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Honorable John Boehner

1011 Longworth House Office Building

Washington D.C. 20515

Majority Leader Boehner,

Sir, it appears that an already difficult political year for House Republicans — and for you — has become still more difficult.

Although White House spokesman Tony Snow first dismissed former Rep. Mark Foley's pursuit of Congressional pages as a problem of "naughty e-mails," some of your colleagues in the House GOP caucus appear to understand that this is much more.

Rep. Ray LaHood, of Illinois, told The New York Times this week that the Foley scandal is a "political problem." LaHood said his constituents are asking him about the issue, and he added: "We need to admit that this was done on our watch."

Cliff Kincaid, editor of the conservative Accuracy in Media Report, went further. In a editorial circulated by Gopusa.com, Kincaid called the matter "one of the worst Congressional scandals ever."

To top it off, by now you've surely read the Washington Times editorial calling for Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign. That from the newspaper which is arguably friendliest to Republicans.

We wish we could say that you are reacting to this problem with the same kind of intensity as, say, Rep. LaHood. In an interview Tuesday morning on WLW Radio, you failed to shed meaningful new light on the what has already transpired, and you failed to say much of anything about how House leaders will lead.

At one point, as interviewer Mike McConnell recounted tale after tale, you mildly replied, "I read the same stories."

With respect, Rep. Boehner, that kind of statement does not inspire confidence.

Indeed, at another point in the interview, you appeared to place the ball firmly in Hastert's court, saying you had spoken with the speaker. "It's his responsibility," you said.

But then, there's a lot of that going on these days. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, who's in charge of the House GOP campaign effort, acknowledged learning about Foley's suggestive e-mails to teenage pages last spring. Said Reynolds, "I heard something, I took it to my supervisor."

Again: not inspiring.

We would hope to hear more — much more, actually. As leader of the party controlling the United States House of Representatives, we hope you know more than a radio talk show host. We hope you're doing more than keeping up with news clippings — or keeping your boss informed.

Because this is more than a political problem. It's a stewardship problem.

It's more than a problem of one congressman's behavior.

It's a problem of a party being in charge of what should be the people's house and growing more distant from those very people.

It's a problem of a House leadership team reacting to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff's misdeeds with nothing approaching real reform.

It's a problem of a party that touts its wariness of government bloat actually engineering greater bloat while at the very helms of power.

And yes, it's a problem of Eighth District residents here in economically troubled Ohio, asking out loud what difference it makes to them whether their representative is majority leader or even speaker.

To be clear, Rep. Boehner: We do not blame you for a former representative's misdeeds. Mr. Foley was and is an adult.

But there are reasons why many Democratic congressional candidates appear to be polling better than their Republican opponents — why the very majority you lead may be endangered.

It may be that the House's ship is listing. If so, we would not be surprised if voters moved on Nov. 7 to right the ship.

Again with respect: If that happens, House Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves. And the question of whether you step down from your majority leader post will become a moot point.