Boehner plays into Democrats hands. “We are not going to be any different than what we’ve been.”

[jefferson_dem]

From Boehner’s Lips, Fodder for Democrats
By MICHAEL SHEAR

The idea behind Thursday morning’s news conference by House Republican leaders was not to provide ammunition for Democrats.

But that may be what happened.

Even as Representative John Boehner, the Republican leader, was trumpeting the “Pledge for America,” he may have inadvertently played right into the hands of the White House and Democratic candidates.

In answer to a question from a reporter, and with the cameras running, Mr. Boehner said: “We are not going to be any different than what we’ve been.”

That is exactly the message President Obama and his allies have been trying to drive home throughout the summer. The president is especially fond of saying that the Republicans running for Congress want “the next two years to look like the eight years before I took office.”

In speech after speech, Mr. Obama has tried to link the Republican party of today with the policies of the past. At a New York fundraiser at the Roosevelt Hotel this week, Mr. Obama said it again.

“It’d be one thing if the Republican candidates looked back at the last decade and they said, “You know what? Our policies didn’t work. We ended up in a terrible recession. Let’s try something new’,” he said. “If they were championing your issues. Right? And you said, well, you know, maybe — maybe we’ve got an option here.”

Mr. Boehner’s quote captures that sentiment perfectly, and it wouldn’t surprise anyone to find it showing up in the president’s stump speeches, or in a television ad for a Democratic candidate or two.

As Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director, wrote shortly after Mr. Boehner’s comment: “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/from-boehners-lips-fodder-for-democrats/?src=twt&twt=thecaucus

VIDEO at LINK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXUNsofYUa4&feature=player_embedded