Say what you will...Boehner's crying thing took the edge off his image.

[dkf]

Rachel had a segment where she sent Kent around to ask people if they knew who the Speaker of the House was and nobody remembered. Some were completely off, some were clueless, and one guy remembered the speaker cries a lot.

That is not the scary face that voters will be mad at.

I think we will get blamed for a Govt shutdown because the Repubs are anonymous. Yet I understand the outrage at the gutting of the EPA. Less so for Public Broadcasting and Planned Parenthood, and I have no idea what they gave up to get $33 billion in cuts, but I get why we are having a hard time compromising on these issues.

It's a rock and a hard place.

[MichiganVote]

1. Ok, let's get real. I don't mind men and tears. But what the hell has this guy got to cry about?

Its stupid and annoying.

[dkf]

3. I'm thinking it was a brilliant ploy.

Women love that kind of thing too.

[MichiganVote]

5. He looks like a complete boob.

[dkf]

6. Yup...an inoffensive boob. See how that works?

[Stardust]

7. I don't.

[dkf]

8. Me neither but you know the type.

[xmas74]

9. I'm a woman and I hate that kind of thing.

First time I saw him cry I actually yelled at the television for him to suck it up. Criers get on my last nerve.

[October]

10. What? No we don't!

This idiot cries for himself... no one but himself.

I find him repulsive on every level.

[cheri010353]

14. What women?

Phony crying by a drunk has never done much for me.

[ClarkUSA]

2. $3 billion are further cuts in the defense budget on top of the $78 billion Pres. Obama has proposed

[dkf]

4. Is that supposed to be the Repubs concessions?

It's rather odd that we haven't seen much of an examination of the proposed cuts here.

[ClarkUSA]

13. Republicans probably see it as Democrats sticking it to them.

According to a news story I read tonight, Democrats raised their offer from $30B to $34.5B. Of that, $3 billion was further cuts to the defense budget on top of the $78 billion Pres. Obama has already proposed in his original budget, which probably pissed Republicans off.

Non-negotiable to the WH and the Congressional Democrats are Republican demands that "no federal funds be directed to groups like Planned Parenthood and that the Environmental Protection Agency not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases." http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/us/politics/08fiscal.html

[lob1]

11. If you notice, Boner only cries when something comes up

that reminds him of his own hardships, but when it concerns someone else's hardships, he doesn't relate or care.

[dkf]

12. I saw this piece...

Boehner has also cried while talking about “providing for the safety and security of the American people” during a debate over Iraq War funding. He has cried during his acceptance of a pro-life award while talking about the fact that his parents had 12 children. He has cried, in other words, while talking about values. His are moral tears, if you will.

As it turns out, this doesn’t break any new ground in terms of gender rules. That’s because, according to Marianne LaFrance, a social psychologist at Yale, while women crying for a whole variety of reasons is socially sanctioned (albeit not in professional settings), there is one type of crying that men engage in far more often than women. It’s crying for the sake of sentimentality.

“Women seldom cry when they’re feeling sentimental,” LaFrance says. “Men are more likely to.” LaFrance calls this crying over “flag, apple pie, children and family…It’s more a value : ‘These are the things I care about and watch me being caring.’” (Another sentimental cause: football games. Women don’t usually cry over football games. Men do.)

Sentimentality is not a core emotion like sadness or anger. A man crying from core emotions might be seen as weak and ineffectual. But Boehner crying from the strength of his convictions works out for him because it implies “that he comes from really good stock,” LaFrance says. Which is not to say he’s doing it on purpose – just that all of us unconsciously absorb what type of crying is permissible for us and what type isn’t.

http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/boehners-manly-tears