JOHN BOEHNER'S FACES BACKLASH OVER LACK OF HURRICANE SANDY AID BILL

Today was something for political junkies like myself as the GOP squabbled among themselves over the House failing to bring a bill bringing much needed aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy. Speaker of the House, John Boehner, faced his biggest criticism yet under his rule, which may spell disaster for him keeping the gavel past this week when they vote tomorrow for the new leader in the new Congress. Now, chances are still quite good that he will keep his seat of power, but there will be more drama than usual as Eric Cantor is making a play for the position, which after these last few days, may be not quite as cut and dried as it usually is.

The failure of Boehner to bring the Sandy Aid bill to the floor was a punch in the mouth to anyone living in New York or New Jersey, the hardest hit regions. Local politicians like Rep. Peter King (R-NY) was in full on fury mode saying of both Cantor and Boehner, “This was a disgrace. They are inexcusable." King is well known for backing the GOP regularly on many topics but this decision not to provide hurricane aid to people who desperately need it was, in his own words, "a knife in the back." We went on to further say the the GOP is going to have to go above and beyond to get his vote on anything after this. King then went to call all New Yorkers to stop giving money to ANY republican who have ignored this bill, especially those in their own district.

“These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars." King said. "They’re in New York all the time filling pockets with money from New Yorkers,” King raged. “I’m saying anyone from New York and New Jersey who contributes one penny to Congressional Republicans is out of their mind."

Wow. That's is a harsh statement and one that may have repercussions down the road, especially in 2014. If people from New York and New jersey follow through, the GOP is looking at a loss of millions of dollars and, almost certainly, the loss of several key seats to the democrats.

Even the Tea Party backed candidates, like Mike Grimm (R-NY), have expressed outrage over the lack of support for aid.  He called Boehner and Cantor’s move “a personal betrayal” and went on to say this: “But I think more importantly, when you parse out all the politics, the people of this country that have been devastated are looking at this as a betrayal by the Congress and by the nation, and that is just untenable and unforgivable.”

Outrage was not limited to just representatives from the region either. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) had this to say:  “I’m from New Orleans, and we were great beneficiaries of this body coming together after Katrina and Rita to help us in a time of our greatest need. And it’s appalling that this house can’t come together when we have so many Americans in need.”

Many are wondering if this in response to the typically blue state's voting record, noting that aid for Hurricane Katrina, which was surprisingly less costly, was approved of $62.3 billion in less than a month. Hurricane Sandy was near Halloween. Another explanation for the delay was the Speaker's fear of proposing billions in dollars in aid just hours after nearly screwing up the fiscal cliff deal by his insistence on adding spending cuts to the bill, a move that would have killed it and delayed any further action for weeks. Tea baggers, like Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin, were among those screaming about "fiscal responsibility" in NOT giving aid to victims which is ironic because those words never escaped her lips during the Bush administration, which caused all this crap in the first place.

President Obama threw House republicans under the bus, blaming them for the lack of aid and, rightfully so, as they are the people responsible for all of this. Governor Chris Christie and Governor Mario Cuomo issued a joint statement seen here: "This failure to come to the aid of Americans following a severe and devastating natural disaster is unprecedented,” and that “The fact that days continue to go by while people suffer, families are out of their homes, and men and women remain jobless and struggling during these harsh winter months is a dereliction of duty."

Christie went on to say that he was assured by Boehner that the vote would go on and then ignored calls from the Governor at least four times last night. Unlike King, Christie praised Eric Cantor, giving rise to the fact that he may attempt to unseat a very unpopular Speaker. Cantor took previous criticism from other Republicans for suggesting that Missouri tornado victims or earthquake victims in Virginia only get aid if democrats agreed to spending cuts to pay for it.

The GOP distrust of FEMA is also still apparent after the Katrina disaster, which is ironic because the main reason FEMA sucked was that W hired a guy with no disaster management training and then bungled all relief aid from the White House as well. FEMA does suck when you have nobody who knows what they are doing. Sandy showed FEMA to be better equipped than the Red Cross because Obama actually has a brain in his head, no matter what you may think of him. It also didn't help that Mitt Romney suggested eliminating FEMA and letting states run the show, which as we can see here, would have had disastrous consequences due to political bickering. People would freeze, starve or boil before anything got accomplished.

The House has scheduled a vote for aid on the 15th, which means another two weeks on a vote and, after red tape and all, people may start seeing checks by next Christmas. Ah democracy in action. This is also why Tea party morons need to get the heave ho. The GOP is right about certain things like fiscal responsibility and gun control. I wish they were right about pretty much anything else.

So Boehner faces a tough re-election scenario, made up by his own idiocy. I had heard rumors that a secret ballot may be used, in true irony, as it is based on the anti-union laws they had just passed. Secret ballots for union membership was passed to prevent retaliation against those that voted no. That same procedure now might be used to vote for the new Speaker as well, which if it occurs, may spell the end of Boehner's rule. If not, Boehner will most likely win again as few want to stick their neck out only to hang themselves. Seventeen votes are all that are needed to stop Boehner from getting a majority vote. Some are clamoring for Allen West (WTF?) as the Speaker does not have to be an elected member of Congress. Of course, that pick will happen when pigs fly, cows learn to talk and I start watching every season of Real Housewives of whatever.

So chances are, tomorrow Boehner will be re-elected, a new Congress will be sworn in and this whole debacle will start all over as the country runs out of money sometime next month. The budget talks will begin anew with political infighting, beltway maneuvering and abject stupidity. 2013 is already starting to look a lot like 2012. Wonderful.