Just a day after being moved to tears by the Pope, Speaker of the House John Boehner announced he’ll resign from his post as Speaker and from Congress at the end of October.
While many are thinking more kindly about the Orange Man after reading this glimpse behind the orange curtain from the Washington Post‘s Robert Costa, I have something else on my mind.
Republicans keep claiming the mantle of fiscal conservatism, but they spend like it’s going out of style. Sarah Palin’s resignation from the governor’s office after she didn’t become VP (thank dog), and Eric Cantor’s resignation from Congress when he lost his primary race, were just the opening acts to this headliner of a quitter.
The U.S. Constitution requires that members of the House of Representatives who resign mid-term are replaced only through a special election. The office remains open and staff continue to respond to constituent issues, but there is no voting representative until a new representative is chosen. But in this case, the people of Ohio will have to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for a special election.
John Boehner isn’t resigning because of health reasons and he’s still alive. Death and debilitating illness should be the only reasons a member should be able to resign from the office for which they ran and accepted without a penalty.
In this case, John Boehner is retiring because he knows he’ll be ousted from his role as Speaker in a party coup if he stays. Period. End of sentence. Boo Fucking Hoo.
Finish out your term, or pay for the special election to fill your seat. It’s the right thing to do. And I’m guessing that’s what the Pope would say too!
Yes, I’m cynical. I’m watching the Democratic Party leadership go to bat for right wing shills at the expense of progressive populists like Alan Grayson and Bernie Sanders.
From the DSCC demanding that its members raise funds for right wing shill Patrick Murphy and eschew the guy leading in polls and raising more money from small donors than anyone else (other than Bernie Sanders), Alan Grayson!
Congressman Grayson joined me for a lively discussion this morning about the breaking-Boehner news, the Pope, and the election. I hope you’ll support his candidacy, as I’d love to have a senator from Florida that I can count on to represent me!
Last week, while I was still digging out from this computer meltdown, I had not yet recovered my email address book. So when I wrote to Joel Silberman to reconfirm our segment for the next day, I got lazy and guessed at his email address. Lo and behold, I met the other Joel Silberman, who turned out to be a writer, among other things. I invited him on the show. We have a serious disagreement about whether we’d be better off with Bernie Sanders as a senator or as president. I’ll not hold his youth and inexperience against him, as I’m sure Bernie won’t hold that against any of his opponents.
It’s Friday, so today for our Flashback Friday segment, we went back to March of 2001, to Cancun! I was programming worldclassrock.com in Los Angeles, but went to Cancun for Michele Clark’s Sunset Sessions, where Ryan Adams was just one of the great artists to perform that year.
I’ve been a Ryan Adams fan since first hearing his former band Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac, and have been fortunate to have interviewed him over the years, including for the world premiere broadcast of Whiskeytown’s final album Pneumonia (about which we spoke in today’s interview), and for his subsequent solo album, Gold.
Click here to read my review of Gold for Radio & Records , and my print interview with him for Totally Adult…
Now, Ryan Adams is in the news for two things: He’ll be Trevor Noah’s first musical guest on Thursday night to wrap up Noah’s first week as host of The Daily Show. And he just recorded a song-by-song cover of Taylor Swift’s entire 1989 album, much to her delight!
We’re nothing if not timely! And with that, the weekend is here…
I’ll be back Monday morning, same time, same internet space, radio or not!
Finally, because we can, behold the late great Neil Rogers side by side with Pope Francis. Just sayin’
And today’s New York preshow music playlist (which I never got to play, thanks Obama computer)
[…] last week, Grayson appeared on the Nicole Sandler radio show, where he conducted yet another interview – again discussing the Senate campaign — from […]
[…] last week, Grayson appeared on the Nicole Sandler radio show, where he conducted yet another interview – again discussing the Senate campaign — from […]