A Rebel? Well, Just Because

(with apologies to Natalie "Seabrook" Wood and James "Boehner" Dean)

There's a lot of things a person might call John Boehner - lobby pimp, corrupt sleazeball, gross opportunist, unbridled hypocrite - though understandably a journalist should simply stick to describing the behaviors that merit these names, and avoid outright name calling - unless that journalist, NPR's Andrea Seabrook, is shamelessly enamored with the future Speaker of the House and breathlessly lauds him as "Boehner the rebel and Boehner the compromiser. "

Such was Morning Edition today. How's this for a hard-hitting examination of Boehner:

• "There really seem to be two Boehners: Boehner the rebel and Boehner the compromiser."
• "Boehner was one of a few Republicans who wrote a simple, succinct document that outlined an agenda of vast reforms in Congress: the Contract with America."
• "This is Boehner the rebel: tough, conservative, ideological, uncompromising. He entered the Republican leadership ready to fight for reforms and a smaller government, regardless of the political price."

She's not joking - honestly. And as for Mr. Compromiser? Again Seabrook:

"This is where we enter the era of Boehner the compromiser. In 2001, he took over as chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee....[and] began to work with Democrats on a massive overhaul that would be dubbed No Child Left Behind....Boehner the compromiser called [it] his proudest achievement in his decades of public service."

Let's just recap that, Boehner dared to work with Democrats who willingly gave the Republicans everything they wanted in a suck piece of educational legislation that is even now noted as a failure by one of it's earliest "intellectual" champions. That's how NPR defines compromise. I guess when Obama's Catfood Commission recommends amputations for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while spending on our Nobel Laureate's forever wars keeps rising, Compromiser John will be there to reach across the aisle (and Seabrook will be there to swoon).