Boehner's empire similar to DeLay's

http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/02/03/mj020406boehner_W.html

". . . like DeLay, he has played host at many fundraising golf outings. Some of his staff members, following the career path of those who worked for DeLay, have become Washington lobbyists . . . like DeLay and Blunt, Boehner has connections to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He accepted at least $30,000 in political donations from Abramoff’s tribal clients between the 2000 election cycle and 2004. In addition, billing records from the Northern Mariana Islands, a former Abramoff client, show at least 17 contacts between members of Abramoff’s Marianas lobbying team and Boehner’s office — one with Boehner himself . . .One of the lobbyists was David Safavian . . .The Mariana records are at odds with the assertion that the contacts were all with midlevel staff members. Two contacts in 1996, according to the records, were with Barry Jackson — a top Boehner aide who served as the congressman’s chief of staff.

-SNIP-

. . . It is fueled in part by special interests, some of them benefiting from his legislative clout as chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Among the beneficiaries: private student lenders and for-profit colleges. Boehner took in about $630,000 in contributions to his campaign and $850,000 to his PAC last year. His campaign received much of its PAC money from financial institutions, insurers and retail businesses, all of them in sync with Boehner’s legislative goals.

Boehner has traveled extensively courtesy of special interests. He has taken more than three dozen privately financed trips since 2000 to overseas destinations such as Rome, Venice, Paris and Edinburgh, and to domestic resort spots including Boca Raton, Fla., and Pebble Beach, Calif., the latter known for its championship golf and spectacular Pacific Ocean views.

. . .The student lender Sallie Mae’s employees together are the top overall donors to Boehner’s PAC since 1989, giving at least $120,000, an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics campaign finance watchdog group found. Boehner’s daughter, Tricia, works for General Revenue Corp., a loan-collection company owned by Sallie Mae. She was there for two years before Sallie Mae purchased the company.

The liquor industry has given Boehner’s campaign and PAC at least $200,000 since 1989. The lawmaker, in House floor remarks, has praised the industry’s efforts to fight underage drinking and drunken driving. Boehner’s support for the insurance industry included a staple of the GOP platform: limiting lawsuits against the health care industry. “We don’t need a trial lawyers’ bill of rights,” Boehner has said. Insurers have given Boehner’s campaign and PAC close to $1 million since 1989.

how bad the other candidate's past records are.

This was the "cleanest" they could find for their fresh start?

I'd :rofl: but it's not really funny, is it?

Now, as Jon Stewart noted, if people can avoid the temptation of pronouncing his name the way it is spelled (Boner!!!).....

that *that's* what they've pulled.

:)