Last week, my congressperson and Minority Leader John Boehner was in Oxford, Ohio (home of my college Miami University) at a small rally in an uptown restaurant. As reported by The Miami Student, Boehner called Obama's present votes in the Illinois legislature "chickenshit."
Boehner criticized Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for his stance on domestic drilling, taxes and his number of "present" votes in the Illinois legislature-an attack originally leveled by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) during the democratic primaries. "Now, listen, I've voted 'present' two or three times in my entire 25-year political career, where there might have been a conflict of interest and I didn't feel like I should vote," Boehner said. "In Congress, we have a red button, a green button and a yellow button, alright. Green means 'yes,' red means 'no,' and yellow means you're a chicken shit. And the last thing we need in the White House, in the oval office, behind that big desk, is some chicken who wants to push this yellow button."
This has gone viral since the reporting, causing Boehner's people to backtrack a bit. However, this is nothing new for the right-wingers in Congress and is in fact a step back from the Michelle Bachmanns of the world. Rather, I grabbed onto something else Boehner said during his speech in Oxford:
"This guy was a community organizer for 20 years," Boehner said. "If somebody can tell me what a community organizer is maybe I can understand it better."
I read this and remembered it. Today I called up Boehner's office and asked to leave a message for him. This is what I said: "Congressman Boehner wanted to know what a community organizer does? Tell him I said a community organizer wins the presidency!"
Let me tell you, the only thing more satisfying would have been to say it to Boehner's face. And I plan to if I ever get the chance.