Retribution is some form of punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong, whether the wrong is perceived or real. For the past four years, Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R-OH) has likely perceived that President Barack Obama has inflicted all manner of wrongs on him due to the ease the President is able to thwart Republican efforts to rule America according to their masters the Koch brothers. Obviously Boehner is frustrated that he has been outplayed and out-maneuvered at every turn by the President, and lacking the wherewithal to take on the President himself, he marshaled support and conspired with a foreigner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to “defy and humiliate President Obama.”
Many political observers, the White House, and Democrats were rightly incensed when Boehner invited the foreigner to address a joint session of Congress without going through normal State Department protocols, and their supposition that Boehner deliberately went around the normal diplomatic channels as an act of defiance against the Executive Branch seemed more than credible. Now it is official; Boehner’s illegal invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress represents a coordinated attack on President Barack Obama by the radical Republican right-wing and all its bad actors. This official reiteration of what many Democrats suspected all along is according to the Israeli consul general.
As reported in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Yaron Sideman said that Speaker of the House John Boehner, congressional Republicans, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America, and radical Christian leaders’ only purpose “in inviting and supporting Netanyahu’s speech is to defy and humiliate President Barack Obama by addressing the Iranian issue.” In most people’s minds, Boehner and Netanyahu’s conspiracy was more than just to defy and humiliate the President on Iran; it was an attempt to subvert America’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions to start another Middle East war at the behest of Israel. In fact, according to Boehner, his illegal conspiracy was specifically to allow Netanyahu “send a clear message to the White House” that in matters regarding America’s Middle East policy, Republicans are committed to Israel.
It makes no difference how committed to Israel un-American Republicans are, foreign policy is the purview of the Executive Branch led by President Obama; not Boehner, not Israel, not Republicans, and certainly not the warmongering foreigner Netanyahu. According to the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court, “all ability to conduct foreign policy is vested in the President. It is given implicitly and by the fact that the Executive Branch, by its very nature, is empowered to conduct foreign affairs in a way that Congress cannot and should not.” John Boehner, like Israeli foreigner Benjamin Netanyahu, has no allegiance to the U.S. Constitution or the need to adhere to rulings by the United States Supreme Court; no foreigner does.
Many Democrats already regarded Boehner and Netanyahu’s actions a deliberate, well-planned, attack on the sitting President of the United States; including Representative John Lewis (D-GA). Lewis is part of a growing number of Democrats who signaled they are not attending Netanyahu’s speech because “what the speaker did is an affront to the President and the State Department.” Now, according to an Israeli consul general, it is official that “an affront to the President” is precisely what Boehner and Netanyahu intended in their conspiracy to thwart American foreign policy.
Another Democrat, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, said he was “very disappointed that the speaker would cause such a ruckus” in his leadership role in Congress, and stated what the White House and others have said on first learning John Boehner violated the 216 year old “Logan Act;” Boehner’s action was “unprecedented.”
His action was also illegal according to 18 U.S.C. § 953. The Logan Act “forbids unauthorized citizens” like John Boehner “from negotiating with foreign governments.” The law expressly prohibits “Any citizen from directly or indirectly commencing or carrying on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence or defeat the measures of the United States.” Netanyahu, an anti-Obama foreigner, cannot be punished under federal law, but Boehner can be and should be charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to serve time in a federal penitentiary; not for conspiring with a foreigner to “defy and humiliate President Barack Obama,” but for breaking the law.
Rep. Butterfield, a Jewish Democrat, joined many Israelis in harshly criticizing Netanyahu saying that by accepting Boehner’s invitation without talking to President Barack Obama, the prime minister “politicized” his visit to the United States. Kentucky Democratic Representative John Yarmuth called Boehner’s invitation “close to subversion,” and noted that it is part of a devious American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) fundraising effort to garner support for sabotaging nuclear talks with Iran.
Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, has already written that if Boehner does not cancel the speech he will not attend. He said, “I refuse to be part of a reckless act of political grandstanding, and I will not participate in a calculated slight from the speaker and the House leadership to attack necessary diplomacy. When nuclear security and Middle East stability hang in the balance, no member who cares about peace and Israel should participate in this effort to undercut our President in the middle of delicate nuclear negotiations with Iran, while inappropriately projecting political support for Mr. Netanyahu in the middle of Israel’s election.”
It is an abomination that John Boehner’s need for vengeance against President Obama, and fealty to Israel, overshadows any pretense of loyalty to the United States, or federal law, he claims to support. It is one thing to support Israel and send them billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up their military, but quite another to conspire with Israel’s leader to thwart America’s negotiations for a peaceful resolution to Iran’s “alleged” nuclear threat. Boehner is not a Jew, but he would do well to heed the sentiment of Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) who said “I am a Jewish member of Congress, and a strong supporter of Israel. But my first obligation is to the Constitution of the United States, not to the Constitution of Israel.”
John Boehner has been an unethical and criminally-complicit cretin since he first entered Congress. During his tenure as Speaker of the House he has been an impotent malcontent whose legendary inability to lead pales in comparison to how often he has been bested and outmaneuvered by President Obama. Now, by his own admission, has he not only illegally conspired with a foreigner “to defeat the measures of the United States” foreign policy in the Middle East,” he has exposed an inherently petty character flaw that would embarrass even a low-class Koch sycophant; the need for a foreigner’s assistance for retribution in a sick attempt ”to defy and humiliate President Barack Obama;” something that will never happen.
Since Boehner is incapable of suffering humiliation for his public exposure as a vindictive un-American, he should certainly suffer the full weight and power of the law and go to jail. Not for conspiring with a foreigner to “defy and humiliate the President,” but for violating federal law and “conspiring to defeat the measures of the United States;” something most Americans consider treason.
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