With all the controversy over Rep. Anthony Weiner’s scandalous behavior, one might ask, “Where has House Speaker John Boehner been?”
While House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called for Weiner’s resignation, the only thing we’ve heard from Boehner was an off-color and inappropriate joke at an Ohio State commencement address last Sunday.
Has Boehner forgotten he’s speaker of the House?
He acts more like his party is in the minority.
The House he controls has absolute constitutional authority to expel Weiner or sanction him. Instead, Boehner’s House has allowed Weiner to take a leave of absence with full salary as he does damage control shoring up his political support in his district for a re-election bid in 2012.
Everybody has been asking the question, “What’s wrong with Weiner?” I think it’s time to ask the question, “What’s wrong with Boehner?”
Article 1, Section 5, of the Constitution gives the House of Representatives the power to regulate and discipline the behavior of its members. Specifically, this provision mentions the possibility of expulsion for “disorderly conduct.” What is “disorderly conduct”? That’s for the House to decide. But I think it’s clear that even Nancy Pelosi thinks Weiner has crossed the line and should leave the House immediately.
He didn’t get an answer from any of the journalists present at his mea culpa press conference – the very people who make their living under the protection of the Constitution. But I provided it later. The question is answered in Article 1, Section 5, which explains that the House itself governs the issue of conduct by members. No elected member can be seated without the approval of the House itself. And if two-thirds of the House votes to expel a member, there is no appeal.
Boehner controls the House with 241 votes. That means if all Republicans voted to oust Weiner, the motion would be carried with only 46 Democrat votes. Why isn’t Boehner bringing such a vote to the floor of the House? Why isn’t he putting Democrats on the hot seat and forcing a vote to put Democrats on the record? Why not show the American people which party, if any, approves of Weiner’s behavior and which, if any, does not?
It looks to me like Boehner and the Republicans believe Weiner is not guilty of “disorderly conduct,” as the Constitution calls it.
By not debating this issue in the House, the Republicans are tacitly setting a new low standard for behavior of its members.
With the disgraceful behavior of Weiner, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank and others over the years, the new standard of conduct in the House seems to be no standard.
Republican voters should be asking themselves about now, “Didn’t we elect a GOP majority in the House to clean up this mess? Why is the speaker of the House joking about Weiner instead of acting to throw him out to re-establish the decorum and honor that once epitomized the Congress of the United States? Why is Boehner allowing Pelosi to call the shots?”
Of course, this is hardly the first time Boehner has acted like Republicans are still in the minority in the House. It’s hardly the first time he has either failed to realize the power Republicans can wield with control of just one house of Congress.
The most important example is his abject failure to exert leadership in denying any hike in the debt limit. I hate to sound like a broken record, but there is one huge thing Republicans in Congress alone can do to begin restoring constitutionally limited government in Washington, and that is simply opposing any more borrowing – forcing the federal government to live within its means this year.
Once again, Boehner has been on the wrong side of this debate – from the beginning saying Congress must approve a raise in the debt limit.
Someone needs to ask Boehner if he approves of Weiner’s behavior. He needs to be asked if he considers Weiner’s conduct becoming of a member of the House of Representatives. He needs to be asked if he believes Weiner’s behavior fits the constitutional standard of “disorderly conduct.” And then he needs to be asked why he is standing around cracking jokes about that behavior rather than exerting leadership.
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Josh Hammer