John Boehner's Dirty Little Secret: Flying Lobbyist Air at $4,000 a Junket

The election of Rep. John Boehner, self-proclaimed reformer, as Republican Majority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives is proof enough that corporate money and influence has washed over and submerged Capitol Hill.

During Boehner’s recent campaign for Republican leader, he said this to his House colleagues: “Those of you who have arrived here in the last ten years probably don’t know that I cut my teeth on being a reformer.” Indeed, and at least one of Boehner’s reforms has all but eliminated the people’s trust in our elected representatives and senators.

Boehner was first elected to the House in 1990 and for several years, during Democratic majorities, he and I served on the same education committee. As a policy adversary, John was smart, cunning and hardworking. However, a reformer he is not; unless by congressional reform one means the contemporary practice of relinquishing significant legislative authority to powerful corporate lobbyists; a practice initiated by Boehner a decade ago.

Led by John Boehner, a small group of congressional Republicans helped engineer the 1995 political takeover by Newt Gingrich. Following 40 years of Democratic majorities, the change may well have been overdue. However, once installed as Speaker of the House, Gingrich appointed Boehner to a high leadership post, Chair of the Republican Conference, from which he created and nurtured the sordid relationship between corporate lobbyists and Congress that now, ten years later, has scandalized Capitol Hill. The resulting money, ethics, and moral scandals have since toppled Gingrich, Delay and sent Republicans such as Duke Cunningham scurrying off in shame or to prison.

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