Why Even Fox News Is Outraged with Boehner and His Gang
Read Time:4 Minute, 22 Second
John Boehner and his “ship of fools” work tirelessly to undermine President Obama, regardless of his agenda, or how it serves the nation. They have frittered aways thousands of hours trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and even now they are preparing to waste more time trying to figure out a way to defund or derail it. Following the State of the Union, they voted to affirm climate change but to deny man’s culpability. This was a slap to the president who had stressed the importance of controlling emissions and other environmentally destructive phenomenon.
Most importantly, the feckless faithful on the Right have now decided that peace with Iran is not good for America, most importantly their war mongering, uber-wealthy constituents, who plan on becoming more wealthy should war with Iran break out. As a result they have decided to thwart the president’s plan to make peace with Iran, and work with them to dismantle their nuclear program.
From Vox.com:
Fox News is not exactly known as an ally of the Obama administration, especially when it comes to disputes between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, or disputes between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Yet two prominent Fox News hosts, Chris Wallace and Shepherd Smith, harshly criticized Boehner and Netanyahu on Friday for secretly arranging a Netanyahu speech to Congress that is transparently aimed at undermining President Obama, and set up without the White House’s knowledge.
The White House, State Department, and many foreign policy observers, including prominent former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, expressed outrage over the move. And, in a sign of just how many lines Boehner and Netanyahu crossed, so did the two Fox News hosts.
“I agree 100 percent,” Wallace said when Smith read a quote from Indyk criticizing the Boehner-Netanyahu maneuver. Wallace went on:
And to make you get a sense of really how, forgive me, wicked, this whole thing is, the Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Israeli Ambassador to the United States for two hours on Tuesday, Ron Dermer. The ambassador, never mentioned the fact that Netanyahu was in negotiations and finally agreed to come to Washington, not to see the president, but to go to Capitol Hill, speak to a joint session of congress and criticize the president’s policy. I have to say I’m shocked.
Smith said, “it seems like [Netanyahu’s government] think[s] we don’t pay attention and that we’re just a bunch of complete morons, the United States citizens, as if we wouldn’t pick up on what’s happening here.”
Wallace pointed out that Netanyahu might face political backlash in Israel over this “very risky political strategy,” which could damage Israel’s relationship with the United States.
Here is the backstory: On Wednesday, Boehner announced that he had invited Netanyahu to come speak to a joint session of Congress in late February (later pushed to early March) on Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran, which both Boehner and Netanyahu oppose, and which Republicans are seeking to blow up by forcing new, deal-killing sanctions on Iran. What made this such a remarkable breach is that Boehner had reached over Obama to make the invitation, which he and Netanyahu kept secret from the White House. That is a major breach in US foreign policy, which is supposed to be unified; things like official visits by heads of state almost always go through the White House.
Perhaps worse, Republicans are letting a foreign leader use the floor of Congress to bash the American president, thus not just allowing but helping a foreign country meddle in American foreign policy. (This is not the first time either. Republicans invited Netanyahu to speak to Congress in 2011, an opportunity he also used to lambast Obama.)
For his part, Netanyahu is once again attempting to undermine the American president who is by far his most important ally, and is using Congress as a campaign stop on his own bid for reelection in Israel’s March elections.
While backlash was anticipatable, Netanyahu likely did not imagine it extending to Fox News.
“After watching this I think Bibi [Netanyahu] and [Israeli ambassador to the US Ron] Dermer might have finally gone too far,” Lisa Goldman, the director of the Israel-Palestine Initiative at the New America Foundation, wrote on Facebook of the Fox News segment. “They miscalculated the American Zeitgeist and didn’t realize that when a foreign power, even a favorite ally, shows a lack of respect for US institutions, a red line has been crossed.”
To Goldman’s point, both Smith and Wallace, in expressing outrage at Netanyahu, pointed out that the Israeli leader had defied President George W. Bush’s demand that Israel cease settlement growth in the West Bank, and had resisted Bush’s efforts at an Israel-Palestine peace deal. The issue, for them, was not principally one of partisan politics, but of this ostensible ally repeatedly mistreating the United States and its president, regardless of political party.
If the Netanyahu government and Ron Dermer’s embassy are watching this, and they certainly should be, they should be alarmed that even this crucially important element of their American support base is beginning to see the Netanyahu government as less of an ally.
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This is a very shaky bridge that Netanyahu is crossing. He is putting his own political aspirations ahead of a possible safer situation for his country. He has long wanted to strike the Iranians and has been held back by Obama who does not want to get drug into an all out war with the Iranians. Obama seems to think that the Iranians can be dealt with without an armed conflict. Naturally, the GOPers want an armed conflict so that the military suppliers will make money and their hawks will be happy. So far Obama’s strategy seems to have worked pretty well and the current Iranian leadership seems to want to back off its past rhetoric.
I think Netty will find that he has made a huge mistake once this is all said and done.
Isn’t there a word for people who openly oppose US policy and work to circumvent our national interests? In times of war wouldn’t this be punishable? Oh What is that word…. the one to describe Boehner’s actions….. ?
As speaker Boehner can invite who he wishes to address the congress. It violates no laws, however it’s considered a breach of protocol not to run it by the president. A favorite liberal meme is one based on an 18th century law, Logan’s law, which the libs, Facebook School of Law graduates one and all, interpret to mean that Boehner is a traitor. It’s absolute nonsense.
This has to be a flash in the pan, but at least it’s a good flash. Let’s see if they stand by their original assessment.