Cong OH-8th: Flip-Flopping, Backstabbing Boehner (R)

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-West Chester) is setting himself up for a neck injury with his spin-meister gyrations of the last few days. The redoubtable Eric Vessels of ProgressOhio.org has all the details.

Boehner's first statement to the Washington Post on Friday about the breaking Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) scandal was that Boehner had learned this spring of some “contact” between Foley and a 16-year-old page, had told House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) about it, and Hastert assured him “we’re taking care of it.” Later Boehner revised that statement to say that he couldn't remember for sure if he talked to Hastert. By Saturday he was strongly denying that he ever informed Hastert of the allegations, saying “That is not true.” But this morning Boehner told a radio interviewer “I believe I talked to the Speaker and he told me it had been taken care of,” and now Boehner has come full circle to blaming Hastert directly: "[I]t’s in his corner. It’s his responsibility. The clerk of the House, who runs the page program, the page board, all report to the speaker, and I believed it had been dealt with." Looks like Hastert is going to take the fall.

The conservative Washington Times has called for Hastert's resignation. Eric writes that he thinks "we should hold John Boehner accountable and ask him why he is misleading the press and citizens who want to know what went down in PageGate! If he’s angling for a speaker position, we should say “Hell No!” to that - and quickly." Contact information:

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