Boehner Blunt and Shadegg answer take conference call

Don't ask me why the race for House Majority Leader fascinates me.  Maybe it's because the House Majority has been so incompetent.  A majority with too many cooks spoiling what could have been ten years of real accomplisment, but was not.  The comparison to what has happened with Illinois republicans comes to mind.  There is no one individual the party ever seems to get behind in major office races.  The present Governor's race is a prime example:  There seem to be a zillion candidates with their hats in the ring and no front runner.  Everyone sniping at each other until the primary sorts it out and then we'll find the losers out of sorts and non supportive of the party's winner.

Anyway, getting back to the election for majority leader.  Each of the three men, John Boehner, Roy Blunt and John Shadegg sat down for a individual conference calls from a chosen set of bloggers.  Who chose those bloggers is anyone's guess, but suffice it to say, many of them were part of a list of bloggers who signed on to Shadegg's side the day he announced his candidacy.  Some of the bloggers have a transcript of their part on their sites, others have the audio, others barely bothered to flesh it out at all.  Dale Franks of the Q and O blog caught my eye because of the no holds bared way he described his experience.

Right off the top he states that he could not now choose between Boehner and Shadegg, but he "would rather lick ants off a stick than see Roy Blunt as majority leader."  Can't get more clear than that and I agree with him.  His conference call with Blunt and Blunt's staff is well worth a read.

As to Boehner, Franks found him likeable and engaging.  However, he sensed Boehner might be politically smooth.  "Nice guy, but he had just a little too much of a politicians smoothness in his answers to suit me. Now, see, I've kind of made Rep. Boehner sound bad, which I don't mean to do. Because he seemed like a genuinely nice guy, who I'm sure would make a fine Majority Leader."  Frankly, this is exactly what the republicans need right now, someone who can get the majority to unite, sit up and smell the coffee.  They're the majority and they should start acting like it.  Certainly they can look across the aisle and see the democrats standing on the party line and acting like they are the majority to the teeth grinding frustration of everyone watching their endless spiels.

One thing thing that came out of this conference call is that Blunt and his people did themselves no good at all.  He seems to be persona non grata today.  Unfortunately, Blunt seems to think he has the election sewed up and can afford to thumb his nose at the teleconference rules.  He told the bloggers:  while he understood that many of us supported someone else, and he knew we'd be writing up the call later, he hoped we wouldn't write or do something that would jeopardize our ability to work together later, and since he was gonna win—already had the votes locked up, in fact—we would be dealing with him.

I still say, with respect to the other bloggers, who I read and mostly agree with, Boehner's the guy.