How do you know he’s doing anything?
You think it’s a natural condition to glow orange?
The problem is, and I just had to define this for my journalism students, is that it’s the Enquirer, sure, but they’ve had at least a certain track record of success in breaking these things.
All the way back to Gary Hart they’ve been trying to chase these things with a reporting staff that specializes in tracking down the tawdry details. Toss in the fact that they’re generally willing to pay for sources and it’s not so easy to dismiss them.
God knows they’re not hard men and women of letters. But they get their teeth into something like this often enough that one can’t easily just dismiss them out of hand.
He doesn’t “glow orange”. Skin tones come in a wide range of colors. If someone has some actual evidence that he does something to his skin, it would be relevant to see. News reports I’ve seen have stated that his skin tone is seen on several of his relatives, and appears to be simply something that runs in his family.
In other news, Rep Lee (R-NY) resigns after a photo surfaces of him, shirtless and flexing his muscles, that he sent to some chick he meant on Craig’s List. What are these people thinking…?
Googling, they’re actually not the only place to have reported this. A reporter on Daily Kos heard the same rumors last year and asked both Boehner and the putative mistress about it and got “non-denials” and the NY Post repeated the rumor that the NYTs was looking into it. Granted those aren’t really much better sources then the Enquirer, but its not something the Enquirer made up whole cloth, anyways.
I kinda wonder about the orange thing to. He claims he doesn’t use any tanning products, which would be my first guess. But his amount of “orangeness” seems to vary a lot, which is kinda weird if its a natural skintone, and I can’t think of anyone IRL I’ve seen thats that color. OTOH, I usually see him on my crappy old TV, so maybe I just need a better television and he’s not really that orange.
No it wouldn’t. Who the hell cares what he does to his skin?
Pretty sure he means “relevant to the conversation he and Captaine are having about Boehners skin color”, not “relevant, as in particularly important to the world at large”.
Just to play devil’s advocate - we tend to assume that a romantic relationship with a lobbyist would skew an elected official’s judgment, or that it may do so. But is this realistic? I mean, I’m a liberal Democrat, and the most stunningly attractive woman I’ve ever met was a Republican. She wasn’t into me, alas, but even if she had been, I doubt she’d have turned me Republican. Hell, I like disagreeing with friends politically - makes for interesting conversations.
And I’m just some random guy on the Internet. For a career politician, I have to think that the skill at distinguishing the personal and political would be well-developed indeed. Would an affair with a hot lobbyist really skew Boehner’s political judgment?
Appropriate in terms of not creating a conflict of interest? A waitress? Bus driver? Dietician? Veterinarian tech? Gardner? Musician? It’s a real city; they do things other than write laws and govern. Literally hundreds of thousands of women to have an affair with and not suggest an improper relationship in a professional sense.
They’re not.
You’re comparing two people shooting the breeze and talking politics to the Speaker of the House sleeping with a lobbyist. These are not the same thing. Lobbyists don’t try to talk politicians into changing parties. They try to convince them to adopt specific policies, or introduce laws, or vote for or against them, based on how it affects the lobbyist’s company or industry. (Lyons is a lobbist for the Printing Industries of America.) So yes, it is a conflict of interest if a hypothetical elected official is boinking a lobbyist who might try to influence his votes and legislative actions. That much more so, one might argue, if the politician is the single most prominent member of his party as the Speaker of the House, and oh by the way, has a vested interest in keeping the affair a secret because it would probably ruin his career.
It’s not the “romantic relationship with a lobbyist” part. It’s the “lobbyist having you by the short and curlies” part. Presumably this revelation, if true, will do little to harm Lisbeth Lyons’ career. Hell, it’ll probably get her a book deal and a lifetime movie. On the other hand, it could more or less end Boehner’s career.
Now imagine what sort of influence Lyons could have exerted on Boehner with the threat of going to the press hanging over his head.
Let me rephrase then. If he is doing something to his skin to cause the unnatural coloration, it is ridiculous.
I strongly suspect he is doing, or has done, something to affect his skin’s pigmentation as the color is unnatural, and too even to be the result of skin disorders that can cause his type of coloration such as melasma or pigmentary purpura.
I 100% care about what skeezy sexual situations a politician gets into with consenting adults.
Because there is general one non-consenting adult at home with the kids. And if he (or she) is so selfish and uncarring about what the skeezy sexual situation will do to their family, then they aren’t going to care about what’s best for me and my family.
The problem with a politician doing anything immoral is that it becomes blackmail material. Politicians have power and that power can be coerced. If I know a politician is having an affair, I can put pressure on him to encourage legislation that is favorable to me.
I take it as a given that 99% of politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about me or my family: I’m not incorporated, nor do I work the phone banks during elections, nor do I work in a state with significant union protections. So I vote not according to their character, but according to my best prediction of the laws they’ll vote for and the laws they’ll vote against.
I have a very low opinion of the character of most people involved in politics. So low that, despite knowing about John Edward’s sleaziness, it’s possible I’d vote for him, depending on the race.
It’s not what they do with their naughty bits that concerns me. It’d concern me if I were married to one of them, but I’m not, so it doesn’t. It’s what they do with their vote that concerns me.
And if they’re literally in bed with corporate lobbyists, I suspect they’ll be voting in a way I don’t like.
To be fair, having Googled Lisbeth Lyons, it looks like she works for the Printing Industries of America, which leads me to worry that Boehner might vote…
…er…
…in favor of keeping print textbooks instead of e-books?
So I don’t give as much of a damn about it as I thought I would. I dislike Boehner for other reasons, but the fear that his corruption will cause him to approve more brochures than he otherwise would is fairly small potatoes.
From the government advocacy section of the Printing Industries of America’s website:
My point being that the group does have positions on some major national issues.
My prediction: Tammy Faye Boehner will double the mascara and the crocodile tears, “Confess to the Lord” on national television, and then three days later inform the public that God and his wife have forgiven him, and the rest is none of our business.
Or simply move on to the lucrative profession he has always relaly been in - Evangelical Preacher.
Good find–serves me right for being flippant. My pissed-offedness returns to previously-scheduled levels.