In Milwaukee on Monday, Obama charged that the “man who thinks he’s going to be speaker,’’ favored tax loopholes for “shipping jobs and profits overseas.’’ In a speech in Parma Wednesday, Obama assailed Boehner by name eight times, charging “there were no new policies from Mr. Boehner’’ in his Cleveland speech.
The sharp rhetorical barrages aimed at Boehner are part of a deliberate White House strategy to focus voter attention on the Republican lawmaker from West Chester. If the Republicans win control of the House in November, Boehner would become the first speaker of the House from Ohio since Nicholas Longworth in 1931. Boehner’s congressional district covers parts of Dayton, Huber Heights, Riverside and Miami, Darke, Mercer, Preble and Butler counties.
The attacks are being cheered by many Democrats who see Boehner — the man with the year-round tan who once had to apologize for handing out tobacco lobbyist contributions on the House floor — as a handy villain, much like Democrats in the 1990s campaigned against the abrasive House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
“If you are trying to put a face on the Republican Congress, what better tanned face to use?’’ said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic consultant in Boston.
But others question the strategy. With voters increasingly worried about the sluggish economic recovery, the White House effort to target Boehner as an unpopular rogue may not work unless Americans hold “a deep prejudice against orange people,’’ joked Jack Pitney, a professor of political science at Claremont-McKenna College in California.
“The trouble is Boehner isn’t Gingrich,’’ Pitney said. “He’s not as well known and he’s not nearly as prone to making big mistakes. Gingrich handed lots and lots of ammunition to Democrats.’’
Ironically, Republicans are just as ecstatic as Democrats that Obama is taking on Boehner. The forceful White House response has provided Boehner with a national platform to tell voters about the Republican economic plan.
The morning of Obama’s speech in Parma, for example, Boehner appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,’’ to call for a two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of this year, and a sharp cut in federal spending.
“From Boehner’s standpoint, he couldn’t have bought this earned media,’’ said former Republican congressman David Hobson of Springfield.
Boehner’s aides had promised that his Aug. 24 speech in Cleveland would be the first time the Republicans had outlined an economic agenda. But speeches by lawmakers in the House minority rarely attract much attention and this one might have become a historical footnote. Much to the delight of Boehner’s aides, the White House snapped back.
“I don’t think (Boehner’s aides) ever imagined that President Obama would make Mr. Boehner the star of his own television series,’’ said Terry Holt, a former Boehner adviser. “It’s hilarious.’’
Even more puzzling to analysts, Obama picked a very public fight with an Ohio congressman who in Dallas or Denver “was probably not as well known as the backup tight end of the Cowboys or Broncos,’’ cracked Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
But with Democratic House and Senate candidates inundated with grim polls, Democratic analysts say Obama and the White House have little choice but to go after Boehner.
“Calling him out and not letting him hide in the dark crevices is important,’’ Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Leland said. “It’s better than waking up on the day after Election Day and say, ‘Whoa, we put this guy in?’ ’’
These same Democratic analysts argue that voters harbor deep suspicion about Republican economic ideas and that many Americans blame former President George W. Bush for the economic recession that has gripped the nation.
In addition, the sharp White House attacks are designed to inject some enthusiasm into what has been a listless Democratic base. If Obama can convince more Democrats to vote, the thinking goes, he might save enough seats to allow the Democrats to hold the House.
Past presidential efforts to make a political opponent the issue have not always succeeded. In the final days of the 1966 congressional election, President Lyndon B. Johnson denounced former Vice President Richard Nixon as a “chronic campaigner.’’
The Johnson attack not only backfired – former President Dwight Eisenhower publicly rallied to Nixon’s defense – but Republican National Committee Chairman Ray Bliss gave Nixon a 30-minute nationally televised appearance to reply to Johnson. When the Republicans won 47 House seats two days later, the national press credited Nixon, which boosted his chances to win the presidency in 1968.
“The Johnson attack raised Nixon’s stature just as the Obama attack raised Boehner’s stature,’’ Pitney said.
Throughout the four years Boehner has been the House GOP leader, he has had a cool relationship with more conservative Republicans, many of whom would prefer one of their own to challenge Boehner. But not anymore.
“If there was any doubt that Boehner would be challenged for speaker, that’s gone,’’ Hobson said.
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