New Republican House majority leader well qualified in corruption.

Newly appointed Republican house majority leader John Boehner, recently picked to replace the corrupt Tom Delay amid a flurry of revelations of how graft ridden the Republican party is, is himself about as pure as the driven slush.

His appearance on Meet the Press this morning was like one of those old Mike Wallace ambush interviews on 60 Minutes. The guy is as slimy as can be and it was something to watch him try to slither around when confronted with truckloads of evidence of his own shady deeds. There was simply no spinning away the fact that he's a crook. As with other of these Republican crooks who've suddenly found religion as far as corruption reform, there was just no way to avoid the fact that they themselves were prime offenders.

Every time you hear one of these bozo's speak it's as if they're saying, "What I've been doing with gusto for years I pledge to put an end to because it's very very bad."

Timmy brought up the unfortunate incident when, in 1995, Boehner strolled around handing out checks from the Tobacco Lobby on the floor of the house WHILE it was in session!

It was also revealed that Boehner ranks 10th out of the 535 members of congress, raking in $157,604 in privately funded foreign travel, among them:

Greenbriar Resort, White Sulphur Springs, VA - 8 times
Boca Raton, FL - 6 times
Scottsdale, AZ - 4 times
Monterey/Pebble Beach, CA - 2 times
Edinburgh, Scotland, St. Andrews golf course - 2 times
Additional trips to: Rome, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, and that hub of world affairs, Venice.

Boehner danced and slithered while avoiding even suggesting doing anything about his corrupt practices other than largely meaningless trimming around the edges.

Why does he have to fly to Pebble Beach to meet with these wealthy interests? Why couldn't they just meet in his office?, asked Tim. "These industry meetings take place in nice places. And that's where these events are.. that's where the speeches are, and if you're invited, you've got to decide whether it's worthwhile."

Gee. Wonder if he's ever figured an all expense paid trip to some of the most luxurious clubs and resorts in the world were NOT worthwhile. It sure makes you confident that he's going to clean things up, doesn't it?

And Boehner did something unusual for a Republican. He managed to directly contradict himself within a minute. Sure, it's tough to keep the lies straight, like when Dick "Dick" Cheney jumped on a reporter who said he'd stated something and twice sharply told them that he'd never said it, and later tape was found of him saying exactly what the reporter said he'd said, word for word, only a few days earlier.

But Boehner was out to break the record for how fast you can flip-flop.

MR. RUSSERT: I want to talk about Jack Abramoff, because his name, lobbyist, “The Shadow,” hangs over Congress. According again to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “John Boehner’s Freedom Project PAC got $27,500 from the Chippewa tribe, Choctaw Indians and other tribes in California, Louisiana” that Jack Abramoff represented.

Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the Senate, also Republican, had received some $18,000 from clients of Jack Abramoff. He gave the money back because he was concerned about the perception. Will you give the money back?

REP. BOEHNER: No. Those tribes gave money to my political action committee. It had nothing to do with Jack Abramoff. I didn’t know Jack Abramoff. I may have met him once. I had no relationship to him, and the money that I raised from those tribes had nothing to do with him. I worked with those Indian tribes and others on education issues, on labor issues, and he had nothing to do with it, so why would I—why would I give the money back?

Then, within seconds...

MR. RUSSERT: According to his records, however, there were 17 contacts between his lobbying team and your staff and—and a meeting with you also.

REP. BOEHNER: Some of his under—underlings worked with some low-level employees in my office. I’m telling you, I never met the man. The money didn’t come through him. And, frankly, I think four out of the five tribes have written us a letter at our request saying that the money they gave had nothing to do with Jack Abramoff.

One of the most lavish running parties surrounding the Republican convention has been in his "honor". Asked if he'd call for the end of these parties for which corporate and industry groups pay literally millions to put on, Boehner simply dodged it altogether by saying he thought the conventions themselves serve no purpose anymore. When confronted by the fact that he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Tom Delay's defense fund, Boehnert was unrepentant. But when asked if he'd give the leadership back to Delay if he's cleared of charges, Boehnert made it clear that he was holding on for dear life unless he could swing a deal that was too sweet to refuse, saying, "We'd have to talk about it."

The Republican leader also stated that he wasn't returning a dime of the money Indian Lobby groups controlled by Abramoff had given him, trying out the defense used by a few Dems such as Harry Ried and others, that they were funds given to them because of their oversight of Indian issues, and that they'd received funds from these groups for years. But Boehner stammered and stuttered when Timmy brought up the fact that Boehner hadn't gotten a single DIME from these Indian lobby groups UNTIL Abramoff had started running them. Why, he had no idea!

The guy is bad news for the country, but potentially good news for Democratic fortunes in congressional elections.