Who stole my cheese?
Posted: Thursday, July 09, 2009 1:58 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress, Republicans, Mike Viqueira
From NBC’s Mike Viqueira
House Minority Leader John Boehner continued to attack stimulus spending and the administration's handling of the economy today.
"No wonder the American people think we're nuts," Boehner concluded.
On behalf of his constituents, he had a question for Vice President Biden, who, of course, was not present, but near Boehner's turf stumping for the stimulus in southwest Ohio today.
"Mr. Vice President, where are the jobs?" Boehner asked.
Ohio's unemployment rate is above 10%.
Video: As lawmakers and analysts debate the effectiveness of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan, MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan and a panel of guests offer their impressions.
And on the dust up between leading House Democrats and CIA Director
Leon Panetta, Boehner encouraged further public debate.
"I think the catfight going on within the Democratic Party should continue," he said, cheekily.
Boehner held forth at his regular weekly news conference, which today was held in the gi-normous, brand new subterranean studio located in the Capitol Visitor's Center. This was the first use of the venue.
Boehner accused the federal government of spending $16 million in stimulus money to save something called the salt marsh harvest mouse, which he said resides near House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district -- something he’s brought up before.
He asserted that during the stimulus debate, Pelosi had sworn that no such funds would be spent, and pointed out that 100 miles away in the Central Valley, there are farms drying up, in part, so the mouse's habitat can stay wet. He appeared next to a picture of the critter.
The speaker's office called it nonsense.
"The mouse was never specifically mentioned in the recovery legislation nor was it championed during the debate,” a spokesman writes in an e-mail response. “This project competed among many other projects for the funding it was awarded yesterday ... This project is not in the Speaker's district. None of these endangered animals inhabit San Francisco -- nor is there any historical evidence that they ever inhabited the area that is now the City of San Francisco."
On the CIA dust up, Boehner repeated his oft-repeated call for the speaker to either apologize to the CIA for calling them liars, or to come up with evidence.
"It's pretty clear that she was briefed" on waterboarding, he said once again.