Minority Leader holds up vote on key climate legislation

Invoking a custom of the House which allows party leaders as much time as they should need to discuss a bill or amendment, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrapped-up the Republican Party’s case in opposition to the Waxman-Markey climate bill by busting-out a filibuster, of sorts; poring through an amendment to the bill that was delivered late the night before.

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Repeatedly highlighting the fact that it was submitted at 3:09 A.M., Boehner read aloud portions of what he called, “Speaker Pelosi’s National Energy Tax”, often pulling bits and pieces completely out of context to launch into the Republican talking points about how the bill will kill the American economy.

When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, “Hey, people deserve to know what’s in this pile of sh*t.”

Boehner also busted-out a chart that looked something 100-or so bad PowerPoint presentations all pasted onto a single poster. Of course, that was all part of Boehner’s strategy, to make the bill seem like some incomprehensible, behemoth piece of legislation that Americans couldn’t possibly understand and that would undoubtedly bring the federal government and the U.S. economy to its knees.

“I’ve been here a while and I’ve seen a lot of crazy things, but I’ve never seen anything this ridiculous,” said Boehner, pointing to the poster during his weekly on-camera press briefing.

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And if Minority Leader Boehner didn’t get enough face-time on Friday night, he also gave the weekly Republican address, explaining his (party’s) opposition to the climate and health care proposals put forth by the Democrats. Watch it:

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