John Boehner Needs to Work Harder at Hypocrisy

Glenn Thrush reports that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) says he’ll vote against the defense appropriations bill because it contains hate crimes provisions. Really? The same John Boehner who spent years calling any reluctance to vote for defense appropriations a callous betrayal of U.S. troops at war?

Yeah, John Boehner was that guy. A Townhall column from April 2008:

But there is a clear distinction between saying you support the troops and backing up those claims with genuine action. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) once said “we shouldn’t play chicken with our troops” when it comes to funding our troops in harm’s way, and his colleague Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) urged General Petraeus at the start of the surge to request “every possible piece of equipment and resource necessary” to keep our troops safe. These words turned into little more than empty rhetoric when both proceeded to vote against funding our troops last year.

Luckily, the John Boehner of 2008 was reached for comment and he bemoaned the John Boehner of 2009′s dearth of patriotism. “If only I had Googled myself, none of this embarrassment would have occurred,” said Boehner 2008.