John Boehner's Gavel

JOHN BOEHNER’S GAVEL

(with apologies to moles and gophers)

You know that game they have at Chucky Cheese and  amusement parks?  It’s called “Whack -a -Mole.” Little unfortunate critters emerge suddenly from their holes in random sequence as the player, wielding a club of some kind, whacks the offending creature back into it’s hole just as another emerges. WHACK WHACK WHACK – until the dollar is spent and time is up. It’s fun, only slightly brutal, just a homely little rubber gopher getting bludgeoned.

And you remember that John Boehner who, when he was sworn in as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, opted for a gavel the size of a croquet mallet? Why, we’re not sure. To legislate, punctuate, compensate?

Republicans immediately passed a repeal of the Health Reform Bill, entitled “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.” Boehner might have used his very big gavel to pound common sense and dignity into his colleagues, to at least insist on an accurate title to the legislation. WHACK!

And then a much uglier gopher popped up in the meadow of our polity, this one a political machination that crossed the border from insensitivity to heartless.

It is being circulated on a growing number of blogs that Gabrielle Giffords should resign her office because the people of Arizona ‘deserve representation.’

This exemplar of political sanity, this courageous, compassionate, sensitive woman who just survived a heinous attack, who is making miraculous progress in her recovery from massive brain injury, ought to be pushed out of Congress before she has a chance to demonstrate how fully she may recover?  The message that would be sent to the maniacs amongst us is:  ‘All you have to do is wound a politician and Congress will finish them off’!

Boehner, who skipped the shooting victims’ memorial service to attend a Republican cocktail party, can now demonstrate some humanity by wielding the mallet he so desperately wanted. This is one insidious mole that’s gotta be beaten back down into the dark hole from which it came! WHACK!