Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s convention speech, in which he
compared removing an obnoxious bar customer to throwing the current
president out of office, threw the MSNBC crew went into a tizzy. On
Tuesday night’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, an
incensed Lawrence O’Donnell railed against Boehner’s “ugly imagery of grabbing this president, throwing him out physically.”
Ed Schultz thought it was “embarrassing” that he couldn’t believe that
on the first night of their convention Republicans were “talking about
bar bouncing.”
The following exchange was aired on MSNBC’s August 28 live coverage of the GOP convention:
REP. JOHN BOEHNER: You know, I'm what you'd call a regular guy with a
big job. I've got 11 brothers and sisters and my dad and my uncles owned
a bar in Cincinnati. I worked there growing up, mopping floors, waiting
tables, tending bar. So believe me when I say I learned how to deal
with every character who walked in the door.
So let's say, right now, some guy walked into our bar, full of guys
looking for work, having a tough go of it and the guy said, "Well the
private sector is doing fine." Well you know what we'd do? That's right,
we'd throw him out! Think about this. A guy walked into our bar full of
people paying more for health care, paying more for gas, paying more
for everything and this guy would say, "Well we're better off than what
we would've been." Well you know what we would do? We'd throw him out!
Now if a guy walked into our bar full of folks who couldn't tell you the
last time they got a raise or their house was above water and the guy
said, "Well we tried our economic program and it worked." You know what
we'd do? We'd throw him out! Now let's say a guy walked into our bar and
before he could say anything he overhead a regular telling his story.
Turns out this guy ran a small business, got involved in it while he was
in school, then out of nowhere his business partner died. They had just
one customer. So he fought like hell through sleepless nights and close
calls and they made it. Thank God. Paid their dues, proud of what
they've managed to do. Now if a guy walked into a bar and heard that
story and he said, "Well if you've got a business, you didn't build
that!" Well you know what we'd do with him, don't ya? We'd throw him
out!
...
[7:21pm]
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: You know the [John] Boehner speech I thought was,
was particularly strange. To get the point of using bar room analogy.
"We're gonna throw him out." There's an ugly, physical imagery to this.
And it's something that the Republican speech writers - You know these
speeches are all written over there, under the supervision of Romney
World. And they have the, the, the most insensitive approach to
everything. The, the physical imagery they were conjuring up-
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah!
O'DONNELL: -of this man in the Oval Office being grabbed by the collar
and literally thrown out into a street. That is the image that he tried
to get that hall to just cheer along to. Luckily he was speaking earlier
enough in the night that - you know what it's like in those halls?
They're completely ignoring everybody at that podium now, until they get
to primetime. And I'm glad that, that speech wasn't featured in a way
that he could really get the crowd rabble-roused over that. Very ugly
imagery of grabbing this president, throwing him out physically.