The man who wants to be Speaker of the House, John Boehner, spoke out against Democratic leadership earlier this week. A string of cheap attacks and tired one-liners, Boehner’s diatribe was pure substance-free political posturing. He called for President Obama to fire his economic team, extend tax cuts for the wealthy and to put the brakes on spending. Lacking any shame, the congressman actually had the temerity to suggest the nation needs a “fresh start,” with “people willing to accept responsibility” in charge — as if he or any of his big-business Republican cronies have accepted one iota of blame for crashing the economy and killing millions of jobs, or for doing everything within their power to stall recovery.

The would-be Speaker, obviously intent upon leveraging public concern over jobs, used every opportunity to label the administration’s programs as “job-killing.”  Weaving the term into every topic, “job-killing tax hikes,” “job-killing regulations,” “job-killing agenda,” Boehner evoked the reaper 12 times in all. Condemning the recent $26 billion stimulus bill, Boehner stated that it, “funnels money to state governments in order to protect government jobs.” Of course, he was referring to 161,000 teacher jobs, as well as 158,000 jobs for police, firefighters and healthcare workers. But those jobs weren’t worth saving to John Boehner. He continued his criticism with, “Even worse, the bill is funded by a new tax hike that makes it more expensive to create jobs in the United States and less expensive to create jobs overseas,” which would be alarming — if it were true, which it’s not. His “job-killing tax hike” was actually the closing of a loophole that encouraged corporations to ship jobs overseas.

What Boehner did reveal of the Republican plan for creating jobs appeared to be vintage Bush. It’s the same old recipe that drove the nation off a cliff the last time around — more tax cuts for the rich and less regulation. Conveniently ignoring the fact that President Obama wants to extend the Bush cuts for everyone making under $250,000, Boehner told the crowd that, “Raising taxes on families and small businesses during a recession is a recipe for disaster — both for our economy and for the deficit. Period. End of story.” He’s right, so if he truly believes what he says, he should stop fighting for cuts for the top 2% and join the Democrats in providing relief to everyone else — including all but 2-3% of small businesses.

Boehner is truly a master at the art of double-talk. He claims to advocate for small business, stating that expiring the cuts for the top 2% would, “affect half of small business income.” But he fails to mention that the “half” he wants to protect are “small business” only in terms of the number of employees. Boehner’s half makes 50% of the money, but consists of the wealthiest hedge funds, law firms and lobbying outlets, and comprise no more than 3% of the actual small businesses.

Amongst the newly formed ranks of Republican deficit hawks, Boehner also called upon President Obama to, “submit to Congress for its immediate consideration an aggressive spending reduction package.”  Of course, being a good Republican, Boehner did specify that the freeze should only be for non-defense spending.  But that’s just the tip of his forked tongue. Avoiding the disproven claim that tax cuts pay for themselves, Boehner is left with no explanation for his logical inconsistency in demanding spending cuts to fight the deficit, yet supporting $678 billion in millionaire tax cuts to choke revenue.

One lie after another, Boehner’s critique of the Obama Administration was as fact-free as his economic plan for the future. But possibly his most egregious distortion was regarding the stimulus. A critic from the beginning, according to Boehner, the program, “has gotten us nowhere.” Sadly, many voters will believe this whopper, even though it has absolutely no basis in reality.

Perhaps Boehner had not yet read the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the stimulus. The CBO analysis found that the stimulus had raised the GDP by 1.7% to 4.5% and increased the number of people employed by 1.4 to 3.3 million. In response to Boehner’s fallacious claim, Mark Zandi, former economic advisor to John McCain, took issue and stated that, “Without the stimulus spending, instead of a 9.5 percent unemployment rate, we’d have an 11.5 percent unemployment rate.”

But, the facts regarding jobs and unemployment really only scratch the surface. The real impact of the stimulus is still in process. It is creating jobs in the present, but it promises to create far more in the future. The program is investing in research and infrastructure, providing seed money to jump start alternative energy, modernize transportation, fund ground-breaking medical advancements and enhance technologies such as broadband and smart grids. And in so doing, the program is also transforming the way government works.

Ever the champion of the status quo, it’s easy to see why John Boehner doesn’t appreciate the progress funded by the stimulus. When Boehner says it, “has gotten us nowhere,” what he means is that it has prevented the huge drop in wages his corporate cronies so desperately desire, and that it’s also paving the road away from dependence on fossil fuels. A green America with well-paid Americans working in new industries is Boehner’s worst nightmare. He and his Republican brethren are just fine with things the way they are.

In Boehner’s own words, “It’s time to put grown-ups in charge,” and since it’s obvious that the congressman never even learned the most basic rules of adulthood, like telling the truth and practicing what you preach, he must not be referring to himself. So, let’s all hope he gets his way and voters make the intelligent choice in November —  they put the grown-ups in charge and vote Democrat.

The Republican whining over the passage of the Healthcare bill looks to be straight out of a Michael Moore documentary. It couldn’t be any more ridiculous if it were scripted. After a year of debate, a bill that’s stripped of a public option is finally passed after an eleventh-hour deal with anti-abortion Democrats, and the conservatives still scream “foul!” The only outcome that would have been acceptable to the Republican camp was to pass nothing. That didn’t happen, so now we have to put up with another round of their juvenile temper tantrums.

Senator John McCain is the conservative “Brat-in-Chief.” Threatening that, “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” the former presidential candidate is taking his ball and going home. Now, if crazy John had actually been playing in the game, somebody might care. But we all know that he’s still not recovered from his ’08 Championship loss. He’s been pouting on the sidelines ever since. Will anyone even notice he’s gone?

Parents of other conservative leaders must have been too sparing with their time-outs as well. Several, including Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, have decided to just “go tell mommy.” In the political equivalent to “They can’t make me play,” McCollum joins a pack of conservative leaders who will challenge the legislation at the state level. And you almost feel sorry for poor Gov. Pawlenty — he doesn’t want to play either, but since Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is a separately elected official, he could only ask her to “pretty please” review the bill.

Juvenile brats or not, at least all of these conservatives are trying to play within established rules. Sadly, this is not the case for others. By now, everyone’s heard about Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer’s indiscrete outburst. But while name calling is obviously very childish, and Bart Stupak justified in scolding Neugebauer, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) needs to have her mouth washed out with soap. I’m sure that Rep. Bachmann’s parents taught her not to lie, but she evidently didn’t learn the lesson: I mean, come on Michele, the health care bill is going to raise abortion by 30 percent?

So go the games on the Republican playground. It’s a sorry state of affairs, but it’s so constant that we’re all getting used to it. At some point you have to just say, “Let them be babies — there’s work that needs to be done — I guess we’ll have to do it ourselves.”

But then, just when you think you’ve found a way to ignore all the juvenile antics, they take a turn toward the dangerous. When gun-slinging former Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin starts identifying “targets,” we need to take notice. If her recent Facebook post addressing the health care bill contained only her normal mish-mash of tired talking points, you could just turn the other cheek. But when she takes to whipping up the crazies with talk about “taking aim,” and she actually provides a “target” list for the “first salvo” in a “fight,” to “reclaim the power of the people from those who disregarded the will of the people” . . . well, it’s time to duck and run for cover!

And like those kids in school who came from everywhere at the mention of a fight, the conservative talking heads are eagerly fanning the flame. Adept at using everything in the right-wing toy box, be it tantrums, tattling, name calling, lying, or fighting, the Republican Party’s number one playground bully, Rush Limbaugh, is loudly shouting his battle cry. Always so eloquent, Limbaugh says, “We need to defeat these bastards” — “We need to wipe them out. Defeat the Democrats every one of them that voted for this bill.” Then, making sure he whips things to a frenzy, he pulls some tried and true fear mongering from his bright red toy chest, the bill means “leftist radicals will now be making your health care decisions, instead of your doctor” . . . “America is hanging by a thread.”

Not to be outdone, fellow right-wing barking dog, Glen Beck was quick to jump on the bandwagon. Appealing to the Marty McFly contingent of the GOP — “Are you an American or are you a mouse?” Beck taunted. And just in case they didn’t respond to being called “chicken,” Beck followed with a shot at that good old sense of American superiority, “Are you an American or a European?” Now, I’m all for free speech, but you’ve got to wonder at what point this type of incendiary emotional instigation should be considered, “yelling fire in a theater.” Does somebody actually have to die?

One tantrum after another, it could be in a soap opera, like “As the Teeter Totters.” It would all be funny, if it wasn’t so disruptive, destructive and potentially dangerous. With America in its most dire times since the Great Depression, we’re in desperate need of real solutions. There’s no shortcut back to prosperity, no quick fixes. Only one path leads back to American greatness, and that path requires an open and honest dialog of what ails our Country. It’s time for all true patriots to demand an end to the childish bickering and insist that the dialog begin.

It’s time that We the People demand these conservative leaders grow the f@&# up!