Speaker of the House John Boehner has shown terrible judgment in the past few days since the Tucson, Arizona tragedy.
While he expressed the proper statements in the wake of the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and promoted an appropriate resolution through the House of Representatives on the matter, he showed very poor judgment in two other ways.
First, he failed to attend the memorial service on Wednesday evening in Tucson, which many politicians attended, and where Barack Obama gave what might be his best speech in office. The reason given is that he had a previous commitment that prevented him from attending–a Republican fund raising event! 🙁
Is a party fund raising event more important than the memorial service? Under NO circumstances is it an acceptable reason for the leader of the House of Representatives, second in line to the Presidency, to choose to play politics at such a delicate and significant moment! 🙁
The other example of terribly poor judgment is Boehner’s rejection of New York Republican Congressman Peter King’s proposal that a bill be considered to ban any weapon within 1,000 feet of any government official and any government event. Such a bill would make it a crime to do so, and lower the chances of such a horrific event as occurred last weekend, and it would also protect the ordinary citizen attending any public event hosted by a politician.
With the tragic event fresh in our minds, it is extremely disturbing that Boehner continues to play politics and to be unwilling to take leadership on an important suggestion that could save lives and make public events safer.
Boehner’s lack of principle so quickly just as he became Speaker a week ago is a bad sign of the future with him as a leader, and already makes one wish for the return of the accomplished leadership of Nancy Pelosi, hopefully in 2013!
I have to agree with you that it was a lack of judgement to not attend the memorial service. If they want to hold on to the seats they won in the last election, they need to stop being cocky and start meeting in the middle and showing some compassion. I personally hope Nancy Pelosi is serving coffee and donuts somewhere in 2013 and that someone with some talent is in that position.
I agree with the proposed bill that guns not be allowed within 1,000 feet of a government official or event. I do not agree that it would have prevented this tragedy. Someone who is willing to perform such a heinous deed does not care in the least whether there is a law prohibiting firearms. Arizona has the death penalty and it didn’t even slow him down. The bill would only be a cerimonial bill to make the citizens feel like something has been done after this tragedy.
The only real way to protect people would be to have everyone go through a metal detecter and security check.