Fore Sale: Boehner's Day One

While even the statue was wearing a tie, John Boehner set the early symbolic tone for the new Congress by showing up for his first Capitol Hill press conference as Speaker yesterday not just wearing a sweater, but a country club sweater.

The bold close up by Getty Images’ Mark Wilson in the third frame, however, highlights something more provocative than that. With unrestricted PACs operating like personal slush funds, Boehner’s PAC and campaign committee have taken in over $30 million, spending over $100k in the last eighteen month election cycle just hosting golf shindigs for lobbyists and other big dollar contributors, including $29,000 at the Muirfield club in Ohio.

Whether Boehner is so brazen as to flaunt this practice, or this behavior on Capitol Hill is so unconscious that Big John didn’t think twice about throwing on the sweater, there it is right in our face.

(caption: House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) participates in a news conference on Capitol Hill November 10, 2010 in Washington, DC. Boehner spoke to reporters about the planning for the new Republican majority lead in Congress. November 9, 2010 – Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America)