Schieffer presses Boehner on smoking
politico.com
( This is great - ol' cancer surviving Bob is just bustin' to ask Boehner "Are you a complete DUMBASS? )
CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer got personal with the top House Republican on "Face the Nation" Sunday, asking him whether he’d consider kicking his smoking habit if he becomes speaker.
Schieffer, a former smoker and cancer survivor, noted that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has taken $340,000 from the tobacco industry during the course of his career. The discussion:
Bob Schieffer: "They've been the largest contributor to your political campaigns over the year. How do you square that with the fact that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country, 435,000 people, their deaths are linked to cancer, that's 1 in 5. How do you justify that in your own mind?"
Rep. Boehner: "Bob, tobacco is a legal product in America. The American people have a right to decide for themselves whether they want to partake or not. There are lots of things that we deal with and come in contact with every day, from alcohol to food to cigarettes, a lot of the things that aren't good for our health. But the American people ought to have the right to make those decisions on their own."
Schieffer tried arguing that the American people also had the right to shoot themselves, but that didn’t mean it should be encouraged, to which Boehner responded:
"Well listen, I wish I didn’t have this bad habit — and it is a bad habit — you've had it, you've dealt with it, but it’s something that I choose to do, and you know at some point, maybe I'll decide I've had enough of it."
In the past few weeks, Boehner has become an even larger figure on the national political stage. And he’s faced more personal questions. Just last week, George Stephanopoulos asked the minority leader about his tan. More substantively, The New York Times wrote Sunday of Boehner’s relationships with lobbyists, like those in the tobacco industry, in an article Boehner allies dismissed as a “hatchet job.”
Schieffer suggested that he approach President Barack Obama about quitting together, to which Boehner replied curtly, “Bob, I appreciate your suggestion.” |
