Tag Archives: John Boehner

Ted Cruz as Lucifer, “Squat Like a Toad”

By Robin Bates | Published: May 1, 2016

After John Boehner compared Sen. Ted Cruz to Lucifer, I went looking through “Paradise Lost” to find passages that would apply. I found a particularly good one but, if you ask me, Cruz more resembles Blifil, Tom Jones’s nemesis.

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Boehner’s Monkey and Ellison’s Sambo

By Robin Bates | Published: October 11, 2015

Speaker John Boehner may keep a wind-up monkey to express how he feels jerked around by the rightwing Freedom Caucus, which prompted him to resign. There is a similar puppet in Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” also signifying emasculation and humiliation.

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Is It Time to Bring Out Twain’s War Prayer?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 4, 2015

The GOP and Netanyahu are trying to sabotage Obama’s negotiations with Iran. Could Mark Twain’s “War Prayer” knock some sense into them?

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The Shutdown, Clancy & Darkness at Noon

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2013

Tom Clancy helped create the narrative by which the Tea Party functions. Arthur Koestler may describe John Boehner’s inner state.

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Needed in Congress: A Deus Ex Machina

By Robin Bates | Published: October 2, 2013

If Boehner channeled the spirit of Athena in “The Odyssey,” he could reopen the government tomorrow.

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Holmes, Moriarty Grapple on the Fiscal Cliff

By Robin Bates | Published: December 6, 2012

If Obama goes over the fiscal cliff as Sherlock goes over the Reichenbach Falls, then he’ll be all right.

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Eric Cantor and Famous Literary Sneers

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2011

If you’ve been paying any attention to America’s budget battles, you know that Congressional Republicans are currently engaged in a dangerous game of chicken with President Obama over raising the debt ceiling. Today’s post on the subject features a parallel with Macbeth and a glance at famous literary sneers.

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