John Boehner Lawsuit: ‘What The Hell, Pal?’ Longtime Friend Asks in Open Letter

In June, John Boehner announced that he would bring a lawsuit against President Barack Obama for abusing his power in some unspecified way. Later, the Republican House Speaker clarified the lawsuit, saying he would sue the president for delaying the employer mandate required by the new health insurance law, the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.”

The lawsuit will take Obama to task for his alleged failure to “faithfully execute the laws” of the United States, Boehner said.

Boehner’s lawsuit idea was widely ridiculed, including by Obama himself, who waved off the proposed Boehner lawsuit as a “stunt.” Even conservative legal scholars, most of them no friends of Obama, derided the lawsuit.

But now, Boehner may have suffered the unkindest cut of all, when a friend of the Ohio rep who says he has known the 64-year-old Republican leader for 50 years, ripped him in his own hometown newspaper, The Cincinnati Enquirer.

“What The Hell, Pal?” ran the headline over an “open letter” to John Boehner from Jerry Mouch, that ran in the Enquirer earlier this week.

“John, I consider you a friend of mine. We’ve known one another for well over 50 years. Our parents knew “each other, were friends and neighbors in Reading. Our family businesses were directly across the street from each other for over 70 years,” Mouch wrote. “But John, what the hell are you doing?”

The letter from Mouch came in response to an op-ed in the same newspaper under Boehner’s byline, in which Boehner attempted to explain the reasons behind the lawsuit, saying that Obama has been “trampling the Constitution.”

“This is no joke, Mr. President,” Boehner wrote. “The American people are frustrated.”

Mouch wrote in response:

“You say ‘the majority of Americans are frustrated.’ I agree, but not with this president. They’re frustrated with the childishness of those purporting to serve all the American people.

“The majority of Republicans are frustrated. Sure, I get that. But everything shouldn’t come to a halt because you don’t control the White House. By the way, you better get used to that too. You won’t get that back by appealing to Old White Guys.”

Mouch also scolded Boehner for wasting time with the lawsuit. “You’ve got nothing more pressing to do than sue a president who was elected twice by the majority of voting Americans?” he asked.

But Mouch concluded his letter on a friendly note.

“Now, how about a round of golf at Sharon Woods on Sunday? On me. I’ll need 2 a side.

“Your pal, Mooch”

A recent poll showed that 51 percent of Americans consider the John Boehner lawsuit illegitimate, and 57 percent say the lawsuit is just a waste.