Tea party Trojan horse.

• Author: Hightower, Jim
• Position: Vox Populist

When John Boehner was swornin as the new Speaker of the House, he tipped his hat to the teabag activists across the country who had fueled the Republican takeover of the chamber last fall. He almost choked up as he promised to "give the government back to the people."

But Boehner was not choking back tears; he was choking on the flagrant hypocrisy of his words. You see, the people he's giving the government back to are not tea partiers, but the rapacious corporate lobbyists who ran Congress during the years that Majority Leader Tom DeLay was in charge. Apparently, the name "Boehner" is derived from an ancient Teutonic word meaning business-as-usual.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Throughout his two decades in Congress, the new speaker has been a reliable ally of corporate interests. In recent years, he has formed unusually tight legislative, political, and even social ties with a group of lobbyists for such giants as Citigroup, Coors, Goldman Sachs, Google, and RJ Reynolds. Of course, most Congressional leaders work with lobbyists, so that's not odd, but to have them also be his closest friends and social chums, well, you just want to say: For heaven's sake Johnnie, get a life?

No tea party grassroots activist is a Boehner insider. The tea party was a Trojan Horse. Its troops delivered the votes to make Boehner speaker,

which allowed the corporate powers to move inside, quietly take over, and return Congress to its wrongful owners.

On opening day of the 112th Congress, beaming members of the new Republican majority entered the House Chamber, accompanied by their proud families. They were also accompanied by David Koch, the multibillionaire industrialist and laissez faire extremist who bankrolled much of the tea party/GOP victory last fall. What symbolism? The members were taking office, but Koch and his corporate agenda were taking power.

Representative Spencer Bachus, the new chairman of the Wall Street oversight committee, declared that his role is to "serve the banks."

Representative Darrell Issa, chair of the wide-ranging government reform committee, sent letters to 150 corporate interests, asking them to tell him if Obama and his Democratic meanies have imposed any consumer, worker, and environmental protections that should be...