"If you resign in the next day, I will personally guarantee you a job comparable to what you are making, and raise legal defense money for you," Ney quotes Boehner saying in his book, "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill."
Bob Ney spent 11 months in federal prison, having been convicted of a connection to the Jack Abramoff fraud case. It's clear that John Boehner failed to keep his promise - according to Ney, he refused to even return his calls after he resigned from Congress in 2006.
In Ney's new book, a portrait of a ruthless and incompetent John Boehner is brought to light.
[Ney] said he pressed Boehner, repeating the terms and getting assurance that the offer was “ironclad.” When Ney called back the next day to accept the deal, he wrote that he again repeated the terms to Boehner, who agreed. “Because of Boehner’s promise, I stepped aside,” he wrote. But Ney said Boehner did not keep his word. “I had been lied to and ditched,” Ney said.
Ney describes Boehner as
“a bit lazy” and “a man who was all about winning and money. He was a
chain-smoking, relentless wine drinker who was more interested in the high life--
golf, women, cigarettes, fun, and alcohol.” He said Boehner “spent almost all of his time on fundraising, not policy.” He
“golfed, drank constantly, and took the easy way legislatively.” Boehner's golfing, Ney said, was “nonstop” and “paid for by lobbyists.”
It's true that Bob Ney was certainly a flawed character who had alcohol problems of his own. In his book, Ney is candid about this.
“My problem with alcohol became an alcohol problem on steroids from 2005 to 2006, escalating into blackouts, anger, depression, extreme sadness. You name it, I experienced it. I had been a drinker through the years, but I had been drinking more and more.”
Ney also claims, however, that he hasn't touched a drink for well over six years now.
He proudly notes he has not had a drink since Sept. 13, 2006, 30 days before he pleaded guilty to one charge of making false statements and one charge of “honest services fraud” for accepting gifts, trips, meals, and drinks from Abramoff.
These days, Bob Ney is a staff journalist for the esteemed Talk Radio News Service, and has spent time in India with devotees of the Dalai Lama since being released from prison. Ney's ire doesn't end with his condemnation of Boehner, either.
He blasts prosecutor Alice S. Fisher as “undoubtedly the most covert, manipulative, cunning, stealth, vicious, cold-hearted instrument of evil that Karl Rove and the Bush administration had.” He wrote that she “along with Alberto Gonzales, Andy Card, Karl Rove, and President Bush shredded the Constitution of the United States and did as they pleased.”
A controversial figure, Ney's book can make your pulse race at times with his eloquent condemnation of his former cohort. Predictably, Republicans are circling the wagons using time-honored and predictable discrediting/demonization tactics; Michael Steele is one who is speaking out as such.
“This is a convicted felon with a history of failing to tell the truth, making a lot of baseless accusations to try and sell books,” Steele said in a statement to National Journal Daily. “More than anything else, it's sad. Congressman Boehner urged his friend to resign and deal with his personal and legal issues. The allegations that a resignation was traded for specific promises are untrue.”
My first question to Steele is, why would you be a knowledgeable party to that situation? Doesn't pass the smell test.
My prediction is that Ney's book is such a hot potato, it won't go away easily. It's veracity will certainly be hotly contested sooner versus later.