WASHINGTON -- What was probably planned as a lighthearted video that humanize the Speaker is a window into House Speaker John Boehner's heart and soul.
In the shot video titled "The Monkey in the Room", a toy wind up organ grinder monkey delights three little girls visiting him in his office. Boehner then tells the children that the chattering monkey is actually a representation of his life.
"That's what I do all day!" says Boehner, whose job is to control an uncontrollable group of people, his GOP caucus. "My staff gave it to me. Every fifteen, thirty minutes they come in and wind me up and I do my thing." And what is that thing? Bang cymbals and look foolish.
A Boehner spokesman explained in a blog post that they bought Boehner the monkey in 2011 because the speaker once "joked in an interview that some days he felt like a windup toy because his jam-packed scheduled kept him so busy."
A lot of people think it says a lot more about the way the Speaker does his job than he intended. The Tea Party winds him up Real Good.