Letterman: Hey, maybe Boehner needs psychological help

A housewarming present for the new Speaker from the sad clown of late night via Jim Treacher and Rob Long, who sees this as an early halting attempt at demonizing the left’s new designated hate object. Could be. It’s not the first time this meme has popped up recently on broadcast TV, although I’m inclined to think this is more a product of Letterman simply enjoying hitting Republicans below the belt than any sort of vaguely calculated political strategy. Ace wrote recently that all liberal attacks on prominent conservatives boil down to accusing them of being crazy, evil, stupid, “out of touch,” or some combination thereof. The dilemma Boehner poses for them is that he doesn’t fit easily into any of those categories just yet. He doesn’t throw rhetorical grenades; he chokes up when he thinks of kids not enjoying the American dream; he’s been a competent minority leader; and he just won a midterm landslide. The best his enemies can do for now is to seize on the crying and try to tease a “crazy” narrative — or an alcoholic/drug abuse narrative, which Letterman breezes past — out of that. But no worries: Once the ObamaCare repeal vote happens next week and the GOP and Obama start butting heads on the debt ceiling, the narrative will ease comfortably back into “Boehner wants us all living in cardboard boxes with no access to medical care.” He must be evil, you see; he just hasn’t done anything showy to prove it yet. In the meantime, let Dave enjoy his pillhead jokes.