The majority of those who opposed TARP (the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program) were of course Tea Party-type Republicans, or as John Boehner likes to call them, "knuckle-draggers". 133 House Republicans voted against in the first House vote, which led the stock market to lose 777 points in one day, the most ever. On their second vote a few days later 91 Republicans still voted against but TARP passed 263-171. Boehner's troubled relationship with the Tea Party types in his caucus probably didn't get any warmer this week.
VAN SUSTEREN, FOX News: People think of him as hawkish on the budget, on expenses, but he voted for TARP. He voted for the auto bailout, voted for two stimulus in '08, voted against the '09 -- February '09 President Obama stimulus. How does -- I mean, how does he explain those, or I mean, how does -- politically, how does he sell that?
BOEHNER: I mean, I think that he's a practical conservative. He's got a very conservative voting record, but he's not a knuckle-dragger, all right? He understood that TARP, while none of us wanted to do it, if we were going to save -- save our economy, save the world economy, it had to happen. I wish we didn't have to do it, either, but he understood that.
