Boehner's Wall-Street Cash Bolsters Tea Party Hopefuls

John Boehner typically gets a healthy dose of campaign cash from Wall Street and blue-chip corporations, and this election season, he’s doling it out to tea party-backed hopefuls. The House Minority Leader has distributed $320,000 to 39 such candidates, suggesting a GOP “stamp of approval” for a batch of “insurgents” this year, writes Jeffrey Smith for the Washington Post.

Boehner, who the Post notes made some of the donations before the candidates got the GOP's endorsement, may be networking in an effort to become the next Speaker of the House. But this support doesn't always neatly gel with the stated views of some of the candidates, who have slammed Washington insiders, lobbyists, and Wall Street—the latter of which has donated some $2.9 million to Boehner, the most of any House member. To wit, one candidate, who accepted $14,000 from Boehner, accused his Democratic opponent of backing "taxpayer-funded bonuses given to failed Wall Street executives."
(More John Boehner stories.)