Boston.com Wonders: Hey Maybe It Would Be Funny if the Speaker of the House Were Poisoned

A bartender’s plot to poison Speaker John Boehner was considered serious enough for an FBI investigation and an arrest, but one writer at the Boston Globe’s Boston.com thought it was a good opportunity to have a laugh at the speaker’s expense.

On Wednesday, the website reported the news that Michael Hoyt of Cincinnati had been arrested for contemplating poisoning drinks he served to the speaker. Associate editor Victor Paul Alvarez thinks that might have been kind of funny:

The question is: Would anyone have noticed? Stories about Boehner’s drinking have circulated for years. His drinking inspired a blog called DrunkBoehner, and in 2010 he brought booze back to Washington. Had he been poisoned as planned, perhaps his pickled liver could have filtered out the toxins.

https://twitter.com/Coondawg68/status/555341120478400512

The Boston Herald (the Globe’s rival) noticed that the article’s illustration was captioned, “House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, [sic] has been known to get hammered from time to time.”

Alvarez’s speculative paragraph has since been removed, and the article’s original headline, ”Would Anyone Have Noticed If Bartender Succeeded in Poisoning John Boehner?,” has been changed as well.

The general manager of the site, which is owned by the Boston Globe but editorially independent, acknowledged that the comments had been “off-color and completely inappropriate.” A paragraph with an apology was added to the original article, but Boehner’s office wasn’t pleased.

“It should be obvious to any sentient human being that an item mocking threats against the Speaker and his family is completely insensitive and inappropriate,” a spokesman said.