Actor Ben Affleck has been roped into Washington’s debt ceiling debate in a pretty weird way. In a conference meeting Tuesday night, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy played a clip from “The Town” in an attempt to bolster more Republican support for House Speaker John Boehner‘s debt plan. He showed a scene from the movie – about bank robbers in Boston – where a character played by Ben Affleck urges a friend to take part in a revenge killing, saying, “I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me what it is. You can ask me about it later.” The character replies by saying, “Whose car are we gonna take?”
At least one person was impressed by the sentiment. Freshman Republican Rep. Allen West stood up and said, “I’m ready to drive the car,” according to a report in the Washington Post. But some weren’t entertained. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz questioned whether or not the clip was an “appropriate morale boost” for the Republican caucus, and Affleck was perplexed by McCarthy’s choice of movies, too. “I don’t know if this is a compliment or the ultimate repudiation,” said Affleck, who is in Turkey directing and starring in “Argo,” an adaptation of the Tehran hostage crisis. He went on to say say that if Congress insisted on watching movies, they should check out “The Company Men” — about a group of professionals struggling to keep their jobs.
