“Boehner is despised by younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference. They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is a simpleton, an alcoholic, lazy and unprincipled. Boehner has already tried to bribe members with campaign contributions and committee assignments he has already promised potentially difficult members. His power is uncertain [Newt] Gingrich, the natural leader of the “revolution”, gaining power. It is neglected and threadbare, banal and empty, with no lasting loyalty to anyone.” – Sidney Blumenthal in a private email to Hillary Clinton
“There was never anyone else willing to tell the story. We’ve heard it from multiple sources on the Republican side that if you don’t get to Boehner at 7, 8 at night, it’s going to be screwed up. All I know is that it’s unbearable. This guy is ill. As an alcoholic, I know how challenging it is, but the engaging thing is that everyone around him still focuses… I always worried if this guy is incensed alcoholic, what danger does this pose United States of America in…? –
“That’s the attitude. Ohhhh. Don’t make me do this. Ohhhh. This is too tough. — John Boehner mocks Republicans in Congress who oppose amnesty
Over the next few days, you can expect many politicians, columnists and talking heads to say nice things about John Boehner after he steps down as Speaker.
I’m not going to be one of them.
There is no reason to say nice things about John Boehner that he doesn’t deserve. He didn’t die; he quit his job when enough Republicans FINALLY acted to unseat him from his backstage seat. If this had been done many years ago, the country would be a better place. Apart from the long-ago ban and sequestration cuts that were virtually accidental, John Boehner’s tenure as leader has been a long, unbroken streak of mediocrity, cowardice, and disaster.
Conservatives view Boehner as an untrustworthy weakling, Democrats view him as a joke, and the American public despises him. Boehner will leave office as least popular speaker in 30 years.
It’s also worth remembering that this is a man BEST KNOWN FOR CRYING IN PUBLIC. He cried when he stood on the podium for the first time as Speaker of the House and spoke to him 60 minutesduring his inaugural speech in Ohio on election night in 2010, when Obama unveiled the Rosa Parks statue, during a ceremony honoring Winston Churchill, during a ceremony honoring golfer Arnold Palmer, during a ceremony honoring Neil Armstrong, listening to Irish music on St. Patrick’s Day and listening to Pope Francis and many, many other times.
Has it occurred to anyone that a man who chatters so much in public has earnest problems and is not fit to be a leader?
Even apart from that, as Yates Walker he wrote once,
“If John Boehner started preaching the virtues of socialism tomorrow morning, the entire planet would turn to capitalism by noon. Boehner is a walking, talking whirlwind of charisma. When he’s not talking or crying, he looks like a man about to apologize.”
As a leader, Boehner’s “strategy” is usually entirely reactive. It’s like he’s reluctant to step into the ring with the Democrats, leads with his face, and hopes the Democrats take him down quickly so he can turn around and yell at the people who insisted he fight for something in the first place.
A prime example of Boehner’s “leadership” came when Obama shut down the government because the House refused to fund Obamacare.
First of all, you need to remember this John Boehner publicly promised that the Republican Party would employ the power of its budget to stop Obamacare if the GOP had taken control of the chamber in 2010.
“We will fight to repeal the government takeover of health care and start over with solutions focused primarily on lowering costs. Cutting funding for ObamaCare is something I absolutely support. For example, I would support moving as quickly as possible to deny funding to the estimated 16,500 IRS workers that will be needed to implement ObamaCare. House Republicans will continue to stand with the American people against an unconstitutional government takeover of health care.”
Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, Boehner was never going to keep his word.
Eventually, Ted Cruz began pushing the idea of using the power of the purse to stop Obamacare, and it caught on so well in the House that Boehner felt compelled to try it.
After clarifying and explaining that he did not want to pursue this strategy at all, Boehner announced that the House would fund the government, except for Obamacare. Then he came out like a house on fire, slammed Obama for shutting down the government and said he wouldn’t give up!
After a few days, Boehner went virtually hushed as Democrats continued to attack Republicans. Meanwhile, Boehner ALLIES such as Peter King and Devin Nunes publicly questioned the entire strategy, something they would NEVER have done had they not received the Speaker’s approval.
“We were the ones who shut down the government. You don’t take the dramatic step of shutting down the government if you don’t have a real strategy.” — Peter King
“Unlike many Republicans (Devin) Nunes earlier this week, he publicly criticized some of his colleagues, calling them “lemmings in suicide vests.”
…”It’s crazy. I don’t understand the whole point, the whole strategy. Most Americans don’t understand that,” Nunes said.
The California Republican said a petite group of lawmakers he calls the “lemming club” have been blocking GOP leadership in the House for three years.
“These are guys who meet privately. They are always conspiring. It’s mainly about power. And it just didn’t get us anywhere,” Nunes said.
Since government shutdowns are essentially a large game of chicken in which both sides are equally at fault while trying to blame each other, the fact that congressional Republicans sided with Democrats has greatly damaged the effort.
Boehner had options. He could have held out and tried to make his case to the American people. He could agree to end the shutdown if Democrats ended Obamacare subsidies for lawmakers and their staff. Instead, as usual, Boehner simply gave up, and the shutdown lasted only 16 days.
To make matters worse, Boehner went on the Leno Show and said it wasn’t his fault.
“This was a very predictable disaster and the sooner we get this over with, the better. In July, I told my colleagues that I didn’t think a government shutdown over Obamacare would work because the president said, “I’m not going to negotiate. So in August I told them, “This probably isn’t a good idea.” I told them in early September, but once you get my job, you have to learn something… When I looked up, I saw my colleagues walking this way. And it turns out that a leader without followers is just a man walking… So I said, “Do you want to fight this fight? I will go fight this fight with you.”
The questions people had after this disaster haunted Boehner throughout his tenure as “leader.”
Was the closure a predictable disaster? So why did he promise to adopt this strategy before he became speaker? Did he not realize at the time that it was a bad idea, or was he just a liar who made promises he never intended to keep? Moreover, if Boehner knew this strategy wouldn’t work, why did he pursue it? Besides, what do you call having a tough conversation for a few days and then giving in to the “fight”? When Boehner decided to pursue this strategy, what was his plan to win – or was his plan from the beginning to fight a half-hearted battle, lose, and then throw up his hands and say, “I tried?” What happened to actually trying to WIN the battles for conservatism and the American people? When did this officially become something the Republican Party no longer does?
Republicans have a right to expect much more from their leader than drinking, crying and capitulating in every major fight. That’s all John Boehner has offered America since he became Speaker of the House, and the tragedy is not that he was removed from office, but that it didn’t happen much sooner.
