Remember John Boehner? The former House Speaker is apparently enjoying retirement in Ohio. Political tracked down the former speaker, who retired at the end of October 2015, and found that he had some pretty harsh things to say about his former colleagues, though he insists none of them were personal. He is not a fan of former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), not because he thinks he is a bad person, but because he did things that only benefited him. Tragically, Boehner has admitted that Chaffetz had legislative talent. As for Rep. Jim Jordan of his native Ohio, the staunch conservative wing of the GOP, Boehner described him as a “legislative terrorist.” Still, he doesn’t seem to have a real problem with these people. He also recounted a run-in with then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who criticized his handling of the House. Boehner simply told him to “go f**k himself.” You can read the rest of the profile herebut here are the parts where he attacks Chaffetz, Jordan, and Reid. Politicians Tim Alberta was with Mr. Boehner in June of this year [warning: strong language]:
Boehner’s conflict with Chaffetz, who later joined Fox News as a paid contributor, is not personal — he’s simply “a total fraud” who had legislative talent but focused mostly on self-promotion. “With Chaffetz,” Boehner says, “it’s always about Chaffetz.”
His problems with Jordan, the founding chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, run much deeper. To Boehner and his allies, Jordan was the antagonist of his chairmanship—the epitome of the balancing act and betrayal that rocked the House Republican majority and made Boehner’s life miserable. Although he told me in later conversations that he held no grudge, Boehner now takes it out on his Ohio colleague. “Jordan was a terrorist as a legislator, going back to when he was in the Ohio House and Senate,” Boehner says. “A terrorist. A legislative terrorist.”
If he seems irritated, it’s because it’s an irony of his career: A quarter-century before a conservative insurgency stormed Washington and ousted him from the House speakership, John Boehner was a conservative insurgent.
[…]
Breaking the ice, I [Tim Alberta] mention some of the news of the day—that Trey Gowdy is likely to be chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The previous chairman, Jason Chaffetz, has abruptly announced his resignation from Congress; House conservatives had hoped that Jim Jordan, a senior member of the committee, might run for chairman. Boehner smiles. “Gowdy—that’s my guy, even though he doesn’t know how to dress,” he says. Then Boehner leans back in his chair. “Fuck Jordan. Fuck Chaffetz. They’re both assholes.”
[…]
[Talking about the fiscal cliff]
Obama campaigned in 2012 on a proposal to raise tax rates for people earning more than $200,000 a year. After weeks of haggling after his victory, the president offered a concession: $400,000 for individuals. Boehner counteroffered $1 million. If the entire House GOP had united behind the idea, they could have forced Obama to pay more. But the larger Republican party, which had pledged to an outside group that it would never raise taxes, period, refused. A dejected Boehner conceded defeat in a private conference call and, in an unusual moment of vulnerability, recited the Serenity Prayer, used in 12-step addiction programs.
Boehner was running out of patience. The day before, Reid had scolded him on the Senate floor, saying he ran the House like a dictator. “I don’t like anger. Nobody on my staff has ever seen me angry,” Boehner tells me. “But that little son of a bitch got under my skin.” When he arrived at the White House to meet with the president and congressional leaders, Boehner spotted Reid talking to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “I went over to him and said, ‘Harry, you can go fuck yourself. Have you ever listened to the shit that’s coming out of your mouth?’” Boehner mimics Reid’s nervousness, then adds, “I thought McConnell was going to have a heart attack.”
A pretty intriguing moment in this article came when Rep. Don Young (R-AK) reportedly pulled a knife on Boehner for refusing to accept the Bridge to Nowhere bill. Boehner’s response: He told Don Young to f**k you off. Is there bad blood between these guys? No — they’re friends, and Boehner was Young’s best man at his wedding.
Funding pet projects in legislative districts helped keep members in line, but it fueled a culture of bribery and waste; such farce as the 2005 “Bridge to Nowhere,” a $223 million proposal to build a bridge to a remote, sparsely populated Alaskan island, has become a symbol of congressional overkill. Boehner never accepted a congressional contribution—and he reveled in criticizing those who did. His barbs once prompted Don Young, an Alaskan himself, to pin Boehner against a wall in the House chamber and hold a 10-inch knife to his throat. Boehner says he looked Young in the eye and said, “Fuck you.” (Young says this account is “mostly true,” but he notes that the two became good friends, and Boehner later became his best man.)
