Inside D.C.

The loss that is Speaker Boehner’s resignation

All things must change, and so it is for House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH).  For me, Boehner’s decision to resign the speakership and his House seat at the end of October is less a surprise than it is disappointment in a sitting House majority increasingly dedicated to a “my-way-or-the-highway” political mindset that it may doom itself to failure — again.

I’ve had the privilege of knowing John Boehner since 1991 when he was a fresh-faced freshman elected from Ohio’s 8^th District, a mostly rural chunk of the Buckeye State that guaranteed him a slot on the House Agriculture Committee.  I’ve loved listening to him rail against government commodity support programs over the years, one of the few House members brave enough to do so.  I’ve spoken more than once at Boehner’s annual ag issues conference in his district, I’ve smoked a lot of cigarettes with the “B Man,” and I’ve been the butt of more than one Boehner jibe.

Boehner is a politician who’s always been more about the institution of Congress than about leadership of or loyalty to the Republican Party, though there are few House GOP leadership posts to which he hasn’t been elected.  He strongly believes that to put his colleagues and the institution through more of the rank political gamesmanship and “prolonged leadership turmoil” of the last 60 days, i.e., fending off far right attacks, “would do irreparable damage to the institution.”

He’s one of the last what-you-see-is-what-you-get politicians, and as he said in his resignation press conference, “if you ask me a question, you may not like the answer, but you’ll get an honest answer.”  Boehner always said he never planned to be Speaker for the rest of his political career; heck, he never expected to be Congress, let alone Speaker.  However, when he was first elected Speaker in 2010, his unspoken plan was to serve two terms.  The primary election upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R, VA) in 2014, forced Boehner to recalculate.  But he’s leaving now, not because he fears losing the next leadership vote — “I’d have survived that; I have the votes” — but because it’s time.

Boehner is a devotee of the old adage “politics is the art of the possible,” translating to his desire to do the greatest good for the greatest number, and if that means sitting down those in his own party who want to go a step too far, however painful, he’s done it.  If it means working with Democrats, so be it.  If it means sitting down with a President who is his political and personal opposite, Boehner has been there.  He firmly believes as an elected representative, his job is to “find the common ground in order to get the job done.”  “If you concentrate on what’s important to the American people, you’ll do just fine,” he said.

I confess I’m surprised at the timing of Boehner’s announcement, figuring this announcement might come at the end of this Congress.  But he confessed he planned to announce his resignation on November 17 – his birthday – and his original plan was to exit at the end of the year.  Before he went to bed on September 24, he prayed on his decision, called his wife Debbie, and decided to sleep on it.  When he woke up September 25, he knew “today’s the day.”

Reporters asked him how his resignation will change the dysfunction within the House Republican majority.  As to a coalescing of the House GOP under a new Speaker, Boehner’s response was, “Hope springs eternal.”  Boehner didn’t take cheap shots at his critics or Democrats, rather he implied removing himself as the lightning rod for GOP conservative members might help solidify the party.  The loud and intransigent part of the GOP, those who believe the general population is secretly conservative, they just don’t know it yet, is currently doing a collective happy dance because Boehner is leaving.  They should be thinking, as both Boehner and Pope Francis admonished, how do we do the greatest good for the greatest number?

Good Catholic that he is, Boehner nevertheless told reporters his decision had little to do with this week’s visit to Washington, DC, by Pope Francis.  He told the media repeatedly, that “when you do the right things for the right reasons, the right things happen.”  He believes his decision is the right thing.

The House will be a different place without John Boehner, and I, for one, will miss him alot.