Former House Speaker John Boehner accuses some in Congress of being "political terrorists"

Table Of Content

• Democrats Defang the House’s Far Right
• John Boehner On The 'Noisemakers' Of The Republican Party
• Colorado Senate kills bill barring rent-setting algorithms as Democrats spar over company’s role in amendment
• House of Representatives: majority leader and minority leader
• The Divided Mind and Politics of John Boehner

That was being pushed by tea partyers convinced Boehner wasn’t fighting hard enough to strip Planned Parenthood of government funds, even though doing so risked a government shutdown next week. Boehner advocates returning to a more open House, less dominated by party leadership. He entered the press conference, and exited it, singing “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.” He talked candidly about having wanted to retire at the end of 2014, he finally admitted publicly for the first time after years of denying rumors. He’d bought a condo in Florida in February 2014, only to see his heir apparent, Majority Leader Eric Cantor lose his seat, another Tea Party casualty, forcing Boehner to soldier on. He then said, he’d only planned to stay till the end of 2015, a plan he was going to announce on his birthday.

Democrats Defang the House’s Far Right

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, also received 164 votes, mostly from Democrats. A few Democrats voted for other members of their party, a reflection of the tension created during the debate over the spending bill last month. One vote each was cast for Powell and Reps. Jim Cooper, D-Tennessee, Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon and John Lewis, D-Georgia.

John Boehner On The 'Noisemakers' Of The Republican Party

We may have different—sometimes, very different—ideas for how to go about achieving the common good, but it is our shared goal. These misconceptions have been the basis for the rituals of modern Washington. Today, mindful of the lessons of the past, we open a new chapter. Although Boehner succeeded in making the House more open, he only had limited success. We always have what I’ll call a few nutty members on each side of the aisle.

Colorado Senate kills bill barring rent-setting algorithms as Democrats spar over company’s role in amendment

The no confidence vote seems to be the final straw that broke Boehner’s will to remain. And on Friday at a closed meeting with his Republican members, he told them he plans to retire from Congress and resign his seat effective Oct. 30. When he was House speaker, Mr. Boehner earned the equivalent of an “F” rating from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which in 2011 excoriated him for his opposition to the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act. The proposed bill, which died in committee, would have legalized marijuana for adult use and removed it from the Food and Drug Administration’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. Reynolds directors with his profile earn roughly $400,000 a year, and Mr. Boehner holds other board seats, too, Mr. Holt said. Combined with a pension derived from his $223,000 annual congressional salary, Mr. Boehner likely earns a seven-figure retirement income, even without the potential Acreage windfall.

Almost since his first day in office, Boehner has struggled to reign in his right flank. As a young member in the 1990s, Boehner’s sole portrait in his office was of Nicholas Longworth, the last speaker from Ohio. As I wrote in our TIME cover story on Boehner at the beginning of his speakership, he idolized Longworth, who was known for his pragmatism and deal making. But with his hands tied by the Tea Party, there were no deals Boehner could make; His attempts to pass sweeping legislation—a Grand Bargain to reduce long-term deficits, immigration reform, even tax reform—all fell victim to his party’s internal strife. When Boehner announced his resignation in a GOP conference meeting Friday morning, he also announced that the House would vote on a Senate-passed bill to fund the government for two more months -- without removing Planned Parenthood funding.

Scoop: House Freedom Caucus compares Mike Johnson to John Boehner - Axios

Scoop: House Freedom Caucus compares Mike Johnson to John Boehner.

Posted: Wed, 13 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Column: Lauren Boebert is her own best asset — and worst enemy — as she fights to stay in Congress

The district included several rural and suburban areas near Cincinnati and Dayton. Johnson had been elected by Republicans as a last-ditch consensus candidate after McCarthy’s ouster, but he courted the far-right’s ire when he led passage of the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine and U.S. allies that they oppose. Johnson’s public opponents are few, at this point, and less than the eight that it took to oust now-former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last fall in the first ever removal of sitting speaker from the powerful office that is second in the line of succession to the president. Just one other Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, has joined Greene and Massie in their effort.

He was ousted from his leadership role after the GOP’s disappointing performance in the 1998 midterms but eventually climbed back to the top. Even as he announced his plans to leave, Boehner told lawmakers they could expect to vote next week on legislation to fund the government through Dec. 11 with Planned Parenthood funding intact, a bill likely to pass with Democratic help, notwithstanding conservative complaints. Boehner was first elected to the House in 1990 and soon established a strongly conservative record.

GOP congressman votes for former House Speaker John Boehner - Hamilton Journal News

GOP congressman votes for former House Speaker John Boehner.

Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

They weaponized ethics rules and criminalized standard elements of the legislative process to bludgeon Democrats as a corrupt majority. One of those times came in 2013, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other hard-line Republicans forced a government shutdown in a failed attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. Time and time again, he recalls being powerless against the rising revolt inside the party towards any sign of legislative compromise, and towards the establishment he had come to represent. It's refreshing to read a memoir with a politician's honest accountings of repeated failures rather than self-inflated successes.

The Divided Mind and Politics of John Boehner

The tactics that are used by the far left and the far right are pretty much the same these days. We’ve got Facebook, Twitter, every social media platform known to man. The more noise that they create, and the more attention they get, the more money they raise. The artificiality of this divide is especially evident in Boehner’s discussion of the conservative media. While acknowledging that the world of Fox News is now a “Looneyville” of conspiracy theory, Boehner insists that things used to be different. Although Bob Grant once wished that Haitian immigrants would drown and Rush Limbaugh lashed out against “feminazis,” Boehner tells us that the right-wing airwaves used to be tame.

“If there’s a small crew of members who think that he’s just going to pick up and resign in the middle of his term, they are going to be sadly mistaken,” he said. On Friday aides circulated a list of accomplishments including banning earmarks, enacting money-saving reforms to Medicare this year, and leading education reforms. Boehner’s announcement came one day after a high point of his congressional career, a historic speech by Pope Francis to Congress at the speaker’s request. Boehner’s decision removes the possibility of a damaging vote to strip him of his speakership, a scenario that grew more likely amid the clamor over a possible shutdown. President Barack Obama, Boehner’s frequent antagonist and occasional partner, called the speaker “a good man” and a patriot.

Prior to the GOP's 40-year sentence as the minority party, several of its speakers had risen to the top rung largely on their personal popularity among their colleagues. One was Joseph Martin of Massachusetts, who led the party in the House during two brief interludes of majority status after World War II. Both lasted only the minimum two years, the first ending with Democratic Harry S. Truman's surprise White House win in 1948. Martin was back four years later when Eisenhower was first elected president in 1952, but that tour at the top was cut short by his party's sharp losses two years later. The No. 2 Republican at the time did not have the votes, and the No. 3 declined to run. The chairman of the Appropriations Committee was nominated by the party conference but withdrew after a magazine story accused him of marital infidelity.

That includes this gavel, which I accept cheerfully and gratefully, knowing I am but its caretaker. What they want is a government that is honest, accountable and responsive to their needs. A government that respects individual liberty, honors our heritage, and bows before the public it serves.