Live from La Farine: : Don't Cry For John Boehner: "The miserable speakership of John Boehner is over...
...It was not a distinguished tenure. His meager accomplishments came in spite of himself and to the great consternation of his Republican colleagues.... His bitterest opponents were too stupid to figure out how to oust him, and his likeliest replacements never wanted the job.... Because he was dealing with a Congressional caucus increasingly made up of ideologues and idiots, and because he was occasionally forced to betray conservatives in order to stave off catastrophes, moderate pundits occasionally speak, with some fondness, about John Boehner as a man who tried his best to keep his unruly conservative colleagues from doing too much damage. There is no particular reason to feel any sympathy....
Boehner came to power when the priorities of the House Republican caucus were driven by what was effectively straight-up bribery, and his power came from his close ties to industry lobbies. This is the guy, as we all ought to be regularly reminded, who passed out checks from tobacco companies on the floor of the House. Boehner’s problems as speaker stemmed from the fact that the conservative base that the Republican donor class exploited for a generation is now effectively in complete control... solidified by the same event, the 2010 midterm election, that put Boehner into the speaker’s chair.... Boehner found himself elected Speaker of the House, and leader of a caucus that didn’t know, respect, or trust him... [and thought] Obamacare remained because Boehner the squish didn’t want to eliminate it bad enough....
Each one of his major legislative compromises... [saw] Boehner defying the conservative base to act in the interests of the Republican donor class. The current conservative movement’s frothing, apocalyptic style of politics is the natural result of 30-plus years of resentment-stoking by that same donor class. The monied interests that happily indulged the hysteria of the initial Obama backlash now worry that Jeb Bush can’t beat Donald Trump. Eric Cantor, once Boehner’s likely replacement, and a genuine conservative to his very core, was voted out of office by party activists. It’s long past time for Boehner to get the hell out of Washington and settle into the plush industry ‘consulting’ gig that surely awaits him.
