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John Boehner: I'm Saddled with 'Knuckleheads'
Wednesday, September 17, 2014 07:52 AM
By: Elliot Jager
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, characterized the Republican majority in his chamber as unreliable. "On any given day, 16 of my members decide they're going to go this way, and all the sudden I have nothing," he told a conference of the International Franchise Association in Washington.
"You might notice I have a few knuckleheads in my conference," he said Tuesday to the group's Public Affairs Conference, according to The Hill.
The problem has left him with a "paper majority," making it all the more important that the GOP broadens its House majority in the November elections, Boehner said.
A bigger majority would enable tighter Republican congressional oversight of the National Labor Relations Board, which he said was being politicized.
He added that "dealing with Democrats is one thing, dealing with the knuckleheads is another," according to the Hill.
The speaker has faced steady internal opposition from tea party-aligned Republicans, most recently in July when the leadership had to withdraw a vote on border control funding.
He has made no secret of his frustration with his own members chiefly on immigration of late. He also clashed with the tea party at the end of last year over the partial government shutdown, saying their actions were "politically damaging" and lacked credibility.
Meanwhile, in a profile on Boehner, ABC News reported that the speaker usually retires comparatively early in the evening.
"Nothing good happens after 10 p.m," he said.
Boehner is fond of coffee, makes it a point to greet most everyone he crosses paths with — his credo being: "It doesn't cost anything to be nice" – and spends large chunks of his days in an unrelenting series of meetings.
