http://journal.ijreview.com/2015/09/248375-democrats-shouldnt-celebrating-john-boehners-resignation-heres/Speaker of the House John Boehner dropped a bombshell today. GOP leadership says the Ohio Republican third in line to the presidency will resign from Congress at the end of October. So much for the Friday news dump.
The news is being discussed all over social media. My Facebook news feed filled with glee, bordering on schadenfreude, over the revelation from liberals and conservatives alike. Moderates tended to be a bit more tepid, at first glance. The consensus, though, is that this is a BFD, to borrow from Vice President Joe Biden.
Boehner likely made the decision in light of Republican threats to shutdown the federal government over Planned Parenthood funding. Some right-wing members of the House even threatened to remove the Speaker from his chair if he didn’t join their fight. The bottom line is that, in order to avoid a government shutdown and to remain in power, Boehner would have had to turn to Democrats for help — and that’s just bad politics in a highly polarized House with a very conservative Republican majority.
AP reporter Steve Peoples, covering the Values Voters Summit, tweeted this earlier.
Steve Peoples@sppeoples
Rubio to Value Voters: "Just a few mins ago, Speaker Boehner announced he will be resigning." HUGE ovation. Many standing.
8:57 AM - 25 Sep 2015
The Values Voters Summit, sponsored by anti-gay marriage group Family Research Council, gives politicians a massive socially conservative audience. In his five years as Speaker of the House, relatively moderate John Boehner has constantly been at odds with the Tea Party faction of the lower chamber — on tone and on tactics. It’s no surprise that social conservatives who attend the VVS would cheer Boehner’s resignation.
Ezra Klein at Vox suggests Republicans shouldn’t be so quick to jump for joy.
John Boehner hasn’t always been the speaker Republicans wanted. But he was the speaker they needed. And now he’s resigning. House Republicans might find that a garbageman as good as Boehner is hard to find.
To my liberal friends who are excited to see the ruddy Rep. bid Congress farewell, I recommend similar caution. Why? One famous quote sums it up perfectly: “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
John Boehner was frustrating for liberals and conservatives alike. He managed to stitch together coalitions of votes that ultimately proved to be effective for Republicans: President Obama has not passed any significant legislation from his agenda since Boehner rose to the Speaker’s chair. Obama’s approval rating remains below 50 percent.
But the fact of the matter is that the momentum in the House is on the side of the right-wing ideologues who intend to hold our nation hostage over mammograms, birth control, and STD tests. They would furlough federal employees and put our economy in jeopardy to make sure Planned Parenthood doesn’t get money to do something it already doesn’t get money to do. That these people could potentially gain a significant amount of power and influence (unless moderate Republicans fight back) should terrify us all.
I am no fan of John Boehner. But he’s no extremist — not in tone, and not in tactics. I’m afraid of the devil who takes his place.
Very nice to see rats and conservatives finding common ground again. First with their desire to see Trump as the GOP nominee...and now with their joy of Boehner stepping down.
Who knew they had so much in common?
