“‘I stepped out of bounds, he thought, so he said, “Go fuck yourself… OK, I can accept that. I appreciate his being honest with me. To be honest with you, I kind of liked the way he handled me.'”
— Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), quoted by the Huffington Post, reflecting on his relationship with former Speaker John Boehner.
“This is the loneliest place in the world, almost as lonely as the presidency.”
— House Speaker John Boehner, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, reflecting on leaving his post.
Rick Klein: “It makes for a grand exit, if not a grand bargain. The budget deal now being finalized between congressional leaders and the White House serves as a parting gift from House Speaker John Boehner to his all-but-certain successor, Paul Ryan. It buys Ryan and Republicans in Congress budget peace for the balance of the Obama administration – the period during which they are guaranteed to have a Democratic president. Barring a rebellion that could would harm Ryan even before he assumes the speakership, Boehner will be leaving Ryan with the kind of maneuvering room he knows he will need to succeed in his new role. Tea party forces will hate Boehner even more, if that’s possible.”
“But if Ryan is able to take advantage of what Boehner is handing off to him, it’s enough to prompt a reassessment of the Boehner era. He led by lightly leading at times, with a restive group of congressmen who didn’t always want a leader. But under the circumstances, between this budget deal and a permanent doc fix, he was able to get some things done that he wasn’t supposed to be able to do. It’s rarely been pretty. But this would be quite an ending for a man who always said – and meant – he came to get things done.”
Speaker John Boehner “has his work cut out for him in passing a bill to raise the $18.1 trillion debt ceiling,” The Hill reports.
“The lame-duck Speaker needs to win 30 Republican votes to lift the government’s borrowing limit, even if the entire House Democratic Caucus votes with him. Boehner was only able to pull 28 votes the last time the House approved a clean debt-ceiling increase — and one-third of those lawmakers have since left Congress.”
Speaker John Boehner “personally asked House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) to run for speaker over two long phone conversations… Boehner has told Ryan that he is the only person who can unite the House GOP at a time of turmoil,” the Washington Post reports.
Politico: “The Wisconsin Republican is getting bombarded with calls and one-on-one appeals from GOP lawmakers urging him to be the party’s white knight. Boehner has had multiple conversations with the Ways and Means chairman. Even before he dropped his own bid, McCarthy told Ryan he should do it.”
House Speaker John Boehner “seemed to have no inkling on Thursday that his deputy, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, was preparing to withdraw from the speaker’s race,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
Said Boehner, a few minutes before the vote: “I’m confident he’ll win today and I’m confident he’ll win on Oct. 29.”
“But even as he reflected on his 25-year congressional career and what he might do next, his House Republican conference was thrown into a fresh round of turmoil—one that might even delay the Ohio Republicans departure… Boehner immediately postponed the election, as he and his stunned colleagues scrambled to figure out their next move.”
Politico: “With less than four weeks left in his decades-long congressional career, Boehner is maneuvering to shape the House Republican Conference on his way out. His goal is to leave the conference he helped build —with countless hours of grunt work and hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising — in the strongest position possible.”
“He has all but officially endorsed Rep. Kevin McCarthy to succeed him, giving the majority leader enough of a nod to express confidence but short of the full-throated endorsement that could sink him. Boehner tried to lure a candidate into the majority leader race against one of his own top lieutenants, a move aimed at bolstering McCarthy’s right flank.”
Speaker John Boehner secretly met with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) “to encourage him to jump into the race for House majority leader, a dramatic attempt by the chamber’s top Republican to try to influence the intraparty election,” Politico reports.
“The previously undisclosed meeting reveals new behind-the-scenes involvement by Boehner, who has not endorsed any candidates in the leadership race. That the Ohio Republican inserted himself in the contest underscores his concern about who succeeds him in GOP leadership.”
New York Times: “The right flank of John A. Boehner’s party may have pushed him out of the House speaker’s chair, but it will take members of every faction of the House Republicans to choose his successor. As the scramble to replace Mr. Boehner — and fill the leadership posts beneath him — begins in earnest this week, a few dozen members who spent several years tormenting the speaker feel deeply empowered in determining the outcome.”
“But while they may have effectively deposed Mr. Boehner, their own authority is in no way assured.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told CNN that Speaker John Boehner is a “fine person” but she’s note sure she’ll miss him when he retires at the end of October.
Said Pelosi: “I respect the people who send them here. I respect the fact that their caucus elected them to a leadership position.”
But, she added: “I don’t know if I’ll miss him.”
“Absolutely, they’re unrealistic! But, you know, the Bible says beware of false prophets, and there are people out there spreading noise about how much can get done.”
— Speaker John Boehner, quoted by the Washington Post, on the hardliners in the House GOP caucus.
Speaker John Boehner’s “sudden announcement on Friday that he will step down from the speakership and leave the House on Oct. 30 has thrown Washington into deep uncertainty. His resignation is likely to herald an even more combative stretch in the nation’s capital, emboldening conservatives to defy Mr. Obama on looming decisions regarding spending, debt and taxes,” the New York Times reports.
“Some in Congress and the White House hold out hope that Mr. Boehner’s departure and the election of a new speaker will break the fever among conservatives, who have been plotting his downfall for over a year, and grant his replacement a grace period. Mr. Obama promised Friday to ‘reach out immediately’ to the next speaker to begin working on the nation’s problems.”
“But more prevalent is a sense of dread that an already bitter and divisive political atmosphere is about to get even worse.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “sacrificed his job on Friday — a wrenching decision that he determined was the only way to spare the country the trauma of yet another government shutdown,” the Washington Post reports.
“While the shutdown crisis may be averted for now, the forces of dysfunction that drove Boehner to quit remain and will likely bedevil the next speaker in similar ways.”
“The next speaker is going to have a very tough job. The fundamental dynamics don’t change.”
— Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA), quoted by the New York Times, on Speaker John Boehner’s resignation.
“He’s not going anywhere. 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.”
— Boehner aide Kevin Smith, quoted by Time magazine last night.
Speaker John Boehner, “under intense pressure from conservatives in his party, will resign one of the most powerful positions in government and give up his House seat at the end of October, throwing Congress into chaos as it tries to avert a government shutdown,” the New York Times reports.
Last night as he left the Capitol, Boehner told Politico that he had “nothing left to accomplish after he brought Pope Francis to the Capitol. When asked if he was resigning, Boehner laughed before exiting into an awaiting SUV with his Capitol Police detail.”
Republican sources say an ally of Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) has attempted to recruit a primary challenger against the GOP lawmaker who introduced a measure to oust the Speaker, The Hill reports.
Three senior GOP sources said they’ve heard Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has reached out to Republicans in North Carolina’s 11th District to gauge their interest in launching a primary challenge against Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC).
“Growing chatter about a possible coup against Speaker John Boehner has set Capitol Hill on edge,” The Hill reports.
“Talk that conservatives might use a government-funding showdown to overthrow the powerful Ohio Republican has triggered a flurry of behind-the-scenes jockeying among lawmakers eager to move up the leadership ladder. And that has lawmakers wondering more than ever if Boehner’s days as Speaker are numbered.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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