“After two years of being front and center in the GOP’s fight with President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner seems to be missing in action from messaging and legislative battles, worried Republicans told BuzzFeed this week.”

“True, Boehner still does one or more on-air press events a week, and aides said he’s actively preparing for the fiscal fights looming on the horizon. But with no presidential nominee to be the party’s public face and set its agenda, that role has fallen to the Ohio Republican. And his members worry he’s not doing enough.”

“If she had gone to Kalamazoo that night, you wouldn’t be reading this today. I would have been aborted.”

— Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), writing in the Washington Times, about how his mother became pregnant as a teenager and was planning to get an abortion one night.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner was recorded teaching Bloomberg’s Peter Cook how to knot a tie.

[Read more…]

“The speaker is the captain of a mutinous ship.”

— Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA), quoted by the Martha’s Vineyard Times, on the divided House Republican caucus.

Politico: “The GOP leadership is dealing with an unprecedented level of frustration in running the House, according to conversations with more than a dozen aides and lawmakers in and around leadership. Leadership is talking past each other. The conference is split by warring factions. And influential outside groups are fighting them. The chaos has led to a sense of stalemate for House Republicans, who have been in the majority since 2011.”

Joshua Green notes that the decision to reverse the automatic cuts that were causing air-traffic controllers to be furloughed — delaying hundreds of flights — wasn’t about rich air travelers.

“The group that Congress is helping the most by lifting the FAA sequester isn’t business flyers. No, lawmakers are helping themselves. There is no more pampered class of air traveler than members of Congress… The point is, Congress’s decision to lift the sequester was even more self-serving than you probably imagined. After casting their votes on Friday, most members raced to the airport and went home.”

Jon Stewart had his own hilarious take on the subject last night.

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The House Judiciary Committee reported Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) traveled around the world on an official trip in February that cost $23,646, Political Moneyline reports.

Stephen Colbert takes a hilarious look at Pennsylvania’s 17th congressional district.

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“House Republicans pulled a controversial health care bill from the
floor Wednesday, after a strenuous attempt by leaders to secure enough
votes for its passage failed. It’s the latest instance of Speaker John
A. Boehner’s difficulties in controlling his unruly conference,” Roll Call reports.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) “is suing House Speaker John Boehner and six other lawmakers to overturn his censure on ethics charges, arguing that members of the House Ethics Committee withheld evidence that could’ve cleared his name,” Politico reports.

USA Today notes that in the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Rangel alleges “numerous, flagrant, knowing and intentional violations” of his due process rights. He also says that he suffers “irreparable harm that cannot be compensated by money damages.”

Roll Call: “Not a single House member has announced they will retire in 2014, but first-quarter fundraising reports indicate some may be headed in that direction.”

The House of Representatives will mark April 15, the day federal taxes are due, by passing a bill that would require the government to fire federal workers with “seriously delinquent” tax debts, The Hill reports.

President Obama’s “ability to secure the three high-profile legislative items now confronting Congress — gun-control measures, reform of the immigration system and his long-term budget priorities — is likely to determine his domestic legacy,” the Washington Post reports.

Obama’s plan now is to ensure that as much of his politically challenging agenda as possible is enacted, after months of effort to frame the policies for the American public and, perhaps more important, for the House and Senate. Each of the issues that Obama is pursuing is being managed independently by the second-term White House team — an improvisational strategy that is testing the president’s ability to calibrate when to get involved and when to stay out of the way.”

However, administration officials “acknowledge that only immigration
legislation has a chance of resembling Obama’s ideal bill once it
emerges from the Democratic-run Senate and the Republican-controlled
House.”

Our campaign bumper sticker: If babies had guns, they wouldn’t be aborted. stockman2014.com #gosnell #tcot twitter.com/ReElectStockma…

— Rep. Steve Stockman (@ReElectStockman) April 12, 2013

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) tweeted that he thinks singer Cyndi Lauper is “hot” and then quickly deleted it 12 minutes later, the Washington Post reports.

Of course, the Sunlight Foundation tracks politicians’ deleted tweets and saved a copy.

Earlier this year Cohen unintentionally disclosed on Twitter that he had a 24 year old daughter that he only found out about three years ago.

Washington Post: “For the first time in a while, members
of the two parties — at least some of them — appear to be talking about
getting things done, even without the deadline of a manufactured crisis
looming.”

David Hawkings counts “more than 80 advocacy groups — from all along the ideological spectrum and from every mainstream and obscure corner of the policy universe — have come up with their own algorithms for measuring every member’s level of loyalty with a single letter or number.”

The Cloakroom: The next time you scoff at something dumb said by a lawmaker on Capitol Hill, keep in mind how they got there.