Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates and the Birth of GOP Paranoia

[DonViejo]

How America’s center-right party started to lose its mind, as told by the man who tried to keep it sane.

By JOHN BOEHNER

04/02/2021 05:36 AM EDT

John Boehner served as speaker of the United States House of Representatives for nearly five years (January 2011-October 2015), and represented the Eighth Congressional District of Ohio from 1991 to 2015. He now serves as senior strategic adviser for Squire Patton Boggs LLP. This essay is adapted from his book ON THE HOUSE, to be published by St. Martin’s Press on April 13, 2021.

In the 2010 midterm election, voters from all over the place gave President Obama what he himself called “a shellacking.” And oh boy, was it ever. You could be a total moron and get elected just by having an R next to your name—and that year, by the way, we did pick up a fair number in that category.

Retaking control of the House of Representatives put me in line to be the next Speaker of the House over the largest freshman Republican class in history: 87 newly elected members of the GOP. Since I was presiding over a large group of people who’d never sat in Congress, I felt I owed them a little tutorial on governing. I had to explain how to actually get things done. A lot of that went straight through the ears of most of them, especially the ones who didn’t have brains that got in the way. Incrementalism? Compromise? That wasn’t their thing. A lot of them wanted to blow up Washington. That’s why they thought they were elected.

Some of them, well, you could tell they weren’t paying attention because they were just thinking of how to fundraise off of outrage or how they could get on Hannity that night. Ronald Reagan used to say something to the effect that if I get 80 or 90 percent of what I want, that’s a win. These guys wanted 100 percent every time. In fact, I don’t think that would satisfy them, because they didn’t really want legislative victories. They wanted wedge issues and conspiracies and crusades.

To them, my talk of trying to get anything done made me a sellout, a dupe of the Democrats, and a traitor. Some of them had me in their sights from day one. They saw me as much of an “enemy” as the guy in the White House. Me, a guy who had come to the top of the leadership by exposing corruption and pushing conservative ideas. Now I was a “liberal collaborator.” So that took some getting used to. What I also had not anticipated was the extent to which this new crowd hated—and I mean hated—Barack Obama.

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https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/02/john-boehner-book-memoir-excerpt-478506

[greenman3610]

1. I'm no fan of John Boehner, but it's interesting to read his take on the Takeover of the GQP by the

crazies

[Victor_c3]

2. His article pretty much confirms what I suspected - fox is a major contributor to today's political

dysfunction.

Still, hearing any sort of “leader” playing that they were a victim and laying blame on anyone or anything other than themselves for their failure just shows how inept and weak of a leader he really was.

Boner was in a position where he could have challenged what was going on around him, but he didn’t.

[JHB]

4. Yup. Even now it takes the form of has-been potshots...

...not any kind of organized effort to take his party back.

He benefitted from precisely what he's complaining about, and it was all true at the time that he left Congress in 2015. This book could have come out in 2016.

[underpants]

3. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator Ted Cruz.

Good read. It’s just as it seems but interesting to read it from him.

[appmanga]

5. Boehner never showed much guts as Speaker...

...but he apparently has no flips to give now:

" There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator Ted Cruz".

[Warpy]

6. I had very lit5tle use for Boehner as Speaker

and post stalking will reveal just how little esteem I had for him, but I have to say the last two paragraphs above perfectly describe the party of Gingrich and now McConnell. They have become rigid and tribal and the only way anything will ever get done in Congress is by firing up a steamroller and using it firmly and frequently.

The descripti0ns of Hannity and Murdoch are great, and his sick realization that all the devils the GOP made deals with to grab power had started to take over, as devils always do.

Now we know why he was always weepy.

[rpannier]

13. Don't forget Tom Delay

Though I think one person that deserves a lot of the credit/blame is Grover Norquist
His anti-tax group was as much, if not more, unbending than the moral majority

[yellowdogintexas]

7. A perfect explanation why term limits are a bad idea

Exercise your vote if you want to get rid of someone. Those folks in the House will never learn how to be good Representatives if they don't get some experience.

Former Speaker Jim Wright was firmly against term limits because it takes at least 2 terms to really get your feet on the ground to do the job your constituents hired you to do

[Carlitos Brigante]

8. Cent..

center right?!!!!

Yeah, alright. Whatever you say Leatherface.

If it wasn't for all those "crazies" you would've never become speaker. You see, I have this thing called a memory. And I remember you being super coy about birthirism and all kinds of other manufactured bullshit. I remember you wanting to take down Obama in the midst of one of our worst crises. Get the fuck out o' here with that bullshit.....

[susanr516]

12. Amen!

Don't even try to brand yourself as a centrist, Boehner. You were all in for the Tea Party when you needed their votes for Speaker. Now that they've outed themselves as seditionists, you're trying to walk it back. It won't work. Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas, you slimy ass.

[dalton99a]

9. And then the crazy assholes took over, backed by a 24/7 propaganda machine

[pepperbear]

10. To be honest, I don't remember him being much different than what he describes.

[Beartracks]

11. "'Well, you guys don't have a plan,' he whined."

Boehner talking about Hannity. His use of "whined" here cannot be an accident.

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