A Politician’s Politician

[Geee]

National Journal:

A day before becoming the 61st speaker of the House (and the 15th Republican to hold the gavel), John Boehner strode into the speaker’s main conference room to convene the first formal House GOP leadership meeting of the 112th Congress.

Unlike his colleagues, Boehner entered without his suit jacket; his heavily starched white shirt shone crisp in the sunlight scattering the shadows in the room. As lawmakers huddled around the rectangular table, a swarm of aides shouldered for space on the crowded perimeter.
“Welcome to the majority,” the Ohio Republican beamed.

After the applause died down, Boehner told his leadership team to “be careful” and “pay attention” to the staff members stuffed into the room. With a hard glare, Boehner said that in the future he wanted to economize the staff presence. Before formally seeking a 5 percent reduction in all congressional staff budgets, he wanted a deeper cut among the hangers-on present when his team met to plot and execute its strategy.
If it sounds awfully fastidious and controlling from a man stuck in the opposition for the past four years—a man who might be expected to exult in his victory, throwing caution to the wind—it should. Boehner has planned this moment for years, and he is not going to blow his speakership on cathartic but pointless expressions of ideology (even if that is what some of the bomb-throwing freshmen have in mind).
He wants to get laws passed, and he knows that doing so is a precarious business. If they will jeopardize his chance at repealing health care or cutting taxes, he won’t tolerate frivolous investigations that alienate voters just for the sake of humiliating Democrats. And he won’t overstate his case.

Boehner is a politician’s politician. He is constantly taking the temperature of his members, balancing their interests against each other, checking the polls, and coordinating a unified message. He is already having to make adjustments—to find ways to balance expectations and performance, promises and deliveries. It is a glimpse of the leadership to come.

[Valin]

This is going to be a very interesting session of Congress!

 

"You better put on your big-boy pads, buckle up your chin strap"

Howie Long