I don’t really have much to say about House Speaker John Boehner’s announcement that he would be resigning not just his office as Speaker but his seat in the House as of the end of October. The question that I guess is on most minds is what next? Does anyone really think that Kevin McCarthy (California 23rd District) will pacify the more fractious members of the Republican caucus? I don’t think they’d be satisfied with anyone but one of their own. Maybe not even then.
I say that because my take on today’s Congressional politics is that there are a lot of Republicans who are under the misapprehension that there’s a hidden groundswell of conservative voters out there just waiting for a Republican caucus that will pass their agenda. Quite to the contrary I think that what you see is what you get. About a quarter to the country is conservative; about 30% is progressive; the other 40 some-odd percent is not particularly ideological. Eclectic, maybe, because I don’t think that “centrist” quite covers it.
I do not think this bodes well. Not at all. Good thing interest rates were not raised.
It’s not easy being orange in a red and blue world.
The poor man was eaten alive by feral cats.
Ahhhh… not quite my politics — I’m a registered Republican still but I’ve voted for some Deocrats over the years. Not quite my time period — Bohner got into Congress back about 1990 or so, and I haven’t cast a vote in Ohio since … well, I never cast a vote in Ohio, and I if had I’d even wanted to I haven’t really lived there since 1964. Not quite my area — but I grew up in a town about two miles south of John Bohner’s Congressional District for a couple of years while I was in high school and had my life and character shaped by the experience, and I sort of think I still know that territory — I look up stuff in Wikopedia from time to time out of curiosity, and what I read about those parts of Ohio still looks awfully familiar to me.
So I’m sorry to see Bohner going. He’s part of my life somehow, in a way that Nancy Pelosi or Newt Ginreich or a dozen other House politcians never managed to be. My youth is going away with him (well, my early old age, but we’re being metaphorical here).
I kind of think this doesn’t really change much. You will continue to have the split between the radicals and the conservatives in the House. That will stay in place no matter the identity of the Speaker. The Radicals cannot compromise for any Speaker, even if it is one of their own.
Steve
How’s that line go?
“One bastard goes in, another comes out.”
What difference, at this point, does it make?