It is being reported that the real reason John Boehner resigned was that the only way that he could have kept his job would have been if Democrats rescued him from a planned Republican coup.
According to Mike Allen of Politico, Boehner quit because he would have needed Democratic votes to survive the coup attempt against him, “Boehner blinked. A friend who was privy to the Speaker’s retirement deliberations tells Playbook: “He wanted to avoid winning the [Speaker reelection] vote with help from the Dems. [And, indeed, top Dem sources tell us that Pelosi was prepared to supply the votes.] That would have weakened him going forward. Also, his core supporters did not want the have the fight and win but end up weak and divided. … It was all about fear of being a weak Speaker depending on D’s to hold his spot.”
Pelosi may have been prepared to supply the votes, but her Democrats would not have been happy about it unless the deal came at a heavy cost. Democrats wanted an end to the sequester cuts. Other Democrats wanted the Ex-IM Bank renewed.
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If Boehner survived the attempt to overthrow him, he would have been owned by the House Democrats. It is obvious that Speaker Boehner was never going to agree to shut down the government over defunding Planned Parenthood.
The only way the coup was going to be avoided was if Boehner carried out the ransom demands of the House Freedom Caucus. Boehner wasn’t going to do that, so Republicans had weakened his position to the point that he was better off quitting.
Things are not going to go better for the next Speaker of the House. It is easy to imagine a scenario where things will be worse. Boehner had decades of experience and was willing to put the institution of the House first.
Most House Republicans are more interested in putting their donors and their own ambitions ahead of what is good for the House or the country.
Boehner was the little Dutch boy with his finger in the hole in the dike. Now that he is gone, there is no one in the House Republican caucus to hold the floodwaters back.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
