House Minority Leader John Boehner fought back tears on Tuesday as he recalled how he began a political career two decades ago that now has him on the brink of becoming the speaker of the US House of Representatives. Often ridiculed by comedians for his “orange” tan and criticized by opponents for being beholden to big business, Boehner is prone to tears at big moments, but reportedly unhappy with himself about it.
So perhaps it was no surprise the ordinarily cool customer almost let his emotions overcome him as he contemplated taking on one of the most powerful jobs in US politics.
“I started out mopping floors, waiting tables and tending bar at my dad’s tavern,” Boehner told a victory gathering after his -Republican Party won control of the House from US President President Barack Obama’s Democrats.
PHOTO: EPA
“I poured my heart and soul into a small business,” he added, speaking haltingly with his chin quivering. “And when I saw how out-of-touch Washington had become ... I put my name forward and ran for office.”
Boehner — first elected to the House in 1990 and the chamber’s Republican leader since 2007 — is in line to become the chamber’s speaker when the new Congress convenes in January. The job would put Boehner second in the line of succession to the US presidency, behind only the vice president, and position him to slam the brakes on Obama’s liberal agenda.
That would be fine with Wall Street, which contributes -heavily to Boehner and opposes many Obama measures, including a tightening of financial regulations that Boehner aims to repeal, or at least chip away at.
“The Street is starved for someone with real life experience in Washington and John Boehner fits it to the ‘T,’” said Chris Krueger of Capital Concept, a private firm that tracks Washington for institutional investors.
Another congressional analyst, Dan Ripp of Bradley Woods and Co in New York, said: “While Boehner is OK, he isn’t particularly inspiring.”
To be sure, Boehner isn’t a gifted or charismatic speaker.
However, he is a skilled legislator and a tough politician.
He quickly climbed the leadership ladder after joining the House. He slipped off during a 1998 power struggle, but rebounded and moved up again.
Boehner has been singled out by Obama in campaign speeches as the face of Republican obstructionism.
He got members of his party to stick together against Obama measures that were rammed through the Democratic-led House in the past two years, including a historic healthcare overhaul and an US$814 billion economic stimulus plan.
Obama portrays Boehner as too cozy with big business and a backer of policies that drove the US economy into recession under former US president George W. Bush.
However, Boehner has fired back by accusing Obama of pushing failed fiscal policies that have contributed to a stubbornly high US jobless rate of 9.6 percent.
Boehner reached out to the “Tea Party” movement, a loose coalition of groups nationwide that has energized Republicans even while being critical of both parties for what they see as too much government.
Chris Littleton, a Tea Party leader in Boehner’s Ohio congressional district, said he first met with the Republican leader last year and blasted him and other Republicans for big spending and federal intrusion during the Bush administration.
“We hit him pretty hard,” Littleton recalled. “He admitted mistakes. He said, ‘We lost our way.’ He’s right. They did.”
It remains to be seen where Obama and Boehner will come together, if at all, but showdowns over spending are certain.
Boehner said he plans to do everything he can, “I mean everything,” to repeal Obama’s healthcare reform, a top Tea Party target.
However, they might be ready to talk on other matters — like long-stalled free-trade agreements, measures to rebuild roads and legislation to renew a major education bill that Boehner helped pass in 2001 with bipartisan support.
Boehner received a congratulatory call from Obama after Tuesday’s election.
A Republican aide said: “They discussed working together to focus on the top priorities of the American people, which Boehner has identified as creating jobs and cutting spending.”
“That’s what they expect,” the aide quoted Boehner as telling the president.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
STOPOVERS: As organized crime groups in Asia and the Americas move drugs via places such as Tonga, methamphetamine use has reached levels called ‘epidemic’ A surge of drugs is engulfing the South Pacific as cartels and triads use far-flung island nations to channel narcotics across the globe, top police and UN officials told reporters. Pacific island nations such as Fiji and Tonga sit at the crossroads of largely unpatrolled ocean trafficking routes used to shift cocaine from Latin America, and methamphetamine and opioids from Asia. This illicit cargo is increasingly spilling over into local hands, feeding drug addiction in communities where serious crime had been rare. “We’re a victim of our geographical location. An ideal transit point for vessels crossing the Pacific,” Tonga Police Commissioner Shane McLennan
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
RSS