The Speaker Steps Down
Certain corners on the right couldn’t restrain their glee Friday after House Speaker John Boehner stunned Washington by abruptly announcing he’d resign and leave Congress at the end of October. The news sparked shouts of joy and a standing ovation at the Values Voter Summit, and Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz made a point of publicly dancing all over Boehner’s political grave.
That joy will most certainly be shortlived. Even a leadership packed with Tea Party conservatives won’t do any better in passing their favored measures in the face of a hardleft president and a united Democratic caucus.
A major reason why is that the Republicans have failed to unite around any real agenda — certainly not in the way Newt Gingrich rallied all wings of the party with his Contract With America. It’s just not enough to oppose President Obama.
The Republican Congress has managed to slam the brakes on some of Obama’s excesses — and John Boehner, whose conservative credentials are second to none, deserves a large measure of credit for that.
But the party is bereft of the sort of innovative proposals that attracted Democratic moderates and pressured President Bill Clinton into adopting much of Gingrich’s agenda.
And the GOP remains bitterly divided: Boehner made his move when he did, in part, to avoid an expected challenge to his leadership. As an added bonus, his surprise looks to have derailed the latest pointless drive to shut down the government.
Now the GOP’s firebreathers will discover what a seasoned Capitol Hill veteran like Boehner understood: You can’t govern without the votes. And Republicans, despite their majority, lack the votes to override Democratic vetoes and filibusters.
Too often, though, certain conservatives show less interest in actually governing than in waging hopeless battles for lost causes at the expense of getting something done.
Yes, John Boehner made a few mistakes in his years as speaker. But he always served with honor and a firm dedication to principle.
His critics love to sound off about principle themselves, without seeing that it’s not enough. If Republicans mean to find themselves in the political driver’s seat, they’ll have to admit that it’s not enough just to embrace ideals: You have to find a practical way to enact them.