John Boehner to retire from Congress next month

He is resigning from both his seat and his speaker position.

"The best way to prevent a government shut down is for John Boehner to retire." Chuck Todd

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/speaker-john-boehner-retiring-from-congress-at-the-end-of-october-214056

 

Interesting. Should prove to be an interesting couple months as the scramble for a replacement begins.

 

Wow, he must be really worn down from stress or something to retire so suddenly.

I really don't understand the fear over shutdowns. They shut the government down last year or something and nothing bad happened to Republicans because of it. The PP videos only make a shutdown seem better this time around than the last time.

 

Good. McConnell should go next.

 

this must have gotten to him:

 

He saw the handwriting on the wall....the alcoholic worthless piece of crap(so typical of congressman)was going to be forced out anyhow.

 

The problem is not limited to Boehner but instead rests mostly on McConnell...Boehner DID manage to pass a lot of legislation in the House that the conservative base liked only to have dithering, worthless McConnell kill it in the Senate with his refusal to use the tools developed and used by the dems to pass legislation despite the Senate Rules...Put another way, if the rules don't work, change the rules...the dems do.

 

Good he is a piece of spineless (*)(*)(*)(*).

 

On the news, they were saying that the Pope's speech got to him and he realized he was part of the problem, not the solution. Of course, they are speculating, probably because he was tearful during that speech and this came out today. They also said he only told his second in command of the decision just before it was announced.

 

It's way past time for the suntan king to be gone. He needs to take McConnell with him. And Nancy Pelosi. And Harry Reid.

 

Not true...if he was actually spineless then the rest of the party would have walked all over him to get things done. No, he was a lion in controlling republicans. Where his courage failed was when he was dealing with the left and media...he never seemed to find an issue he was unwilling to surrender on.

 

This is great news for freedom loving people all over Earth. John Boehner is a tool for the Gazi (global socialist) movement.

 

You mean a clean sweep! Radical idea that....sort of like the GOP firing 50 'moderates' and 'RINO's' in 2010 and 2012...every time we clean house we were stymied by the remaining moderates in 'leadership' negating the effort.

 

I mean a clean sweep of BOTH sides...

If you remove the experienced con artists on one side, the other side knows the system and takes complete advantage. Take out all the trash, not just the ones "not on your side".

 

Last time the shut down was over the ACA which still the majority of Americans oppose. Most Americans outside of those political active ones do not give a hoot about PP. I think this one would be a harder sell than the last one. Then too when congress shuts the government down, it rarely wins. The Republican recovered from the last one because of the botched roll out of the ACA.

Party affiliation for the Republicans dropped from 30% to 21% during and immediately after the last shutdown while the Democrats fell from 35 to 30% and independents rose. The shut down hurt both parties, but both have now fully recovered. But I agree, for the nation as a whole, there is nothing to fear from a shutdown. All essential services continue, it is only the hyperbole of rhetoric of gloom and doom that pervades a shutdown. In reality, a shutdown hurts nothing.

 

Well, there was the $24B- $30B lost in the economy, from the last shut down, plus lots of jobs.
The other thing the shut down costs was the loss of confidence in our government. When they fight over tactics and not ideology, nobody wins.

 

Well, perhaps. But confidence in our government at least among the people hasn't been there for a very long time. Around the time of Watergate trust in our government plunged below the 50% mark and hasn't been above it except for a bit after 9-11 since. As late as 2011 only 19% trusted our own government:

http://www.people-press.org/2014/11/13/public-trust-in-government/

Throw in the fact that 75% of Americans think their government is corrupt, there is little to have confidence in when it comes to government.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/185759/w...utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

Then there has been several polls which has cited government as the number one problem facing this nation.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/185504/g...utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

http://www.gallup.com/poll/185720/h...utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

 

Agreed, confidence is low when people think there is unfairness and corruption, and there does seem to be corruption and unfairness inside our government. I don't want the government to be shut down over a single issue, especially one as controversial as Planned Parenthood. I'd really like to see our representatives take the attitude of doing what is best for the country, not what appeals to their political base. As fragile as the economy seems to be, shutting down the government seems foolish to me, especially over something that the American people haven't demanded by way of the ballot box. If Boehner's resignation keeps the government open, I'm good with that.

 

Does anyone still have any serious confidence in government? I mean beside the old line

-- Mark Twain (1866)

 

Ha! Not much, but then they don't really give us a reason to have confidence in them either, do they?

 

sadly true which is why it will take more than simply changing the butt on the Speakers chair to regain the trust of the party. Actual action and results are needed and I fear that is a doomed idea until McConnell goes.

Meanwhile...another quote

 

I would start voting for the Republicans more if they got rid of their old tactics and put people like Barry Goldwater back in office people who are conservative not neo, single issues voters conservatives. Democrats need to do the same thing with their parties by kicking out the single issues voters to Neo's Liberals.

 

I think Boehner was more of an old fashioned politician who time has passed in the era of polarized government. The "My way or the highway," approach where compromise is a four letter word. I think Boehner would have worked with Obama and compromised their way to a more efficient government that served the people and country more than what his caucus was willing to do. That is my impression anyway. Tip O'Neal when Speaker, his caucus allowed him to fight it out with Reagan and then compromise where both sides got some of what they wanted and gave the other side some. Those days seemed gone as each side wants all or nothing and are more than willing to settle for nothing than give the other side 10% of what they want.

Nah, I have been around for all the government shutdowns beginning with Ford. For all the predicted gloom and doom, none of that happened. I think it is asinine to shut the government down over PP funding. Congress only controls around 10% of all government funds that goes to PP if what I read is correct. So in my opinion it is all symbolic. But in today's era of politics and symbolism, the symbolism is just important to those who want to federal defund PP as those who wanted to ban the confederate flag. Neither really accomplishes anything outside of making a few folks feel good and making more folks mad.

 

I'm with you on all of that. My time watching politics goes back to when I was in college and Carter was President.

I really think this whole thing over Planned Parenthood goes back to distractions during a Presidential election cycle, that has been the case my entire adult life. The distraction almost always took the form of social issues, while the country was wanting economic issues addressed.

Frankly, I miss the days when politicians were statesmen and would willingly compromise, if it was in the best interest of the country.

 

NYT has some opinions on his resignation. I don't see that there's anything now stopping the GOP from publicly going off the rails.