Boehner’s The House speaker-in-waiting is a tough conservative
with a pragmatic streak. how will he navigate between his
tea party republicans and a democratic president?
House blueprint
by gail russell chaddock
Staff writer
H
reading, ohio
e grew up here in a
small house with 11
brothers and sisters – a
brood so big that when
a young John Boehner
first brought his girlfriend (and future
wife) home for dinner, he told her
that all the kids in the backyard were
neighborhood friends. In fact, they
were his siblings.
He worked at the family bar, the
one with the moose head still hang-
ing on the wall, to pay his tuition to
Roman Catholic high school by mop-
ping floors and waiting on tables.
Later he would take over a struggling
plastics container business after
the death of its owner, a baptism in
small-town capitalism that shaped
his views of the role of government in
business.
As Republican John Boehner
prepares to become the likely
next speaker of the US House of
Representatives in January, he will
draw on his varied experiences grow-
ing up in this blue-collar town outside
Cincinnati, as well as his two decades
in the marbled halls of Congress, to
guide him through what may be one
of the toughest tenures as House
leader in modern times. He will have
to navigate a bumper crop of tea-
party-infused GOP freshmen as well
as battle-hardened Democrats at a
time when the American electorate
seems unusually impatient with its
26
John Boehner teared up as he celebrated the GOP’s victory that will likely make him house speaker.
political leaders.
Boehner professes to be up to
the task, in part because of what he
learned in the sharp-elbowed world of
saloons and siblings of his youth.
“You had to learn to deal with
every character that came through the
door,” he said in a recent interview in
his House leadership office. “Growing
my business, building my team, and
serving in this institution for almost
cliff owen/ap
20 years, I think I understand the di-
versity we have around here and how
to manage it.”
Boehner will certainly bring fresh
style and substance to the job. Though
a committed conservative, he is not
an ideologue or firebrand, despite
the rhetoric he unleashed toward the
White House on the campaign trail.
His record of outflanking opponents
in floor fights is formidable, and he
The Christian Science Monitor | NOVEMBER 15, 2010
can be a fierce partisan. But he is also
pragmatic, typically laid-back, and ha-
bitually inclined to listen. He watched
as House Republican leaders in his
day, notably former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich and majority leader
Tom “the Hammer” DeLay, central-
ized power and made themselves the
story – and, as a result, some say, fell
before their time.
Boehner is inclined to work qui-
etly behind the scenes. His instinct
is to compromise, but he is not a bi-
partisan crusader and won’t get out
in front of what the Republican cau-
cus is prepared to accept. His pub-
lic image is that of the consummate
Capitol Hill pol – the sharply dressed,
smooth-talking lawmaker who once
played as many as 100 rounds of golf
a year while hitting up lobbyists for
big checks.
Former GOP majority leader Dick
Armey sees him as Dean Martin with-
out the piano – someone who makes
everything look easy. “He is a man
wholly without guile,” says Mr. Armey.
“I don’t think John Boehner has ever
spent a moment of his life in intrigue
with respect to anyone else. He is a
serious workman and, unlike some
previous speakers, doesn’t require
attention. He’ll get the job done with
little fanfare. It’s not about him.”
Now in his second rise up House
leadership ranks, Boehner has built
a staff on and off Capitol Hill and a
network of loyalists and donors so
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