WASHINGTON, 4 February 2006 — Congressman John Boehner of Ohio upset a former deputy to indicted Texan Tom DeLay yesterday to become Majority Leader of the scandal-ridden House of Representatives.
In a secret ballot, House Republicans decided Thursday not to promote DeLay’s protégé, Roy Blunt of Missouri, to the majority leader post.
As majority leader, Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner) will be in charge of the party’s legislative and political strategy on a day-to-day basis, the No. 2 leadership post after the House speaker, Dennis Hastert of Illinois. Viewed as a mainstream conservative Republican, he is also willing to work with Democrats.
With this party leadership election, house Republicans hoped to get beyond these ethics scandals that threatens their control of the Congress in the November mid-term congressional elections.
Boehner had called for the need for Congress to change its ways in the wake of influence-peddling scandals that brought criminal charges against DeLay and a criminal conviction against once high-flying lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
But critics say there is cause for skepticism about whether Boehner, for all his reform rhetoric, represents a fresh start.
After all, in 1995 he was forced to apologize for distributing checks from tobacco PACs to his colleagues as they worked on the House floor.
He has routinely accepted paid travel from corporate interests, often taking along his wife. His acceptance of donations and trips from Sallie Mae, provider of student loans, has drawn particular scrutiny because of its interactions with the committee he chaired. He even carries a taint of the Abramoff scandal — having received $30,000 in donations from Indian tribes represented by the lobbyist.
The son of a bar owner who grew up in Carthage, Ohio, with 11 brothers and sisters, Boehner is said to be easygoing and is well liked, e sports a perpetual tan, has a low golf handicap and is a chain-smoker, with an ever-present Barclay cigarette between his fingers.
Boehner went to great lengths to present himself as a reform candidate, but is viewed by many as a the same type of conservative of House Republican leaders in the past dozen years.
Observers say his election is unlikely to lead to any substantial change in direction on most policy issues.
Boehner’s victory, on he heels of the politically cautious State of the Union address on Tuesday night by President Bush, has left the impression of a party on the defensive as both White House officials and Republican leaders have become increasingly anxious about the possibility that Democrats could regain the House this November.
If Republicans lose control of either the Congress or Senate, it is difficult to see what Bush could accomplish in his last two years in office.
