What the next speaker of the House could learn from John Boehner

Boehner was a great, if unappreciated, tactician. Will his successor be as adept?

John Boehner
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Cold, hard reality is never really popular. And neither was John Boehner. A full 72 percent of Republican primary voters said they were dissatisfied with the soon-to-be-former speaker of the House.

Boehner had the unenviable job of reminding his party colleagues that, even though many of them campaigned as Tea Party revolutionaries, President Barack Obama remained, well, president. (And, until recently, that Harry Reid's Democrats controlled the Senate.) He had the thankless task of leading a congressional majority at a time of record disapproval ratings for Congress. And he was in the unfortunate position of controlling a caucus full of back-benchers who won their elections in safe red districts by promising to be utterly reckless. They stretched John Boehner's leathery skin over a speed-bag, and let Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and every other conflict junkie take shots at it.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.