9/27/2015 articles
“House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sacrificed
his job on Friday – a wrenching decision that he determined was the only way to spare the country the trauma of yet another government shutdown….more
than anything, my first job as speaker is to protect the institution.” The Washington Post, September 26, 2015
Boehner saw the Pope’s congressional visit, which he had orchestrated, as a fitting denouement to his long political career.
Succession – Speaker of the House
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R- Calif.) is expected to run for speaker. The most formidable potential rival for the top spot, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said he will not run. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) said he plans to run for speaker.
The first step is to get the votes lined up before going into the Republican caucus where the decision is made.
Majority Leader
Among those who are expected to run for majority leader, or are at least thinking about it, include
Georgia Rep. Tom Price,
chairman of the Budget Committee;
Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the current majority whip;
House Republican Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers
of Washington and Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas,
who runs the Rules Committee and is former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Shane Goldmacher of Politico writes that “The internal struggle that helped doom Boehner now bleeds into the presidential race.
Within minutes of John Boehner’s announcement,
Sen. John McCain
was pleading for a GOP cease-fire. “Let’s stop fighting with each other,” the former presidential candidate and now symbol of mainstream
Republicanism said during a visit to a conservative gathering Friday. “Let’s sit down together and work out our differences with a common
agenda to elect the next president of the United States, keep our majorities in the House and Senate, and put the brakes on this internecine strife.”
But a truce is not on the conservative agenda, either in Congress or on the presidential campaign trail.
U.S. Representative, Bob Goodlatte, (R-VA)
Chairman of Judiciary Committee, called Boehner “a tireless public servant for his constituents…
U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA)
praised Boehner as a ‘class act’ and an “honorable man of faith and conviction.
GOP Voters Anger and Betrayal: Conservative Value Voters Summit, Washington, D.C.
Donald Trump,
speaking at the Summit called Boehner’s resignation “a good thing, and I think someone will have a little bit tougher attitude.”
Trump is still number one in the polls.
Sen. Ted Cruz,
speaking at the Summit, “I have long called on Republican leadership to do something unusual, which is to lead.”
Cruz was the instigator of the 2013 government shutdown.
Democrats are struggling with internal party problems as well.
Pope Francis Comes to the United States of America
“You’ve Got to Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative…..”
The Pope visited the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks in lower Manhattan.
He said “many succumbed, their sacrifices enabled great numbers to be saved…this place of death becomes a place of life too.
His message throughout his visit stressed the value of life in this land of the free and the home of the brave.
Honesty, truth, and accentuating the positive are better than evasion or lying.
This will give the candidates in both parties pause to reflect on their message.