Boehner still considered himself a Democrat in , but he didn't vote for Jimmy Carter. As he watched Carter's tenure, Boehner became increasingly interested in politics — in , he ran for president of a homeowners' association — and drawn to the GOP. I'm a Republican.
And I'm a Reagan Republican, too. While Bush was serving as vice president, Boehner was launching his own political career in the Republican Party. In , he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, starting an unbroken string of electoral victories and a political rise that would make him close friends with Bush's son.
Boehner's assessment of the elder Bush was short and sweet; his view of Bill Clinton is more complicated, and more mixed. The president played "a slightly shady" game of golf, including a fondness for taking mulligans, or do-over shots. Boehner called them "Billigans. In his book, Boehner wrote that he admired Clinton's "skillful" campaign in , "where he managed to survive accusations of adultery, draft dodging, being a communist, drug running and even mass murder.
It was blowback by voters to Clinton's first two years in office that gave Republicans control of the House in , he said. Boehner voted to impeach Clinton on charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice when he tried to cover up an affair with a White House intern. He said the move was motivated by Republican whip Tom DeLay's calculation that impeachment would be "a big win politically.
It wasn't, and Boehner no longer argues that Clinton's misdeeds met the "high crimes and misdemeanor" requirement in the Constitution for impeachment. They are close in age and personality, both outgoing men with a fondness for sports and frat-boy humor.
They got to know one another in the s, when House Republicans were trying to build closer relationships with GOP governors, including Bush. But Bush didn't excel in the poker games they sometimes joined.
The Texas governor would fold unless he had a packed hand — a "tell" to everybody else in the game. When Bush was elected president in , Boehner was part of the House Republican leadership. Nothing was good enough. He described the speaker's job as "one of the loneliest places in the world" and said his successor, Wisconsin's Paul Ryan "has got to succeed in a very difficult environment. He said his relationship with Obama was always respectful and polite, though it had its ups and downs.
It started badly after Obama took office in , when Obama sought congressional leaders' views on a stimulus package and said he'd take what they said seriously, "but you have to remember something. I won. Boehner said he "bit his tongue. If you look at the American system of government, yeah, you got liberals, you got conservatives. You have to find common ground. Skip to main content. A must-read political newsletter that breaks news and catches you up on what is happening.
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