Boehner ouster reflects GOP’s mutinous mood

WASHINGTON — Despite the wistful predictions of pundits, 2016 presidential contender Donald Trump, boasting loudly of his lack of political experience, maintains his lead atop the polls, trailed closely by neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina.

House Speaker John Boehner, who spent a 24-year career in Congress methodically climbing up the ranks of leadership and cutting legislative deals, is out of a job at the end of October — the result of a long-simmering revolt by the most conservative members of his caucus.

The state of affairs is a succinct summation of the mood gripping the Republican Party: mutinous. A small but influential group of hard-line conservatives, frustrated by the lack of movement on their policy goals, are out for the blood of their own leaders, who they say have not done enough to challenge President Barack Obama, even if that means painful government shutdowns and other confrontational tactics. More-mainstream Republicans, meanwhile, left to do the job of governing, warn that all progress requires compromise and their colleagues’ tactics might just cost the party the 2016 elections.

“There’s frustration across the board,” said Jack Pitney, an associate professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College and a former House GOP leadership aide. “There’s a feeling among many in the party that the Republicans haven’t been able to accomplish their goals, and many believe that this failure stems from the inability of leadership to be active enough or aggressive enough. Hence the support for Washington outsiders like Trump and the movement against Boehner.”  

John Hudak, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, based in Washington, D.C., also said similar forces were at play in prompting Boehner’s downfall and the rise of nonpoliticians like Trump.

“Being a mainstream conservative Republican is now no longer good enough for a lot of members,” he said. “Tea party members and other more extreme Republicans want other Republicans to look and act and sound exactly like they do or otherwise that person isn’t Republican enough. That is very challenging for a party that is expected to govern, not only legislatively but when they want to be entrusted with the executive branch as well.”

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released on Friday — the same day of Boehner’s resignation — found that 72 percent of GOP primary voters were dissatisfied with the job that Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were doing in Congress.

The GOP rupture was perhaps most apparent last week in the divergent reactions to Boehner’s resignation.

Friends and allies praised Boehner for having an appreciation of what it takes to govern effectively.

“I admire John Boehner greatly. He’s a great public servant,” 2016 GOP candidate Jeb Bush, who has branded himself a solutions-oriented conservative, told Fox News on Sunday. “I think people will miss him in the long run because he’s a person that’s focused on solving problems.”

Insurgents — and those who seek to capitalize on the current rebellious spirit of the party — meanwhile slammed the speaker and the institution of Congress.

“That's one down, 434 more to go before we are done," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, another 2016 presidential candidate, in an address to a conference of socially conservative voters in D.C. on Friday.

Boehner, in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, said many in his party seem to have lost sight of the fact that the current occupant of the White House is a Democrat wielding a veto pen.

“Absolutely, they’re unrealistic,” he said. “We have got groups here in town, members of the House and Senate here in town who whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things that they know are never going to happen.”

In 2013 that faction shut down the government in a botched attempt to force Obama to repeal his signature health care law. In recent weeks, the same conservatives said they were willing to oust Boehner if he did not go along with a plan to shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood, which has been embroiled in a controversy spurred by a series of now-debunked videos focusing on the organization’s fetal tissue donation practices. 

Although imminent government shutdown is looking far less likely, with Boehner no longer under threat from his caucus, party infighting is likely to plague the next speaker.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who announced Monday afternoon that he would run for speaker, said in a letter to the House GOP caucus, “We can’t ignore the differences that exist, but we can and must heal the divisions in our conference with work, time and trust … There are challenges ahead, but unified we have an amazing opportunity to make lasting conservative change.”

Hudak noted that the developments of the last few days, far from sating hard-liners, is are much more likely to embolden them.

“The lesson that is being learned here is if you throw enough temper tantrums, you can remove the speaker of the house,” he said. “If you throw enough temper tantrums, you will get what you want.”