"John Boehner is a skillful player on the national stage, a seasoned, knowledgeable lawmaker who gives our area added clout. We endorse him for re-election."
Boehner shows skill on a national stage
October 11, 2008
Cincinnati Enquirer Endorsement
It's been a wild ride for John Boehner during his nine terms representing Ohio's 8th District in the U.S. House. First elected in 1990, the West Chester Republican rose steadily in the GOP ranks, was bounced from a top leadership role in 1999, remade himself as a "go-to" guy on education and other major issues, worked his way back up and won a come-from-behind vote for House majority (now minority) leader in 2006.
Now, with GOP discontent brewing over the recent economic bailout vote and the possibility of losing more seats in Congress on Nov. 4, Boehner may have a fight to keep his post as minority leader. It's not a job for the faint of heart. But Boehner is nothing if not resolute and resourceful.
He's handled the ups and downs with consistently blunt candor, dry wit and sharp political instincts. Evidently, his constituents like the positions he's taken and the job he's done, as they've re-elected him by a comfortable margin every two years.
John Boehner is a skillful player on the national stage, a seasoned, knowledgeable lawmaker who gives our area added clout. We endorse him for re-election.
(Boehner's opponent is Nicholas von Stein, a Hamilton native, Air Force veteran and organizer for various progressive groups who is working on a graduate degree in political science at Miami University. He failed to respond to several requests from the Enquirer editorial board for an endorsement interview.)
Boehner entered the U.S. House as a conservative reformer on the leading edge of the '90s GOP takeover. He won kudos for working to clean up the House Bank and Post Office scandals, and has kept a reform-minded agenda ever since.
That's most evident in recent years with his intense opposition to congressional earmarks - the so-called "pork" projects lawmakers slip into various spending bills. Boehner refuses to deal in earmarks for his district. "I just don't do them," he says.
Boehner says his hard-nosed stance on a perk that most legislators love - and feel they need to impress the folks back home - "almost cost me the race" for GOP leader in early 2006. On becoming leader, he moved on a plan to add transparency and accountability to the process.
He says the rule of thumb for such spending items ought to be simple: "Does it pass the straight-face test?" That sort of plain talk is typical of Boehner's calls-'em-as-he-sees-'em frankness.
Boehner has also taken a key role in education reform, crafting the No Child Left Behind law, and in pension reform.
He generated some controversy during negotiations on the recent financial bailout, objecting during a key White House session that his House Republicans had been cut out of the process on a pre-arranged deal. The fracas that ensued led to the plan's initial rejection by the House.
Later, he uttered this now-famous line: "I don't know what games were being played at the White House yesterday to gang up on Boehner, but if they thought they were rolling me, they are kidding themselves."
Crazy, perhaps, but crazy like a fox. "He got a standing ovation (in a House GOP meeting) because he stood up to the president and (Treasury Secretary Henry) Paulson," said U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill.
Boehner aims to focus on projects such as a renewed push for the GOP's "all of the above" energy plan - oil drilling, gas, coal, nuclear, alternative and renewable sources. He argues that the tax revenues from new drilling should go directly to develop renewable and advanced energy.
"If I get a fair shot for a vote on the bill, it will pass," he says.
It would be tough to bet against him on that. John Boehner gets our endorsement for another term.
