Liberals, and even conservatives, are surely celebrating. Congressman John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, announced today that he will retiring at the end of October.
Reports the Associated Press:
The 13-term Ohio Republican shocked his GOP caucus early Friday morning when he announced his decision in a closed-door session. It came one day after a high point of Boehner’s congressional career, a historic speech by Pope Francis to Congress at Boehner’s request.
A constant focus of conservatives’ complaints, Boehner was facing the threat of a floor vote on whether he could stay on as speaker, a formal challenge that hasn’t happened in over 100 years. That was being pushed by tea partyers convinced Boehner wasn’t fighting hard enough to strip Planned Parenthood of government funds, even though doing so risked a government shutdown next week.
A couple of years ago, the Tea Party kooks in the GOP forced Boehner to go with a government shut down that didn’t work out too well for them.
It’s a safe bet the next Speaker of the House is going to inherit a sh*t ton of struggle.
As the saying goes, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya, while you make your exit Mr. Boehner.
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Photo: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
