Not so long ago, when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, the name they called John Boehner (among others) was simply Leader of the Party of No. Since replacing Pelosi as Speaker after the Democrats got their butts handed to them in the 2010 elections, Boehner has actually earned my respect, off and on.
After all, John Boehner may be one of the only people who is comfortable with weeping in public, much less at the podium, in front of all of Congress. While some say, "MAN UP ALREADY," I have to give him props for being a man so comfortable with his emotional ups and downs. Few men, and a large number of women (myself included), can claim the same.
All that aside, this last week of the debt-ceiling fight has not been one of the times when Boehner earned my respect. Increasingly over the past several weeks, he seems to have forgotten what his new title is and has fallen back on his old title. Maybe it is the one he feels most comfortable with. But, really, if he's going to do that, he should give Pelosi the gavel back and let her run the show again. Lord knows, aside from the inability to get a budget passed, Nancy Pelosi got plenty of other things done (including the first healthcare reform bill), and if she were Speaker now, we wouldn't be sweating out the last few hours before the U.S. hits the default wall.
See, what Pelosi understood was that her title was Speaker of the House. Her title was not Speaker for Democrats in the House. When she was Speaker, House Republicans did all they could to make her job as difficult as possible (in part thanks to Boehner as well as the party's largest weasel, also known as Eric Cantor), but Nancy Pelosi still did whatever she could to wrangle members on both sides of the aisle and get the majority of them moving in the proper direction.
Not too long after Boehner accepted the gavel from Pelosi, Boehner started to abandon his role as Wrangler-in-Chief and started to play only in the Tea Party's playground. It's a playground full of bullies and spoiled brats who are used to getting their way, and only their way. But, rather than shove back and demand that the bullies and brats quiet down and learn to play nice with others, as Nancy Pelosi would have, Boehner curled up in a fetal position and let them have their way.
Again. And, again. And, again.
Honestly, he's not the first Speaker to fall victim to this behavior and cater only to the loudest, meanest members, and he probably won't be the last. But, if he thinks being the biggest whipping boy in the room will help him maintain power, he's sorely mistaken. If nothing else, having to repeatedly delay the vote on his bill, because he couldn't get his party in line and no one from the other side of the aisle either, should have taught him this.
Hopefully, Boehner will figure out soon what other great leaders already know. Not everyone has to like the policies you push for them to respect you, and governing isn't about your side versus their side.
More often than not, the one who stands up to the bullies, the one pushing for ways to better the country rather than burn it, those are the ones who are most remembered and respected at the end. No one ever remembers the whipping boy as anything other than the one who was repeatedly beaten down.
Nancy Pelosi knew this, and so she pushed as hard as she could, as often as she could. And, in the end, people who don't listen to the talking heads and meanies on the right know that Nancy Pelosi was a great Speaker for the House. It still remains to be seen how John Boehner's tenure as Speaker will go into the history books.
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I had intended to post this piece early on Friday, but other commitments kept me from doing so. Late on Friday, The Washington Post's Ezra Klein posted a blog piece that parallels a lot of my thinking on the subject above. You can find his article here. Please check it out. I found it to be a good read.
-- Penn, contributor
Penn is also the co-author of Toasted Filberts. Check out her blog here.
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