# John Boehner, the most incompetant Speaker **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 1, 2014, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541 "2014-08-01T00:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/21 "2014-08-01T12:16:43Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I don’t think you can call a legislator competent or incompetent, since they don’t actually run anything. Not even a “leader”, since they are in the position of leading people who don’t work for them. It’s not Boehner’s fault he leads such a fractured caucus. If he could appoint all the Republican Congressmen, then it would be his fault. Speakers historically have had a lot of influence over their caucus. Take for example how often Pelosi passed legislation with exactly the number of Dem votes needed. That’s obviously not a coincidence, it’s because the Dem leadership pushed for more votes till they had enough and then stopped. Boehner has more or less lost this power. If he wants to pass something meaningful, he usually has to use Dem votes to do it. And even on symbolic votes like this one, he can’t rely on his party. As I said, I think this has more to do with the changing nature of the GOP then Boehner, but its pretty clear that past Speakers have held power that Boehner has lost. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/22 "2014-08-01T12:19:51Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Obama appoints the people under him. Obama’s biggest problem is not his appointees. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/23 "2014-08-01T12:20:59Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I don’t think you can call a legislator competent or incompetent, since they don’t actually run anything. Not even a “leader”, since they are in the position of leading people who don’t work for them. It’s not Boehner’s fault he leads such a fractured caucus. If he could appoint all the Republican Congressmen, then it would be his fault. So we can’t call him a leader but he leads a fractured caucus? Got it. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/24 "2014-08-01T12:21:48Z")
This isn’t hard. He’s the leader as in he’s first among equals. They are not his subordinates and they are not accountable to him. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/25 "2014-08-01T12:24:17Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > First, bills are still passing out of the House, some even get approved by the Senate and the President signs them. Congress is working just fine. > > Second, Congress doesn’t have to legislate if it doesn’t want to. The country is not constantly in need of hundreds of new laws. We’ve been around for over 200 years with the laws we’ve got, passing only 500 new laws instead of 2000 is not going to wreck our system of government. You have quite a loose definition of “working just fine”. You have a faction in one party that was quite nearly able to force the US to default on its debt and did force the government to shut down temporarily. They can’t pass a transportation bill and had a devil of a time lifting a finger to relieve the VA hospital crisis. They voted over three dozen times to kill the ACA, then vote to sue Obama for not implementing it fast enough. We have dozens of embassies with no ambassadors and federal benches without judges. It isn’t so much a question of refusing to pass laws, it’s more a matter of refusal to do any part of their job. ---
**Author:** ![Willcross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Willcross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Willcross)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/26 "2014-08-01T13:40:05Z")
> **[House GOP leaders hold out hope for border crisis fix, after vote fizzles](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-gop-leaders-hold-out-hope-for-border-crisis-fix-after-vote-fizzles)** > > House Republican leaders are trying anew to round up an elusive majority for a bill addressing the border crisis, after a chaotic day where they initially abandoned the legislation and began sending lawmakers home for the summer recess -- only to... Boehner is complaining that Obama isn’t acting unilaterally to fix the border without input from congress? “In the absence of legislation, Republicans urged President Obama to act on his own to secure the borders and safely deport illegal immigrant children.” So they said this the same week they voted to sue Obama for bypassing congress? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/27 "2014-08-01T13:43:08Z")
The same leader who has held 50+ votes to repeal Obamacare is suing Obama for not implementing it _fast enough_, yes. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/28 "2014-08-01T13:49:29Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Is there any point at which the public are just going to say screw it and throw out these sorts of people? More people voted for Democrats than Republicans (and will probably do so again), but due to the district lines we still end up with a majority Republican. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/29 "2014-08-01T14:12:12Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > ISo now basically nothing meaningful can ever happen without a significant legislative realignment. You mean, a significant **electoral** realignment. It’s coming – not this year, but it’s coming. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/30 "2014-08-01T14:13:32Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Your notion that Boehner has ANY interest in cutting deals or serving the nation shows a certain naivete. He’s not incompetent, he simply is satisfied to be the leader of an obstructionist, do-nothing House of Representatives. He does not appear satisfied today. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/31 "2014-08-01T14:24:52Z")
[Boehner-fail retrospective.](http://www.salon.com/2014/08/01/this_is_what_incompetence_looks_like_john_boehner_keeps_reliving_the_same_failure_over_and_over/) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/32 "2014-08-01T14:39:52Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > He does not appear satisfied today. The guy just gives me the impression he drinks a bit too much. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/33 "2014-08-01T16:15:51Z")
The Salon article that BG linked in post #4 has an interesting sentence. > [@](#): > > The bill’s chances weren’t looking so bad this morning. After pressure from Cruz and conservatives, Boehner had agreed to offer a separate vote on ending DACA,with language \*\*barring President Obama from acting further through executive actions \*\*on deferring deportations How could it be possible for the legislative branch to curtain the executive branch’s power in this way? I don’t know how many of our lawyers join these contentious political threads, so I’ll report this as a question in GQ if you’d like. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/34 "2014-08-01T16:22:59Z")
How is the Speaker of the House taking orders from a junior Senator, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/35 "2014-08-01T16:48:58Z")
I don’t blame Boehner as much as the idiots he has to lead. He’s not as extreme as many of his fellow GOPers, but has to act that way to maintain leadership. He’s gotten a couple things done when it absolutely, positively has to be done, like ending the debacle on the government shutdown, but doesn’t have the power to act on much more than that. However, I would like to see the elimination of the Hastert rule and just put Democratic bills up that would probably pass with a majority of Democrats and a couple Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/36 "2014-08-01T17:26:23Z")
I don’t think this reflects poorly on Boehner. _Nobody_ could keep the collection of idiots the GOP has sent to Congress in line, and we certainly can’t hold him responsible for Cruz (considering the latter is in a different body.) ETA: ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/37 "2014-08-01T17:41:49Z")
IMO, Boehner is playing one of the most impressive games of Rope-a-Dope with his caucus I’ve ever seen. I mean the caucus is ungovernable because they are basically two separate parties with two separate aims, and one of those parties basically wants to do absolutely nothing. And yet, Boehner keeps losing his caucus, taking jabs left and right, and still remains Speaker. I have no idea how he does it. Any other politician would have been dethroned as Speaker at least 5 times by now. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/38 "2014-08-01T17:45:03Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > However, I would like to see the elimination of the Hastert rule and just put Democratic bills up that would probably pass with a majority of Democrats and a couple Republicans. Even more would pass with a minority of Republicans and a few Democrats. This is what makes him a bad Speaker IMHO. He has handcuffed himself to a stupid rule put in place by a prior Speaker. The “Hastert Rule” is not codified or enshrined in any official procedure and it can/should be dumped. Unfortunately, he’s afraid that if he does that he’ll lose his job and that means more to him than governing the country competently. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/39 "2014-08-01T19:29:24Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > IMO, Boehner is playing one of the most impressive games of Rope-a-Dope with his caucus I’ve ever seen. I mean the caucus is ungovernable because they are basically two separate parties with two separate aims, and one of those parties basically wants to do absolutely nothing. And yet, Boehner keeps losing his caucus, taking jabs left and right, and still remains Speaker. I have no idea how he does it. Any other politician would have been dethroned as Speaker at least 5 times by now. Probably it is simply because there is no other member both factions would accept as speaker. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541/40 "2014-08-01T20:14:50Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > After more than 210 years, the Constitution has failed. If this is failure, what was 1860? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-the-most-incompetant-speaker/694541.md?page=3)