# John Boehner to resign. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 25, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478 "2015-09-25T13:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/201 "2015-09-28T20:20:40Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Hey, remember two years ago during the shutdown, the Democrats tried to find sane Republicans to sign a discharge petition that would force a vote on a clean funding bill, without the “gut Obamacare” provision added in? > > I don’t believe they ever found a Republican to sign the petition, even days into the shutdown. The idea that anyone here is overestimating “how hard the positions are” quite simply doesn’t seem to line up with recent history. I don’t know how much of that is that every Republican held a “hard” position on that issue, or that the possibly-more-moderate Republicans believed, as jsgoddess noted, that participating in any sort of agreement with the Democrats would be the kiss of death in the next election cycle. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/202 "2015-09-28T20:22:29Z")
> [@](#): > > …on a video so extensively edited as to amount to fiction. Worked on ACORN. But ACORN was largely comprised of scruffy idealists in Goodwill suits and second hand cars. Planned Parenthood has got oodles and gobs of suburban moms who are in the PTA and have some money. Don’t bite what you can’t chew. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/203 "2015-09-28T20:27:58Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Hey, remember two years ago during the shutdown, the Democrats tried to find sane Republicans to sign a discharge petition that would force a vote on a clean funding bill, without the “gut Obamacare” provision added in? > > I don’t believe they ever found a Republican to sign the petition, even days into the shutdown. The idea that anyone here is overestimating “how hard the positions are” quite simply doesn’t seem to line up with recent history. Is your definition of “sane” that they agree with your side of the aisle? A couple of shutdowns ago, I think the sane thing was for the Pubs to shutdown government to jumpstart a real conversation about the viability of continual deficit spending rather than the current paradigm of Pub = cut taxes and spend more Dem = raise taxes and spend A LOT more. Yeah, we see where that strategy went. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/204 "2015-09-28T21:27:21Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Is your definition of “sane” that they agree with your side of the aisle? Considering that I’ve gone to some lengths to defend Boehner in this thread as being a reasonable person I disagree with, who did the best he could with a crappy hand? No, I don’t think someone has to agree with me to be sane. I hoped my previous posts in this thread would illustrate that “sane equals always agree with me” is the exact opposite of what I think. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/205 "2015-09-29T15:39:54Z")
It looks pretty well set that [this McCarthy guy is getting it.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-boehner-conservatives-must-answer-crucial-question-whos-next/2015/09/28/9aa5d31e-65fe-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_p1most) And that he’ll be pretty much the same as Boehner, predictably with similar effect. Got an issue with this here: > [@](#): > > said Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (Ohio), a Boehner ally. “The majority of our majority recognizes that we need a speaker who can represent every Republican. And if the people who have tangled with the leadership are mad, they should be mad at James Madison. Having the House doesn’t enable you to get everything you want.” The Speaker is the speaker of the entire House, not just his party’s caucus. And no Speaker is going to have unanimous support on every issue even \*within \*his caucus. If that’s how McCarthy is going to operate, only involving the Dems when forced and only to the extent forced, then nothing’s going to change except perhaps public perception. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/206 "2015-09-29T16:35:11Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Got an issue with this here: > The Speaker is the speaker of the entire House, not just his party’s caucus. And no Speaker is going to have unanimous support on every issue even \*within \*his caucus. If that’s how McCarthy is going to operate, only involving the Dems when forced and only to the extent forced, then nothing’s going to change except perhaps public perception. Did Speaker Pelosi act as the Speaker of the entire House, or more often, did she act as the Speaker of her caucus? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/207 "2015-09-29T16:42:04Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Did Speaker Pelosi act as the Speaker of the entire House, or more often, did she act as the Speaker of her caucus? The latter. It might not have been quite so polarized as Boehner’s term, but I think that would be true if you went back to previous Speakers on either side. We are getting more and more polarized. It’s not a personality quirk of Boehner’s. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478/208 "2015-09-29T17:09:20Z")
She was faced with a similar anti-everything movement, controlling the Republican caucus via Boehner, that opposed cooperation no matter what. So the question is how hard she tried to be their Speaker too, not how well she succeeded - and there’s no good way to answer that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-boehner-to-resign/732478.md?page=10)