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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.
Scott Elliott is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He writes about education, city and suburban issues, politics, business, workforce and consumer issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > October > 08 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: Is Boehner serious about changing Congress
2010 ELECTION
Two views on John Boehner, who might be the next speaker of the U.S. House:
From David Broder, the veteran Washington Post columnist, who tends to see the best in politicians:
“It might well behoove people to assume that Boehner should be taken seriously when he acknowledges that the reputation of this Congress is so bad that it cries out for reform….
“Boehner was a serious legislator for five years … as chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce…. His diagnosis of the problems in Congress offers a starting point for a cure. Let’s hope the Democrats respond.”
From New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who tends to see the worst in conservatives:
“It’s beyond astonishing to me that John Boehner has a real chance to be speaker…. I’ve always thought of Boehner as one of the especially sleazy figures in a capital seething with sleaze. I remember writing about the day back in the mid-90s when this slick, chain-smoking, quintessential influence-peddler decided to play Santa Claus by handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to fellow congressional sleazes right on the floor of the House while it was in session….
“The hack who once handed out checks … is now a gilded flunky of the nation’s big-time corporate elite…. Just this past July, Boehner called for a moratorium on new federal regulations, saying it would be a ‘wonderful signal to the private sector that they’re going to have some breathing room’….
“Protect the public? You must be kidding.”
The tobacco story that Herbert tells really happened. And to be sure, Boehner’s ties with big corporate lobbyists are still near the heart of his political identity.
But is that all you need to know about him, as Herbert suggests? Is the rest just an attempt to change the subject, to sell himself to gentle spirits like Broder?
When you talk to Boehner, his desire to reform Congress seems genuine to the point of passionate. But, of course, seeming genuine is his job.
He grants that the Republicans have offended his sense of how Congress should operate. But he is particularly furious about the Barack Obama/Nancy Pelosi era. He says everything comes from the top down, that even rank-and-file Democrats have been frozen out by their own leaders. But, of course, he’s most angry that Republicans have been.
That complaint leads to this question:
If your party won big majorities in both houses and had a newly elected president who had won comfortably, wouldn’t you, too, have decided that governing was the responsibility of your own party? After all, you couldn’t go back to the electorate and complain that the other party was the problem.
Boehner doesn’t say no. He just says that going the one-party, top-down route is counterproductive in the long run.
He’s proposing more democracy. Ideas would percolate up. Let legislators actually legislate.
That most of today’s legislators are not real players in shaping major bills is clear to anyone who listens to their campaigns. They talk about bringing home the bacon, about fighting for local interests. They talk about letters they have written (or sometimes, amazingly, just letters they have signed, that some colleague wrote). They talk about whom they got on the phone or had a meeting with. They talk about narrowly focused paragraphs they have succeeded in adding to, or taken out of, larger legislation.
Some people think it’s just as well. Democracy in Congress can be chaos. I happened to be in Washington in the late 1970s, just after an era of reform had changed the House dramatically. “Mark-up” sessions, in which committees draft legislation, had just been made public, along with the votes of the members. Sunshine ruled. Power had been moved downward from committee chairs to subcommittees, which proliferated. Seniority rules had been loosened. Some people saw the flowering of a new age.
But Congress got nothing done, though Democrats had a president and big majorities in both houses. That was the model the Democrats of 2009 were determined to avoid.
In this election, few people will vote according to how they think Congress should operate. But if Boehner is going to make a personal mark — if he’s going to be something other than the generic leader, if stories are going to be told about him other than the tobacco story — this may be his realm.
And one gets the impression he knows it, that the kind of reform he’s talking about is his own particular baby.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Elections, Locals in national affairs, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics
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By Danielle
October 8, 2010 11:27 AM | Link to this
John Boehner isn’t serious about anything but his tan and being in control/power. He has no use for his constituents unless you are the owner of a business large enough to make contributions to his campaign. People in his district don’t get responses to letters or calls and I can’t believe he thinks anyone is influenced by what he says. I get actually sick to my stomach when I hear him complain about what the democrats have done to Washington. His party had 8 years to fix the problems and did absolutely nothing. Now he goes around talking like they need a chance to make things better for us? Fat chance, baby.
By Max
October 8, 2010 11:36 AM | Link to this
Is it that congress is so lacking and bad or its membership? I have to question the ‘stability’ and motives of anyone wanting to lead such a dysfunctional entity…Oh, yeah, are we back to ‘change we can believe in?’
By Nauseated
October 8, 2010 12:15 PM | Link to this
This “endorsement” of Mr. Boehner has to harken back to his first five years in Congress to find something positive that he might have done. The argument that voters should not disavow him when he has a chance to be Speaker of the House (what an honor for Ohio) is inane. He is a poor representative for District 8 as things stand. Now you want him to poorly represent the entire nation. If we are howling about how terriblethings are in D.C. and how incumbents should be thrown out…let us start at home. Dump that corporate tool and get in some new blood. Coussoule may not have political experience, though he has been a military officer, but he already has leadership qualities and is an honest decent human…now that would be a change we could believe in!
By Mork
October 8, 2010 12:41 PM | Link to this
I am not the biggest fan of John Boehner and think there should be term limits. Martin, you lost credibility in my book when you try to base the majority of your editorial by quoting David Broder and Bob Herbert. These two journalists are so far left they make Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid look moderates.
By Mindy
October 13, 2010 1:55 PM | Link to this
@Mork Did you know that Boehner’s approval rating is 22%, as opposed to Reid and Pelosi’s 33%? And, according to RealClearPolitics, Obama’s approval rating is 44%. What’s hard to believe is that Boehner’s approval rating is that high. He is a corporate whore!