With Tom DeLay’s reign as House Majority Leader officially over, the race to replace him is on. If House Speaker Dennis Hastert steers clear of the leadership shake-up, which is by no means a certainty, the fight to fill DeLay’s shoes will likely boil down to two Republicans: Reps. Boy Blunt of Missouri and John Boehner of Ohio (pronounced BAY-ner).
For most political observers, Blunt is the more recognizable name and face. He was tapped to be acting Majority Leader after DeLay was hit with the first of three criminal indictments (and counting), and served as the House Majority Whip for a few years. Jesse Lee noted over the weekend, “If Tom DeLay is the chief architect of the culture of corruption, Blunt has been the foreman on the construction site.” It’s a fair description; Blunt has been up to his ears in ethically-dubious schemes, a DeLay-like K-Street fundraising machine, and dubious deals for years.
John Boehner, however, may not be as well known. Long-time political junkies may recall that Boehner was in the House leadership in the mid-1990s, but was ousted in 1998, in a move driven in part by Tom DeLay, after Republicans unexpectedly lost seats in Clinton’s last mid-term cycle. He’s worked his way back up, however, and is making a play for the post formerly known as DeLay’s job.
In light of Blunt’s well-deserved reputation for playing fast and loose with congressional ethics, Boehner has picked up some support as a more “moderate” alternative. But before anyone thinks of this guy as a reasonable voice for change, consider Boehner’s record — he enjoys a 100% rating from the American Conservative Union, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Christian Coalition. Boehner was one of only a handful of House Republicans to vote with George W. Bush’s position literally 100% of the time last year.
As Sam Rosenfeld noted, “reform” is the last thing on Boehner’s mind.
As Republican Conference chair from 1995 to 1998, Boehner himself initiated the formalized, semi-official marriage of lobbyists and GOP lawmakers now commonly associated with DeLay: in the words of David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf in their history of the Gingrich years, Boehner served as the leadership’s “liaison to business,” conceiving of and hosting the Thursday Group, a “weekly strategy session with business and trade association leaders.” In 2004 Jeff Birnbaum described Boehner’s Thursday Group as “the granddaddy of all [the] mutual-back-scratching sessions” between lawmakers and lobbyists that now occur on a daily, regularly scheduled basis.
And then, of course, there’s Boehner’s Abramoff ties.
Another possible candidate for majority leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, also had financial links to Abramoff.
According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, he received $32,500 in campaign contributions from Abramoff and the lobbyist’s clients — more than DeLay did.
And in the mid-1990s, Boehner was criticized by public interest groups for passing out campaign contributions from tobacco companies to lawmakers on the House floor.
In other words, Tom DeLay will soon be replaced by a far-right conservative who toes the party line and has a history of questionable conduct that dances along the ethical line — no matter who House Republicans pick.