** 38th book of 2021: A Shot and a Beer* **

They say don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but please, please judge this book by its delicious cover. John Boehner is retired, doesn’t give a fuck, and is ready to share with you his best stories about being ‘mayor of crazytown’ speaker of the house over a round of golf. So grab your favorite Merlot, light up a cigarette if that’s your thing, and let’s dive in.

First, different politicians in the house play different games. Boehner self-identifies in the camp of pragmatists, which means finding common ground with other lawmakers, even if that means the other party, to legislate. Common ground does not mean compromise, but it does mean setting the end-goal as passed legislation.

Sadly, over the last decade a different raison d’être has come into fashion for house members: legislative terrorist. After the Republican wave in 2010, Boehner describes the difference in legislative philosophy as follows: * Since I was presiding over a large group of people who had never sat in congress, I felt I owed them a little tutorial on governing. I had to explain how to actually get things done. A lot that went straight through the ears of most of them, especially the ones who didn’t have brains that got in the way. Incrementalism, compromise? That wasn’t their thing. They wanted to blow up Washington. Some of them, you could tell they weren’t paying attention, because they were thinking of how they could fundraise off the outrage, or how they could get on Hannity that night. * Unfortunately for Boehner, the house was Mecca for these *jackasses. * When it came to things like increasing the budget ceiling: *Nancy Pelosi seemed like she could get her people in line as usual. So could Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. No it was up to me. That was just great, these guys had no clue what sort of clown car I was trying to drive on the Republican side of the house. * When he tried to talk to conservative media like Roger Ailes to attempt to shape the conversation in a productive direction, things looked even more grim:
He told me he had a safe room so he couldn’t be spied on. There was a lot of conspiratorial talk. It was clear that he believed all this crazy stuff. I walked out of that meeting in a daze … I thought I could talk him into controlling the crazies, instead I found myself talking to the president of the club!

Boehner’s pragmatism does not change his principles or bias. On the House pairs particularly well with A Promised Land, Obama’s erudite soliloquies complementing Boehner’s more pungent prose. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3658773726?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1) Obama saw the republicans as obstructive and out of touch, Boehner saw Obama as arrogant and willing to go back on his word. Boehner describes Democratic politicians the same way he describes his high school rival football team: man we hated those guys . Most interesting was the way that both Boehner and Obama describe McCain in the 2008 election, both with sympathy towards McCain’s fumbles, but with very different ideas of the context of critical junctures of the meeting and its meaning.

Finally, Boehner provides glimpses at what matters in politics for in America:

  • I felt like being a smartass, so I made some wisecrack about the sugar industry raping taxpayers. Without another word I walked into my private office and shut the door. Without a real plan to go after the sugar people, I was just screwing with the guy. My phone did not stop ringing for the next 5 weeks. The guy must have walked straight out of my office to the nearest phone booth or maybe he had a cell phone even then, these guys were loaded, and called his office and announced: Boehner, Ohio 8th, code red. I had no idea how many people of my district were connected to the sugar industry. People were calling all day telling me that they made pumps or plugs or boxes or some such connected to sugar production, and I was threatening their job. Mayors called to tell me about employers their towns depended on that would be hurt by a sugar downturn. It was the most organized effort I had ever seen. ** And that’s why you don’t fuck with sugar. ** *

Worth a read.

*A shot and a beer is the most popular drink served at the Boehner family bar while growing up. Despite his obviously epicurean proclivities and the vices depicted on the cover, Boehner’s writing seems more in line with the person he was growing up rather than the enjoyments he’s picked up over time in Washington.