ON THE day that he announced his resignation as Speaker of the House of Representatives, September 25th, John Boehner treated reporters to a burst of “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”. It was hard to begrudge Mr Boehner a few bars of song: his nearly five years as the most powerful Republican in America have been made wretched by endless revolts from the hard-right. Alas, Mr Boehner’s departure at the end of October will do little to heal their cause: a deep dispute within the Republican Party about congressional power, and whether it is best used to affect incremental change, or to pursue unyielding ideological combat.
The betting is that Mr Boehner will be succeeded by the current House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, an amiable Californian. Mr McCarthy will not be trilling about wonderful days or bluebirds any time soon. There are 247 Republican members in the current House of Representatives. Mr Boehner’s woes centre on about 40 or 50 of them. These members either believe, or represent districts full of voters who believe, that the country should have taken a decisively conservative turn after Republicans won control of the House in 2010, and especially after their party added...Continue reading
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