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Boehner wins political Play of Week
Backroom maneuvering, secret ballots, surprise results -- everything you could wish for in a political Play of the Week. Three weeks ago, Roy Blunt claimed he had enough commitments from his House Republican colleagues to win the election for majority leader on the first ballot. But the Republican caucus votes by secret ballot: The first ballot went like this: Blunt, 110; John Boehner, 79; John Shadegg, 40; Jim Ryun, 2. Blunt ended up six votes shy of a majority. Then, on the second ballot, a different outcome emerged, as Boehner snared 122 votes to Blunt's 109. On the second ballot, John Boehner picked up all the dissident votes -- and won, somewhat to his own surprise. "I feel like the dog who caught the car," Boehner said to laughter. How did Boehner do it? Shadegg, one of his competitors, said, "Let me make it very clear: John Boehner did run on a platform of reform." House Republicans are nervous about holding their majority this year in the face of a widening corruption scandal. Is Boehner Mr. Clean? Boehner is quick to acknowledge his ties to lobbyists: "I have good relationships with K Street, people who lobby us, both paid and unpaid." So the answer is: cleaner than Blunt. Blunt was Tom DeLay's man, had ties to Jack Abramoff, and while Boehner once gave out checks from tobacco companies on the House floor, Blunt is married to a tobacco lobbyist. Get the difference? House Republicans did. Boehner was once Newt Gingrich's man. This year, Democrats are hoping to do to the Republican majority what Gingrich did to their majority in 1994. That would be big. Boehner was one of the architects of the 1994 revolution, so his colleagues figure maybe he knows how to stop a counter-revolution. "I think our members ... wanted, obviously, to make a big decision -- and they did," Boehner said. Big enough for the political Play of the Week. 
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