John Boehner, the conservative nemesis turned lobbyist ousted from the speakership in 2015 for pushing Obama administration priorities, has reportedly emerged as a “quiet mentor” to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Boehner — “an establishment Republican who was speaker a decade ago chronologically, but an eon ago in the GOP’s radical evolution — has become a surprising tutor” to Johnson, Axios reported Monday.
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The report comes days after Boehner headlined a fundraiser in his native Ohio on May 30 for Johnson’s PAC. In reporting on the upcoming fundraiser, Punchbowl News noted, “If you’ve listened to Speaker Mike Johnson recently, there is some John Boehner influence poking through.”
That influence, and the similarities between the two men’s preferred governing style, is increasingly clear.
Boehner surrendered his gavel in October 2015 amid a conservative mutiny due to his ushering through of Democrat priorities in a spending bill — and multiple previous violations of the Hastert Rule. Roughly two dozen Republican members, led by then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), indicated they would vote against Boehner in a “vacate the chair” resolution, which led to Boehner resigning.
The Hastert Rule is an informal rule predicating that a Speaker must only advance legislation supported by a majority of the majority.
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In only seven months, Johnson has passed legislation in violation of the Hastert Rule twice — in March on a $1.2 trillion spending bill and in April to pass $62 billion in Ukraine aid — the latter of which Johnson vociferously opposed for months before flip-flopping after intense lobbying from the Biden administration.
As a result, Johnson faced his own motion to vacate vote in May. However, unlike with Boehner, Democrats rushed to Johnson’s aid. An astounding 163 Democrats voted to keep Johnson as Speaker.
Johnson’s agenda has been so indistinguishable from Democrats’ that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) boasted of wrestling away control of the House from Republicans under Johnson
“Even though we’re in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done,” Jeffries said on 60 Minutes. “Those are just the facts.”
Boehner revealed to Axios the depths of his under-the-radar relationship with Johnson — with his trademark vitriol toward conservatives.
Boehner, a notorious imbiber who narrated his autobiographical anti-conservative gripe-fest with copious amounts of red wine, told Axios, “For a guy who doesn’t drink, smoke, or cuss, [Johnson is a] really an affable guy.”
“He’s got to do this Kabuki dance every day to keep some of his more — I don’t even want to call them conservatives,” Boehner said:
I don’t know what you — I think that’s the wrong word for them. He’s got to go through this dance every day to try to appease his caucus. But at the end of the day, he knows what has to get done, and he finds a way to get it done.
Boehner revealed how Johnson, in Axios’s words, “shifted his position on the most vital foreign policy legislation in years” to “defy a majority of his party.”
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He said Johnson “may not have been thrilled with the Ukraine stuff early on. But once you become speaker, one, you learn a few more things; and two, the gravity of the issues you’re dealing with change as well.
“All of a sudden, you have not just a responsibility to your district or to yourself. You’ve got a team of members, and you’ve got what’s good in the long-term interest of the country involved as well. And I think he rose to the occasion.”
Boehner now works for Squire Patton Boggs, one of the largest lobbying firms in the world. In 2018, he joined the board of Acreage Holding to promote the use of marijuana, a year later becoming chair of the National Cannabis Roundtable, a marijuana lobbying organization.
“My thinking on cannabis has evolved,” Boehner tweeted — Washington-speak that mirrors Johnson’s justification for flip-flopping on funding Ukraine and on warrant requirements for spying on Americans. An amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act prohibiting warrantless surveillance — an issue for which Johnson had fought for years as a member of the Judiciary Committee — was defeated earlier this year after Johnson himself provided the vote to kill the provision.
Johnson’s biggest battle remaining in 2024 is advancing 2025 fiscal year spending bills before the end of September deadline. Johnson says he is considering passing a continuing resolution – another bugaboo for conservatives – to extend the deadline until the lame duck session of Congress.
By doing so, Johnson would ensure the House considers spending legislation after the November elections but before the new Congress is sworn in, minimizing accountability for himself and other members until another round of elections in two years.
If past is prologue – and with Boehner in Johnson’s ear – conservatives are unlikely to be pleased with the result, and more gloating from Hakeem Jeffries can be expected.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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