Boehners Restive Republican Caucus Hinders Bid to Build Legacy

John Boehners official online biography as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives boasts that he eliminated legislative pork spending and required bills to be posted three days before a vote.

Its not exactly the legacy of a Henry Clay or a Sam Rayburn. And this next term for Boehner probably wont do much to change that.

Boehner will enter his fifth year as the 53rd speaker of the House with a bigger majority and Republicans in control of the Senate, if as expected he survives a challenge to his re-election as speaker today from a handful of members who want him to take a firmer stance against President Barack Obama.

The Tea Party

In the new Congress, Boehners allies are pushing him to keep a tighter rein on his restive Tea Party caucus, as he did at the end of last year in averting a government shutdown. Doing so will limit his range for legislating and cutting deals in a divided government.

Boehner is promising action on a number of Republican priorities, though the next two years may be less about grand achievements and more about averting trouble for the party.

He is speaker in an era when simply keeping the government from shutting down is scored as an accomplishment, said Paul Brace, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston.

The question still becomes: Can Boehner cut a deal with the president without arousing strident opposition from the conservative caucus within his own party? Brace said. If Boehner cannot thread this needle, it seems unlikely he will produce a legacy based on legislative accomplishment.

First, Boehner must win re-election as speaker today. Some Republican detractors say he is too quick to compromise and they plan to oppose his hold on the gavel, though they acknowledge they are about a dozen votes short.

The end of 2014 brought a reminder of other challenges facing Boehner. Republican Michael Grimm of New York resigned after pleading guilty to a federal tax charge. Third-ranking Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana acknowledged that his 2002 speech to a white supremacy group was a mistake I regret. Boehner promised continued support for the lawmaker.

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Boehners Restive Republican Caucus Hinders Bid to Build Legacy

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