WASHINGTON (AP) – He calls himself a “regular guy with a big job.” But there’s nothing regular about John Boehner, who’s been at the center of palace intrigue since his earliest days in Congress.
His announced exit as House speaker caps a political career that began in local Ohio politics and made him second in line to the presidency.
Boehner was one of Newt Gingrich’s lieutenants in a 1990s shakeup of how things were done in Congress. Thus began a rise and fall, then another rise and fall, for a man voted out of GOP leadership, then returned to positions of power over a decade, then threatened by conservative members who are pushing toward a possible government shutdown.
It’s been wild ride for a man who once swept floors in his father’s bar.