On the House: A Washington Memoir

 

On the House: A Washington Memoir – by John Boehner

The first thing that comes to mind when one looks at the face of former Speaker John Boehner is that he looks kinda nasty.  He always seems to be wearing a malevolent smirk that makes him look like a Cheshire cat who’s hiding a stash of chocolate covered mice.  Add to that the fact that he’s always a rather natty dresser makes him look even more icky.  He really does look like your stereotypical rich, evil politician.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that many on the opposite side of the political fence (that would be the Democrats) always took an instant dislike to the man.  To be fair, though, Boehner was always one of the good guys.  By “good guys”, I mean someone who was always willing to work with the other party and make compromises.  This is a necessity in the United States political system, but you would never know that from the majority of bozos from both parties during the current times who claim they “represent” their constituents.

This book is essentially a memoir of Boehner’s political life.  I thought it was overall interesting, yet I really wanted more.  I do like the fact the man is brutally honest.  He’s not afraid to show the world that he’s a chain smoking, occasional-alcohol drinking figure who doesn’t hold back his potty mouth when the mood hits him.  Again, though, the man was willing to work and make deals and compromise, and that’s really how we should judge one’s character who holds such an occupation.  If we had more men and women like this, would we really care whether the person smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, and/or curses like an HBO comedian?

This seems to be the overall theme of his book – the fact that the man was willing to compromise, and how many today do not.  Boehner recounts plenty of personal stories and anecdotes about many of the well known in Washington circles.  He’s brutally honest, yet he doesn’t really pontificate much on his politics.  Yes, he’s conservative, but very little of this memoir tends to champion conservative causes.  In fact, when recalling events and stories, he’s just as hard on the nutjobs (he call’s them ‘crazies’) on the right as he is on those on the left. I was wanting a bit more of these stories and run-ins. But the book is rather short and feels as though it’s missing too much.  Example: this book was written after President Milli Vanilli…..I mean Donald Trump…..tried to instigate a coup by rousing his group of idiot followers to storm the capital on January 6, 2021, and Boehner mentions it here, but all too briefly.  Yes, Boehner had retired by then, but such a momentous (yet tragic) event could have warranted at least an entire chapter.  There are actually quite a few recollections like this in this memoir.  Boehner makes a statement about a known individual, yet rather than elaborate, he seems to quickly move on to the next topic.  In fact, if you read the quotes on the back cover of this book about Boehner’s thoughts on the more highly known political figures, you really don’t even need to read the book if you’re wanting more.

Boehner does talk about his pre politics background a bit (being one of twelve kids raised by a bartender makes interesting reading), yet he doesn’t overwhelm his readers with too much of the mundane. There were a couple of boring parts of this chronicle that I elected to skim. He drones on too long about a high school football coach in one chapter, and the last chapter talks unnecessarily about some of his travel escapades.  Fortunately, such diversions are rare.

I enjoyed reading this book, but it was a very quick read, and with all of these of “insider” books that come out every year about politics, I really didn’t think this was something I would call “necessary”.  This is one of those Washington books that will probably be heavily featured in garage sales and used book stores five years from now.  I don’t mean that to be necessarily harsh as this seems to be par for the course, but in light of everything going on that makes politics so much more volatile these days, I feel as though Boehner missed a golden opportunity to pontificate on some of the strangest events that have malodorously covered our current political atmosphere.

Even though the book had a few shortcomings, I really do miss the man.  Not only does the Republican party desperately need a few level heads such as his, but our whole political system needs to reflect on many of these lessons as well.