Watch how candidates react to the de-Boehnification of the House
This is one of those times when breaking news can shed a little more light on the candidates. There have been quite different reactions among the candidates to the news that John Boehner is resigning. Unlike Patrick McGoohan's "Number 6," there really is no mystery as to why Boehner resigned – he was too accommodating of the entire Obama agenda, be it funding Obamacare or the illegal amnesty or now, in his final act, the subsidizing of abortions and the sale of baby parts.
Here's how Jeb Bush reacted, commenting in English on Twitter:
John Boehner dedicated his life to public service. Bringing the Holy Father to Congress was a fitting cap to a great career.
Wrong. He had a terrible career, participating in racking up huge amounts of debt and enabling the Obama agenda. A symbolic visit from the pope changed none of that. From his statement, it is clear that Jeb Bush quite liked Boehner's accommodationist policies.
Now here's how Ted Cruz reacted: he was hysterical with joy, actually joking about Boehner's demise and calling for other establishment politicians to get the boot.
"You want to know how much each of you terrify Washington?" Mr Cruz asked the audience of grassroots evangelical conservative at this annual conference. "Yesterday, John Boehner was Speaker of the House. Y'all come to town and somehow that changes."
"My only request," he quipped, "is, can you come more often?"
Clearly, he didn't agree with Bush that Boehner had performed some great "public service" by carrying the water for the Obama agenda.
As for Marco Rubio's reaction: in a very serious tone, he said, "Speaker Boehner announced he will be resigning." And while the crowd cheered with joy, Marco, looking very uncomfortable, looked down and scowled. As the crowd kept cheering for several moments, he looked upset, as though he was about to cry. Check out the video, especially around the 1:05 mark. It was as if, instead of being told that a political enemy was leaving the field, Marco had just discovered additional credit card debt he didn't know about.
Ben Carson gave a middle-of-the-road reaction:
"I appreciate the fact that he has worked so hard for so many years. I know that he is a person who is kind and tries to get along with a lot of different factions," Carson said Friday to J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."
"However, I believe that has not served the constituency well because a lot of people have been sent to Congress over the last few elections for the purpose of changing the direction and opposing the current administration.
"That's not necessarily a good place to have somebody who just wants to get along."
That's a rather dry, intellectual sort of criticism of a politician who had thwarted conservatives for years. Additionally, what "hard work" of Boehner does Carson appreciate? Carson's reaction seems to treat Boehner as someone who tried his best but wasn't good enough, rather than characterizing him as an active enabler of the Obama administration, which he was. Remember that everything Obama has done since 2010 could not have been done if John Boehner had not agreed to fund it. In that light, Carson's criticism seems rather tepid.
Donald Trump's reaction speaks for itself:
"I think it's wonderful, frankly. I think it's good," Trump told me. "It's time. I think it's time for somebody else to go in."
"We have a country that's in such danger and such trouble, we don't have the time to be politically correct," Trump said. "Speaker Boehner – some people like him on a personal basis. Do people like him on a personal basis, anybody?" the crowd answered "No."
"We want to see the job being done properly," Trump said. "We want people that are going to get it done and I don't understand – they get elected, they're full of vim and vigor, they're gonna change things! They're gonna get rid of Obamacare! They're gonna do all of these things!"
"They come down to these magnificent vaulted ceilings that you see all over Washington and what happens?," the former Democrat said. "They become different people. They become different people."
You can see Carly Fiorina's reaction at the 45-second mark of this video.
She says: "He is doing the right thing, stepping aside now, and I look forward to a conservative leader for the House." Sounds great, right? But just look at the video. Like Rubio, she looks terribly, terribly uncomfortable, as if she had just announced her own firing from HP. Why the long, glum face?
If she thought this were good news for conservatism, or the country, she would look happy, not really uncomfortable.
So to recap, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump were excited to see Boehner go. Ben Carson was sort of critical of Boehner. And the rest – Jeb, Carly, and Rubio – just seemed kind of sad.
Res ipsa loquitur.
This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.