Boehner's the one - or is he?

Ohio congressman John Boehner (not to be confused with Boner Stabone from the TV show Growing Pains, left) was elected house majority leader, replacing Tom DeLay (actually, replacing Roy Blunt, who was standing in for DeLay). I wrote earlier about AZ congressman John Shadegg and how I deemed him the wisest choice. Some of congress (40) agreed (or I should perhaps say I agreed with 40 members of congress). I'll be looking for a breakdown of who voted for whom and will pass that along. My guess is that the 40 will include my favorites, who tend to be more toward the maverick side of the Republican Party. These are the sort who speak their mind and are not likely to go against strongly held principles for the very reason they HAVE strongly held principles.

Said another way, they are (likely) less your typical politician and more a citizen legislator. Of course, I won't know until I see the breakdown.

In the meantime, here is a reasonably good interview with Boehner, in which the congressman sounds like the heir apparent to Newt Gingrich's strategies. In fact, he along with Gingrich, was responsible in large part for the 1994 "Republican revolution". This may be a good thing or a bad thing. Gingrich is so very tainted with personal issues as to be little more than an ankle-biting pundit these days. And I wonder if Boehner still has remnants of the fire of the mid 90s... which is why Shadegg looked like the fresh alternative.