John Boehner Resigns: ‘YAY!!!’ Tweets Top Conservative Pundit, Dozens Slam Speaker On Way Out Door
United States House Speaker John Boehner shocked Washington when he suddenly announced his resignation both from the Speaker’s position and from congress on Friday, and though Boehner was the most conservative House Speaker in at least three decades, his fellow conservatives were quick to respond to his announcement with unrestrained glee.
The 65-year-old Boehner, an Ohio Republican who has served continuously in the U.S. House of Representative since 1991 and as Speaker since 2011, said that his resignation would become effective at the end of October.
The announcement elicited joy from the extreme right wing of the Republican party as well as from conservative media figures, whose response was perhaps best summed up by RedState editor Erick Erickson, who tweeted, “YAY!!!!!!”
YAY!!!!!! Boehner is resigning.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 25, 2015
Taking a jab at Boehner’s well-known tendency to display his emotions in public, even often breaking into tears, another conservative blogger, Michelle Malkin, said that Boehner’s resignation brought “tears of joy” to conservatives.
Today, conservatives cry tears- of joy! RT @edhenry: Boehner’s tears yesterday make a lot more sense today — Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) September 25, 2015
On Fox Business Network, commentator Charles Payne decried the resigning Boehner as a “failure,” but applauded his resignation, saying that without Boehner, conservatives now have an easier path to shutting down the U.S. government once again.
David Bossie, president of the conservative lobbying group Citizens United, declared Friday “a great day for America” thanks to Boehner’s resignation, while Florida Senator and Republican presidential candidate Marc Rubio was speaking at the Values Voters Summit in Washington when he announced that Boehner had decided to resign — bringing a wave of thunderous applause from the overjoyed audience.
Wow. Intense reaction to John Boehner resigning from Congress @ Value Voter Summit #boehner https://t.co/tT01ECNHeD
— Charlotte Potts (@chapotts) September 25, 2015
Not every Republican was throwing a party over Boehner’s resignation. Arizona Senator John McCain — who ran for president in 2008 only to lose to Democrat Barack Obama — called for Republicans to declare a cease-fire in the civil war between the conservative and ultra-conservative factions of the party.
“Let’s stop fighting with each other,” McCain said on Friday. “Let’s sit down together and work out our differences with a common agenda to elect the next president of the United States, keep our majorities in the House and Senate, and put the brakes on this internecine strife.”
But McCain’s call went unheeded, as many Republicans from the far-right wing of the party not only continued to celebrate Boehner’s departure, but called for the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, as well.
Arizona Republican Representative Matt Salmon called McConnell “the next guy in the crosshairs.”
The frustration with John Boehner among conservatives appears to run counter to Boehner’s own voting record, which according to the DW-Nominate method used by political scientists to evaluate voting patterns, was to the right of previous Republican House Speakers Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich.
[Image: Astrid Riecken / Getty Images]
