Boehner's gift: Speaker of the House's moments were real signs of honor he felt

There are many people who will not be sorry to hear that Speaker of the House John Boehner will be giving up his seat in Congress at the end of October.

And there will likely be a scurry to fill the power vacuum that will remain in the Republican Party in general and the U.S. House in particular.

As the competitors jostle for the upper hand, they will scrutinize Boehner's reign -- and use those criticisms to promise a whole new way of running the House.

They will point to a lack of leadership -- and a failure to get even the most basic of Republican stands to stick when it comes to dealing with President Barack Obama.

They will rail about the power of the purse and using it as a weapon to fight off the undesirable policies they say have walked right through the door under Boehner's watch.

They will do the boasting and the promising that those who are struggling to grab the power do.

And they will be somewhat right -- there were reasons to wonder why Boehner never seemed to be able to issue a challenge and to win it, or to find policy stances that reflected the reason voters put him in office and affirmed a Republican majority.

But there is something to admire Boehner for -- and it is an easy mark when it comes to late night comedians and posturing pundits.

It meant something to him to be in Congress.

When he took the job as speaker of the House, he could not contain the emotion he felt as he told his story about growing up in less-than-wonderful circumstances and never dreaming he would be speaker of the House one day.

He choked up, and the jokes started.

This week, there is a new round of fun-poking going on as another video surfaces of Boehner showing emotion as he greeted Pope Francis -- a moment he called one of the highlights of his career.

It is an easy and cheap laugh -- to make fun of someone who is overcome by emotion and is in a situation where cameras can catch every minute.

Too bad. We could use a few more politicians for whom it means something to be in the office they hold, who are struck by the responsibility of the job with which they are entrusted, who can still get a little star struck.

We could use a few more people who are less styled and more real.

We could use a few more people who understand the real honor of sitting in the seat as a representative of the people.

Boehner will not go down in history as a great speaker of the House, but the commitment he made to Ohio and to his country is no punch line.

And shame on those who stoop that low and who try to make it anything else.

Published in Editorials on September 25, 2015 11:14 AM