| | | |  | BY SAM STEIN | Presented by |  |
| THE TWO BOEHNERS — John Boehner’s forthcoming book , on sale one week from today, and the reportedly wine-drenched audio version of it, may be cathartic for Democrats and Republicans who were horrified with the Trumpian drift of the modern GOP. But not everyone is reading the excerpts with a merlot-lover’s glee. For veterans of the Obama administration, Boehner’s hold-nothing-back broadsides against the 2010 Tea Party class (a “fair number” of morons), Fox News hosts (“Sean Hannity was one of the worst”) and, of course, Ted Cruz (“a reckless asshole”) prompt questions about what might have been: How might history have changed if Speaker Boehner had decried the “right-wing propaganda nuts” in real time? What if he had not signed off on debt ceiling fights, or been more honest about the prospects of repealing Obamacare, or more forcefully cut down a Tea Party member or two? “Look,” said Ben LaBolt, Obama’s 2012 campaign press secretary, “I downloaded the audio book. I’m gonna pour out some wine and listen to it. But I’m not gonna lie. Part of it sounds a little fictitious.” There has always been admiration for Boehner among D.C. elites, including — yes — members of the press. It’s not just his humble roots, his infamous vices or his love of a well-mowed lawn and a good cry. It’s that he seemed more relatable than ruthless. In his memoir, President Barack Obama described Boehner as someone who “felt familiar to me,” one of those “regular guys who didn’t stray from the party line ... but who also didn’t consider politics a blood sport.” Those who know Boehner say that’s true.
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Former House Speaker John Boehner stands for the pledge of allegiance during a ceremony to unveil a portrait in his honor in the U.S. Capitol in 2019. | Getty Images | But Obama’s full description wasn’t a laudatory one. As speaker, he wrote, Boehner had “rarely deviated from whatever talking points his staff had prepared for him, at least not in public.” He accused Boehner of cynically capitalizing on anger and fear over the economic crisis to advance his cause. Yet the lasting image of Boehner’s time in office is not that of a politician scheming for power; it’s one holding on for dear life as larger political forces overtook him. Take Boehner’s recollection of how Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) threatened to go to Fox News and complain if she was not placed on the House Ways and Means committee. In normal times, he explains, he would have scoffed at the audacity. But by then, Bachmann, a firebrand and conspiracist, was widely popular with the base. Rather than take the lumps, he placed her on the Intelligence Committee, hardly a slouches’ perch, and concluded that it worked. What he left out in the retelling was that Bachmann, with the imprimatur of an Intel member, went on to baselessly accuse Clinton aide Huma Abedin of being associated with the Muslim Brotherhood — an accusation Boehner himself decried as “pretty dangerous.” Elsewhere, Boehner writes about the backlash he endured from the conspiracists in his party when he said he believed Obama’s Hawaiian birth. And it’s true that merely acknowledging the president’s citizenship was, at that time, a small act of courage for a leading Republican. But Boehner also said at the time that it was not his “job to tell the American people what to think” about the birther issue. He was third in line for the presidency. Why wasn’t that part of the job? Michael Steel, Boehner’s former top spokesperson, made the argument to Nightly that there were clear institutional and political constraints that prevented the Boehner of then from sounding like the Boehner of now. “As for calling some of the class of ’10 idiots,” Steel said, “you don’t really keep a leadership job by insulting your constituents.” Boehner has conceded that by the time that the Tea Party came to power, the center of gravity within the conservative movement was no longer really the speaker’s office. It was on Fox News and social media, where a former reality TV star was putting out tweets and videos that ricocheted across the Internet. And so Boehner made tradeoffs and took half measures that never seemed to satisfy either end of his party. He demanded negotiations on matters that were not meant for negotiation, countenanced behavior that he privately abhorred, and did his best to hold together a party that he increasingly didn’t recognize. He did not succeed, which is part of the reason he’s writing this book. But maybe he didn’t fail either. “I mean,” Steel said, “he could have made it worse if he’d pushed harder.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at sstein@politico.com and rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @samstein and @renurayasam.
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A message from UnitedHealth Group: Greater diversity among health care professionals can improve patient care, leading to better health outcomes. That’s why UnitedHealth Group is investing in a 21st century health workforce that ensures all communities have access to high-quality care. Learn more. | | | | | GAETZ’S WINGMAN — Florida has never seen a tax collector like Joel Greenberg. His Seminole County tax office was the only one in the state where employees were armed with pistols and body armor. He wore his own law enforcement badge and carried a sidearm at tax collector conferences. He let people pay property taxes with Bitcoin. He tweeted Islamophobic comments, installed a remote-controlled sprinkler system to spray petition gatherers he didn’t like and doled out fat contracts to his groomsmen shortly after winning the usually humdrum Orlando-area office with a campaign to stop “crony capitalism.” Now Greenberg’s in a federal jail, awaiting trial on a wide-ranging 33-count indictment alleging a host of financial crimes, stalking, identity theft and sex trafficking a minor, all of which have become national news because of his close association with Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican congressman fighting for his political life, Marc Caputo writes. Their relationship is central to the allegations against Gaetz, a fierce Donald Trump ally who denies having sexual relations with a 17-year-old and prostitutes. Together, the taxman and the congressman shared a life-in-the-fast lane existence that contradicted the staid image that most elected officials are careful to maintain. The only-in-Florida political drama has taken one bizarre twist after another in the week since the news broke of the investigation into Gaetz. It’s a tale marked by a complicated extortion allegation involving Iran and Israel, alleged sexual crimes, a tangential cameo of a popular conservative cartoonist and even a porn star.
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| | JOIN AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION, SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" NEWSLETTER: Power dynamics are shifting in Washington and across the country, and more people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. "The Recast" is our twice-weekly newsletter that breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics, policy and power in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear from important new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | GEORGIA ON THEIR MINDS — From Coca-Cola to the MLB to Delta, big companies are criticizing a Georgia law that advocates say infringes on voting rights. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, campaigns reporter and Morning Score author Zach Montellaro breaks down what’s in the legislation — and looks at what the corporate backlash could mean for Republican efforts to change voting rules in other states.
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| | | | | — First global threats hearing in more than two years set for next week: The House and Senate will hold public hearings next week on the globe’s greatest threats to U.S. national security — after a more than two-year hiatus caused by tensions between the spy community and Trump. — California aims to ‘fully reopen’ its economy by June 15: “With more than 20 million vaccines administered across the state, it is time to turn the page on our tier system and begin looking to fully reopen California’s economy,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement . “We can now begin planning for our lives post-pandemic." — Arkansas lawmakers ban transgender youth treatment: In an override of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto, the GOP-controlled state House and Senate passed the measure, which prohibits doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment , puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment. — Former Trump HUD official fined, barred from government employment: A federal watchdog said it fined former Trump housing official Lynne Patton $1,000 and barred her from federal employment for four years after she violated a law prohibiting executive branch employees from engaging in political activities while on duty. — Authorities: Navy medic shoots two, is shot to death on base: A Navy medic shot and critically wounded two people at a Maryland business park today, then fled to a nearby Army base where he was shot to death, police and U.S. Navy officials said. — White House draws a line on vaccine passports: “The government is not now, nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today at the press briefing. “There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.”
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| | | Nightly asks you: As people begin to plan travel for the spring and summer, tell us what podcasts we should listen to when we finally hit the road? Use the form to give us your answer , and we’ll use select responses in Friday’s edition.
| | TOGETHER, APART — European diplomats shuttled between Iranian and American officials in Vienna today in the most serious effort so far to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. While the Biden administration has made clear it would like to rejoin the deal, which the United States exited under Trump in 2018, a carefully choreographed series of moves from Tehran and Washington would be required to make that happen. Diplomats saw today’s meeting as a small but significant step on the road to restoring the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under which Iran accepted severe curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions. After a series of bilateral meetings this morning, the JCPOA Joint Commission, responsible for overseeing the implementation of the deal, met in the afternoon at Vienna’s five-star Grand Hotel on the historic Ringstrasse. The commission includes all remaining parties to the JCPOA. In other Middle East news: President Joe Biden hasn’t named a special envoy to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian portfolio. Unlike Bill Clinton, Biden has no plans for any sort of peace conference, or even a peace process, anytime soon. Nahal Toosi writes on why the president isn’t prioritizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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| | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: It actually is infrastructure week ... and it will be for a while. What is the administration’s plan to get its top legislative priority through Congress? Add Transition Playbook to your daily reads for details you won't find anywhere else about the state of play of the administration's top priorities and biggest challenges. Track the people, policies and power centers of the Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | |
| | | REPLACING HASTINGS — Rep. Alcee Hastings' death opens up a coveted South Florida congressional seat and further narrows Democrats' already-tenuous House majority, Matt Dixon and Ally Mutnick write. Hastings, who died at 84 years of age, served in Congress for parts of four decades, most recently representing a majority-Black district that included parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, including slices of Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. The race to replace him in a yet-to-be-scheduled special election sets up what will likely be intense regional jockeying among some of the area's most prominent political figures. The 20th Congressional District that Hastings represented was overwhelmingly carried by Biden, who won with more than three-quarters of the vote. While a special election to replace Hastings will be held under the old lines, the seat is not expected to be drastically redrawn during the upcoming redistricting process so it can continue to allow minority candidates to win election there, which means the early short list of candidates has quickly been established. ICYMI — Catch the first edition of POLITICO Recast with new author Brakkton Booker, where he dives into how the “angry Black man” trope is being used by the defense in the Derek Chauvin trial. Mea culpa — Monday’s edition of the Nightly misidentified the largest U.S. city on the southern border. It is San Diego.
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