John Boehner

I’ve recently experienced a sort of  epiphany—at least I’ve begun to change my mind about our estimable Speaker. Funny how making judgments about people way too soon can come back to bite you.

During the presidential campaign and for some time thereafter, I was of the strong opinion that Mr. Boehner was one of those who believed in just saying “No” to any idea coming from the Democrats or President Obama. It didn’t matter what it was, the merits  (or lack thereof) were not even worth consideration. I perceived him as proclaiming that if it came from “that camp,” his life’s mission would be to destroy it.  He’s not the only one, of course. He’s not even the one who announced repeatedly that the Republican goal was to bring the President down no matter what, but I did feel he was in the middle of that group.

But then I heard what I thought was softening. I heard a couple of things that might represent a rationality that I hadn’t thought was there. These were remarks about concepts and future challenges that would require effort, thought and discussion with people across the aisle. I was surprised, but not skeptical.

Now I hear others saying the same thing. There seems to have been a slight rhetorical shift. “Job destroying taxes” sounds less inflammatory than “job killing.”  A little less.  And, he seems to be saying that repealing the health care legislation could pave the way for Congress to pass “common-sense reforms.” Again, I’m a little surprised, but very thrilled to hear  a powerful Republican say that we should be open to “common-sense reform.”  Personally, I’ve always felt the strength of the recent health care legislation was that it might just force our Country to finally face up to the need for quality health care reform.

And, of course, we know we have a strong and effective leader when we see him publicly display emotion a couple of times and the best shot the pundits and others can take is to laugh at him.  So, he’s less of a man because he feels for people and isn’t afraid to show it? Give me a break!

Don’t say you ever heard me say this, but Speaker John may just become the best we’ve had in many a decade.