In his excellent piece on Washington politicians eating their own—mirroring, by the way, the special operations community’s similar tendency—SOFREP author James Powell recently made the point that almost-former Speaker of the House, Republican representative John Boehner, might have been forced to resign this past week because he showed weakness before the sharks in his own party. To put it mildly, conservative Republicans were happy to see him go:

happy inne
Note the happiness on their faces!

I have a somewhat different take, however. Although I agree with James that Boehner is ultimately leaving due to the discontent on the right of his own party, embodied by the so-called “Freedom Caucus” in the House, I think the immediate reason for him going is that he is simply fed up with having to fend off so many arrows aimed at his own back while he simultaneously tries to wage political war with the Democrats to his front.

Let us stipulate: The right wing of the Republican party despises John Boehner. If you doubt that, listen to the radio programs of Mark Levin, Dana Loesch, Sean Hannity, or Glenn Beck.  You will hear lots of invective hurled at Boehner, along with his co-“RINOs,” Lindsay Graham, John McCain, and Mitch McConnell. Those four men are pretty much the bane of the right wing of their own Republican party. You would think they were as bad as the Muslim-Kenyan-Marxist in the White House. Okay, they are not quite that bad, but you get the point.

Let me ask you, the reader: Would you want to wage a political war against the president and opposing political party, with all the effort and time that such a fight entails, while simultaneously fending off an insurrection at your back? Let me answer for you: no, no you would not. That would be a fool’s errand. Boehner put forth a valiant effort over the last few years, but he more than likely just ran out of (insert plural expletive for fornication here) to give. Can we blame him?

Showing some admirable pique on his way out though; even though he is effectively surrendering to the right, Boehner did throw out one final “Up yours!” to the right wing insurrection that finally did him in, as he managed to avert a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding this week. He thus ensured that the government will continue to work (for another 10 weeks, anyway). Maybe you can hear my halfhearted “hooray” and see my equally halfhearted fist-pump through your computer or mobile device. That is me being about as excited as I can be that we can actually manage to keep the government open. Impressive, right?

So, there you have it. Boehner is popping smoke, cutting away, calling “Boehner, out!,” and dropping the mic on his way out the door. Now, Republicans have to choose between Boehner’s padawan, Kevin McCarthy, and upstart rebel from Florida, Daniel Webster, to take over Boehner’s former role as speaker. My money is on Webster, and not only because he has the same name as another former conservative (Whig) and staunch opponent to a Democratic president (Andrew Jackson), Daniel Webster. I think Webster will win because the party needs to reward the insurrectionists so they will put away their bows, arrows, and guillotines, and by electing Webster as speaker, they will likely go a long way toward placating the right. Maybe then they can get their act together, and help effectively govern the country.

Long live democracy!

(Featured image courtesy of J. Scott Applewhite)