On The House: A Washington Memoir by John Boehner is a real litter box of a book, as you might expect from any memoir by a House Speaker describing Washington DC politicians from 1991-2015 (a period during which Congressional earmarks doubled from $23.2 to $47.4 billion). It contains such nuggets as Mark Meadows ending up on his knees in Boehner’s office (probably not the last time Meadows assumed that position in DC), a 10” knife ends up near Boehner’s neck in a tense moment on the chamber floor (to be fair, Boehner can have that affect on some politicians and voters alike), and a friend gifting Boehner, as a tribute, a unique leathery African hunting trophy in a case he displayed on the center of his conference table (which staffers repeatedly relocated, but he always restored). The unpleasantness with the knife involved strong feelings about talk of earmarks being cancelled (they were), but by way of an update, this Rep should be happier now with earmarks’ recent 2021 restoration.
If profanity bothers you, this is not your book. As someone who spent years in a commodity trading brokerage firm where much like Congress, profanity becomes second nature, requiring discipline and commitment to wean off such language to rejoin normal society. As a lover of police procedurals and true crime, it takes a lot for a book to even catch my attention with profanity; this book did, so much so, I researched the “offending word/pages” numbers: hell/40, sh*t/29, d*mn/21, p*ssed off/20, balls/19, f*ck (f*cking included)/9, jack*ss/9, *sshole/7. That represents 154 incidents in a 288 page book. I’m not certain exactly how his propensity for profanity figures into his belief “effective communication is the key to real power,” unless it’s his version of Truman’s “plain speaking.” I’m sure it’s just political locker room talk, but forewarned is forearmed.
The value in this book is as an unvarnished glimpse of how politicians operate; his descriptions say it all. The House: “No wonder people were sick of Congress; this place was being run like the side streets of Mexico City.” The House Bank: everyone had to use it to get paid, overdrafts were ignored, aka “free overdraft protection...We haven’t done anything wrong, and we won’t do it again.” The House restaurant accrues $60,000 in unpaid bills. The House Post Office is a place you could buy “stamps and cocaine too.” All feel the sharp edges of Boehner’s reforming sword. Federal judges get the same pay as members of Congress, so after he took Congress to court when they tried to give themselves a cost of living adjustment, a federal judge excoriated Boehner. All de rigueur for business as usual in the nation’s Capitol.
He does provide two good restaurant recommendations, and includes 21 Boehnerisms; for some that alone might justify the book. He suffers no fools gladly, just know his fools might include your Harvard educated Constitutional scholar.
One of Boehner’s last shared sentiments is,“OK, so I’m not cutting my own grass anymore, but I’m still me. I’m the same jackass when I left the Capitol that I was when I first walked in, and I still am today.” A point, perhaps, impossible to argue.
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