On the House: A Washington Memoir

This is not a sophisticated book. The author rambles. He tells stories. It jumps back and forth between time and scope. Subjects come and go and you never know what he’s going to talk about next.

But this is a fun book.

Boehner tells a great story. He swears a lot. He’s a good old boy. He’s met a lot of people and done a lot of things, and he remembers funny bits and pieces of them all.

The book needed an editor. Or maybe it had one and Boehner didn’t care? I got the feeling he sat down, lit up a cigarette, and just wrote until he was done.

Some things I gleaned:

• He hates Ted Cruz with a passion. Here’s one line that literally made be laugh out loud:

  There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator Ted Cruz.

  In fact, at the end of the audiobook version, Boehner finishes the last line, pauses, and then says:

  And Ted Cruz. Go fuck yourself.

  (I have confirmed this exists.)

• He had a lot of respect for Nancy Pelosi as a politician. He didn’t agree with her much, but said she was the most effective Speaker the House ever had.

• He resented Obama politically. He told several stories about how Obama screwed him over – went back on his word, talked down to him, etc. The bitterness seems to run a little deep. However, he seemed to like Obama personally. He even went golfing with him occasionally.

• He was pretty neutral on Clinton. He didn’t agree with the impeachment. He said that Clinton did lie about the Lewinsky scandal and may have tried to get others to lie, but he doesn’t feel like this amounted to “high crimes.”

• He liked both Bushes. Considered them friends.

• He didn’t care for Trump. He was out of office when Trump came in, and he said Trump used to call him for advice, but then did so less and less because Boehner just kept telling him shut his mouth.

  He thinks Trump betrayed the country deeply with The Big Lie and January 6. He was horrified by it.

And that’s a theme of the book – when “the crazies” came to town. He talks about how right-wing media realized they could make more money by just making people angry than they could by doing any measured reporting. He specifically notes how Rush Limbaugh changed over the years, and that gave birth to things like the Tea Party, He was fine with them, but they morphed into whatever the hell it is we have now.

I think the trick with this book is to not take it too seriously. It’s a fun book of an aged politician telling great stories.

I’m glad I read it. I enjoyed picking it up every morning for a week.

Book Info

Here are some notes I took on the acquisition of this book:

I was browsing a Barnes and Noble with my dad, and he brought it over to me and said, “This is 50% off. You should buy it.” I was skeptical, but my Dad is pretty good with recommendations, so I did.