House Speaker John Boehner’s plan to leave congress October 30 was a topic on the presidential campaign trail this weekend. Boehner is an Ohio congressman and Ohio Governor John Kasich served in congress with Boehner in the 1990s.
“Boehner’s a friend of mine, worked with me on the ‘Contract with America’. We balanced the budget. We reformed welfare. You know, his record last year 94 percent conservative,” Kasich said. “But, you know, those are the inner workings of the house and the one thing you know when you become speaker is the day will come when you will not be speaker.”
Kasich spoke to reporters Saturday in Sioux City, after an appearance at a foreign policy forum. Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke to reporters in Urbandale on Saturday during the opening of his Iowa campaign headquarters. Cruz suggested Boehner is leaving because grassroots Republicans are unhappy with congress.
“There is a volcanic frustration with Washington,” Cruz said. “People are fed up with politicians who say one thing and do another and I think this leadership change is a direct manifestation of that.”
About 24 hours after Cruz made that statement, Boehner went on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and called Cruz a “false prophet” who’s misleading voters about what can actually be accomplished when there’s still a Democrat in the White House.
(Reporting in Sioux City by Woody Gottburg of KSCJ Radio)