seriously, that's the headline? there are 233 republicans in the house. john boehner got 220 votes. 9 republicans voted for someone else and the rest abstained (one abstainer was boehner himself). the second biggest vote-getter was nancy pelosi with 192 votes (i don't think i'm going out on a limb to mention that all of the GOPers who voted for someone else or abstained would have voted for boehner if they thought there was any chance that pelosi would win). the second biggest republican vote-getter was eric cantor with 3 votes. boehner was elected on the first ballot.
i don't see how you could possibly call that "ek[ing] out [a] victory". by any normal measure, boehner won by a comfortable margin. sure, disgruntled republicans found a way to humiliate the speaker even as they reelected him. but that doesn't mean he was ever in any serious danger of losing.
and in other news, even after all these years whenever i read anything that mentions john boehner, i still read it to myself as "boner". if he weren't such a prick i would feel sorry for him.
i don't see how you could possibly call that "ek[ing] out [a] victory". by any normal measure, boehner won by a comfortable margin. sure, disgruntled republicans found a way to humiliate the speaker even as they reelected him. but that doesn't mean he was ever in any serious danger of losing.
and in other news, even after all these years whenever i read anything that mentions john boehner, i still read it to myself as "boner". if he weren't such a prick i would feel sorry for him.
