In an Upset, Boehner Is Elected House GOP Leader

"It's pretty clear the problems with Duke Cunningham, the problems with Jack Abramoff, those shoes are going to continue to drop all year long," Boehner said Tuesday, "and if we're not on offense, all the American people are going to know about is that."

Still, with the support of most committee chairmen and the back-bench Republicans from safe districts, Blunt entered the spacious caucus room in the Cannon House Office Building yesterday confident he would win by a comfortable margin in the first round.

But he was immediately thrown on the defensive, lawmakers said after the vote. Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.), who nominated Shadegg, recited dismal polling numbers as he laid out just how politically perilous the Republicans' position was. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), in seconding Shadegg's nomination, took a direct swipe at Blunt, saying it was not enough to vote for the candidate who asked for the members' support first or was nice to them.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) nominated Boehner and said the Ohioan could provide Republicans a bridge back to the purity and zeal of the 1994 revolution, when the GOP swept to power on a promise to shrink the federal government and change the way Washington works. But Thomas said that, unlike Shadegg, Boehner would bring with him the legislative experience of a seasoned committee chairman and the broader vision of a party leader.

Although he campaigned as a reformer, Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner) is no stranger to Washington. In the early 1990s, he was one of the zealous "Gang of Seven" that pushed to expose a check-kiting scandal in the House bank. But once in the leadership, he avidly cultivated ties to the K Street lobbying community. He made headlines for handing out checks from tobacco interests to colleagues on the House floor.

But his early years, as the Roman Catholic son of a bar owner in a family of 14, proved compelling, said John Czwartacki, a Boehner aide in the 1990s who is now with Verizon. Boehner got through college working nights as a janitor. He went on to become a wealthy small-business owner and once explained that he entered politics after becoming "bored out of my mind."

When Boehner's victory was announced yesterday, he looked visibly shaken and appeared to choke up as he moved to address the conference, several members said. But he delivered an impassioned speech for unity, effectively quelling what could have been significantly more upheaval. Four House members had been campaigning to succeed Blunt as majority whip, and with 122 members on record against him, one of those candidates or a supporter could have moved to toss Blunt completely out of the leadership.

Instead, Boehner went before the cameras to present Blunt as "our whip and my friend." Blunt joked that he did not end a phone call to members without saying something nice about Boehner. "I may have overdone that a bit," he said.