Ramesh Ponnuru writes:
what exactly have conservatives accomplished here? Is federal spending going to go down now that Boehner is majority leader? Are Republicans going to get better press now that they have "embraced change"? Will John Shadegg's role as a "kingmaker" compensate for the fact that the RSC couldn't deliver half its troops? Since my wife works for Blunt, I didn't comment on the race while it was going on (no matter how grossly unfair, and sometimes nastily personal, conservative bloggers' coverage of the race was). Now that it's over, I'm perfectly happy to join in congratulating Boehner. Whether conservatives have anything to congratulate themselves for is an open question.
Probably nothing much, but Republicans have taken the safest political route. Boehner isn't DeLay's longtime lieutenant in the way Blunt was, but he's still a K Street King. He's not quite the hardcore conservative Shadegg is, but he invokes Reagan a lot. All this means he's much more of a moving political target than either Blunt or Shadegg, but he also lacks their definition, vibrancy, or strengths. It's like when you're picking sports teams in a video game and the newbies always choose the squad with equal, but mediocre, talents across the board. No glaring weaknesses, but no particular strengths.
