Actual thoughts on Boehner: It's easy to be a reformer when you're new in town. Once you are the establishment it gets a lot trickier (that pretty much sums up the entire Republican Party at this point). Not many congressional lifers calling to throw the bums out. That's one reason I was a big fan of another Ohio Rep., John Kasich. Too bad he's squandering his talents on Fox News, but at least he realized you can only be an advocate for change in one place for so long and retain credibility. Eventually you have to move up or out.

That's not to say Boehner won't be an improvement over DeLay, or that he can't be a capable leader. In fact, I think he'll be a much better advocate for the Republican Party than DeLay because he doesn't have the baggage from having been the Whip. He chaired, if memory serves (too lazy to Google, how sad) Ways and Means so he knows how to reach a compromise without breaking kneecaps. I'm just not sure he would have been elected if wholesale reform were really what the party is after. Incremental change may be possible, though, and that may be the best we can hope for.