John Boehner Says So Long to His Friends

In January 2013, House Speaker John Boehner needed a favor from Dave Camp. The White House and congressional Republicans were fighting over whether income tax cuts for top earners should be allowed to expire to avert a budget crisis. (Remember the fiscal cliff?) Boehner had decided to accept the tax increase in exchange for making other cuts permanent, a concession to Democrats that would have Tea Partiers calling for his head. According to a person involved with the deal who wasn’t authorized to speak, Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a hater of tax hikes, stepped up to take charge of the legislation so his ally Boehner could distance himself from the agreement. “I was all alone on that one,” Camp recalls.

Boehner won’t have Camp to rely on much longer. The Michigan Republican announced on March 31 that he’s retiring after 12 terms. He’s the latest of several Boehner friends and protectors who’ve said they won’t seek reelection. They include Mike Rogers of Michigan, a longtime friend who owes his position as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to Boehner; Doc Hastings of Washington, among the speaker’s most steadfast supporters, who’s quitting after 20 years; and Iowa’s Tom Latham, Boehner’s dinner buddy and closest Washington friend going back nearly two decades. Latham considered leaving in 2012 but stayed an extra term in part to help Boehner keep Latham’s seat from going to a Democrat in a presidential election year.