Mr. Boehner has another side, in the form of quivering lip and wet lashes, one that that comes out at times of heightened public emotions.
There was the sob heard around the world on election night, as Mr. Boehner addressed supporters once it was clear that Republicans would take back the House. “I’ve spent my whole life chasing the American dream,” he said, beginning to cry. He swallowed and tried again. But describing all the bad jobs he had once had just led to near sobbing when he got to the line, “I poured my heart and soul into running a small business.”
Funny about most adults. When the going gets tough for them, people who are no longer kids rein it in, are stalwart, bite the lip, show as little emotion as possible. What haven't seen much of lately is people whose eyes well up in public because they are moved by others' desperate plight, particularly among Republicans looking at the landscape of the jobless and homeless.
Self-pity, though, has become a great tear provoker. I think we know quite a few pols who could watch 14 small children put through a chipper and not shed a tear, but the tears flow when they hint at their own childhood infelicities. It comes from the conviction that other people bring trouble on themselves but my trouble was caused by an axis of evil.
The New York Times explores Boehner's boo-hoo moments.
Earlier this year, Mr. Boehner wept when presented with the Henry J. Hyde Defender of Life Award by Americans United for Life, talking about Mr. Hyde (out came the hankie) and his own family. “I have 11 brothers and sisters,” he continued. “I know it wasn’t convenient for my mom to have 12 of us, but I’m sure glad they’re all here.”
He cries at his annual golf tournament, talking about the good old days with his buddies. He weeps when he watches a child give the Pledge of Allegiance at the annual dinner benefiting Catholic schools in his district. “He gets pretty choked up these days,” said a childhood friend, Jerry Vanden Eynden, though it was not a hallmark of his childhood.
Mr. Boehner — whose crying episodes are presaged by the sound of cotton in his mouth, and chased away, often unsuccessfully, with some aggressive coughing — has certain themes that get to him: children, soldiers and his own upbringing.
Tom Lutz has written a book about crying.
Public crying, he said, can be calculated or self-permitted. “We do so for a number of reasons,” Mr. Lutz said. “For emphasis (this is so important I give myself permission to break the rules); for self-definition (I don’t care how I’m supposed to act; this is who I really am); to ward off criticism (he’s too upset for me to challenge him); to suggest intimacy (he feels so comfortable with me he will break the rules in front of me); and so on.”
Is it, the Times asks, just a family habit?
“A lot of us get this way,” said Lynda Meineke, one of Mr. Boehner’s sisters, saying she saw their oldest brother, Bob, get choked up talking about their brother John just the other day.
So do crocodile families, hon. Crocodile tears don't stop crocodiles from being crocodiles.
