John Boehner Is The New Majority Leader

The House Republicans voted in John Boehner of Ohio as the new Majority Leader earlier today, replacing Tom DeLay, who resigned the leadership post in disgrace last month:

Boehner is an eight-term congressman from the Cincinnati area. He served in the GOP leadership after the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress in 1994, but he was bounced out after they lost seats in the 1998 elections.

He had offered himself as a reform candidate to succeed Tom DeLay, who faces money-laundering charges in his home state of Texas.

Boehner's ascension comes as other Republicans have raised concerns about an extensive influence-peddling probe involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges in January and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

To be fair, DeLay technically did not resign, but merely decided not to reclaim the post. I just enjoy writing that he "resigned in disgrace." It sounds much better than "he decided not to reclaim the leadership post -- in disgrace."

By the way, I heard on CNN over the lunch hour that the Republicans had to re-do one of the votes because the number of votes counted the first time failed to match the actual number of Congressmen who were in the room voting.

No irony there, of course.