I ran across this hopeful profile of a then potential Speaker Boehner written just before Republicans took over the House in 2010. It contains this insight into the internal power struggles within the party and the job a Speaker is supposed to do:
It’s an open secret that Boehner’s Republican lieutenants—Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, and Paul Ryan, who spent last week promoting a new, coauthored book (Young Guns) about how they’re more in tune with the times than their slick establishment predecessors—harbor leadership ambitions of their own. So when they instantly distanced themselves from the boss’s remarks, no one was surprised. As one GOP staffer puts it, “Those guys are pushing themselves forward, with the implication that they’re leaving the rest of the leadership behind. That includes John Boehner.”
The funny thing about all the anti-Boehner ferment, however, is that the Ohioan’s critics may soon come to consider him irreplaceable. In truth, Boehner is one of the few players in American politics with the potential to give both Republicans and Democrats what they need in the wake of November’s anticipated GOP landslide. For the left, that means an experienced legislative negotiator on the opposite side of the aisle. For the right, it means a leader who can rack up tangible accomplishments for the party to run on in 2012—while also keeping the new, red-meat caucus from eating him alive.
