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 The 65-year-old Ohio lawmaker stunned Republican House members at
a meeting on Friday morning with the announcement that he would
leave the top job in the 435-seat chamber and resign his seat
effective on Oct. 30.
U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy, 50, of California, the No. 2
House Republican, quickly became the leading contender to replace
Boehner as speaker. While loyal to Boehner, McCarthy has built
personal relationships with conservative groups and tacked right
recently to back the shutdown of the Export-Import bank.
Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner) told reporters McCarthy "would make an
excellent speaker."
Boehner has faced constant pressure from conservatives who believe
he was too willing to compromise with President Barack Obama and too
frequently relied on Democratic votes to pass crucial legislation.
Obama praised the speaker as "a good man" and said he hoped Boehner
would be in a position to get a lot done before he leaves.
 Boehner told reporters he was stepping aside to avoid another
brewing House battle over his leadership. Conservatives had
threatened a revolt and possible government shutdown over spending
next week.
"It's become clear to me this prolonged leadership turmoil would do
irreparable harm to the institution," Boehner told a news
conference. He fought back tears as he thanked his family but
happily sang "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" to indicate he was far from broken
up about the decision.
"It's the right time to do it, and frankly I'm entirely comfortable
doing it," Boehner said.
His move eased the threat of a federal government shutdown next
week, Republicans said, freeing Boehner to forge ahead with a
"clean" spending bill that funds the women's healthcare group
Planned Parenthood without fear of reprisal from conservatives who
object to the group's abortion services.
But the battle over Boehner's successor could coincide with fights
later this year over government spending and raising the federal
debt limit, complicating those battles and adding more uncertainty
for financial markets.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a longtime foe of Boehner and
his predecessor as speaker, said his pending departure would be "a
distraction" during the spending debate and called his decision
"seismic to the House."
On Thursday, Boehner, a Roman Catholic, realized a longtime goal of
hosting Pope Francis for an address to Congress. As he stood with
the pope to greet crowds on the Capitol's West front, he broke down
in tears.
'TODAY'S THE DAY'
Boehner said he had planned to step down as speaker at the end of
2014 but changed his calculation when his No. 2 at the time, Eric
Cantor, lost his seat last year in a Republican primary.
He then planned to announce in November that he would leave at the
end of this year, he said, but came to the conclusion after his
morning prayers on Friday that "today's the day I'm going to do
this. Simple as that."
He informed staff just before the morning meeting with Republican
House members.
"I saw him recently and he looked weary. Understandably, he was
tired," U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona, also a Republican, told
reporters. "Sometimes we fail to appreciate that these are human
beings with human emotions and lives to lead."
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An NBC News/Wall Street Journal opinion poll on Friday found 72
percent of Republican primary voters were dissatisfied with Boehner
and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
Raucous cheers broke out at a gathering of religious conservatives
in Washington when Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a candidate for
the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, announced that Boehner
planned to step down.
"I'm not here to bash anyone," Rubio told the crowd. "But the time
has come to turn the page."
Despite their clashes, Boehner frequently had bowed to the House's
conservative wing, standing by as conservatives forced a government
shutdown in 2013 and abandoning comprehensive immigration reform in
2013 and 2014.
Many Republican lawmakers predicted McCarthy would be the next
speaker. The five-term lawmaker has built bridges to Tea Party
conservatives and bucked Boehner by abandoning support for renewing
the charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
Conservatives successfully killed renewal of the bank's charter,
arguing government should not meddle by picking economic winners and
losers. Ex-Im offers financing to foreign buyers of U.S. goods.
McCarthy ignored reporters' questions about his future plans as he
exited the morning meeting.
"Now is the time for our (House Republican) conference to focus on
healing and unifying to face the challenges ahead and always do what
is best for the American people," he said in a statement.
There was no immediate market reaction.
Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors,
said: “The near-term news is good in that it suggests that Boehner
is going to get a clean bill through as his last act as speaker, but
the question becomes what happens post-Halloween and who the new
speaker is going to be.”
The son of a bar owner and one of 12 children, Boehner is the only
college graduate in his family. He grew up in Cincinnati and served
in the U.S. Navy in 1969, then became a small businessman before
launching a political career.
On Thursday evening as Boehner left the Capitol, he told two
reporters - one from Politico and another from the Washington Post -
that he had nothing left to accomplish after bringing Pope Francis
to the Capitol, Politico reported.
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Patrick Rucker; Writing by
John Whitesides; Editing by Howard Goller)
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