clown all in the span of a generation. when we think of great congressional leaders, we think of powerful politicians like lbj, the master of the senate, or house speakers like sam raburn, tip o neill or even newt gingrich. all of these leaders had much, much more leverage than boehner. wow! ouch! nancy pelosi was a powerful speaker. what s happened? why is john boehner a feckless herder of cats, in your words? i think some want to say that boehner is weak or that the republican freshmen are too fringy. i think there s a culmination of a few factors. one, speakers used to have the earmarks. they could kind of brag you with. you re going to get a bridge in your district. that s pretty much off the table. i think that our culture, our society doesn t respect leaders the way that it used to, and institutions. and i think that s manifesting itself in politics. but i also you also that s an incredible point. it s broken up. the internet has played into that. and also club
up. how was nice this morning? god, i don t go to nice. i don t understand, so you re flying back, when do you have to fly back from nice to get here in time? i don t. rattner would know. supersonic. transmogrifies. don t do that because everyone thinks i go to the south of france. you do all the time. who s with us? here with us now, senior contributor and columnist for the peek, matt lewis. he goes to south georgia. how is south georgia this time of year? he writes in the week, the most underappreciated political trend of our time maying the loss of power wielded by the speaker of the house. through little fault of his own, john boehner has essentially become a feckless herder of cats. has any job deteriorated faster than the speaker of the house? the position was once powerful and revered. today, it s a mostly thankless job that consists of lots of responsibility but little power. it s almost like going from being a rodeo cowboy to a rodeo