Boehner is his party’s leader — and Republicans have no intention of breaking Weiner’s fall. Boehner silent on Weiner scandal

House Speaker John Boehner hasn’t said much about Rep. Anthony Weiner’s unfolding sex scandal, and he isn’t likely to anytime soon.

While the Ohio Republican is responsible for protecting the House as an institution, he’s also his party’s leader — and most Republicans seem content to watch Weiner flounder.


“This is right now a problem for Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steve Israel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the focus needs to remain on Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steve Israel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz,” a GOP leadership aide said of the House minority leader, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. “If [Weiner’s] party leaders don’t act, there could be some kind of institutional requirement. But for the time being, I think the contrast in the way the House Democratic leadership is handling it” in contrast to how GOP leaders dealt with similar cases “is pretty telling.”

Boehners no. 2, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, by contrast, called Tuesday for Weiner to resign.

Pelosi, Israel and other Democratic leaders have called for an ethics investigation — in part because they didn’t have another option. Weiner made clear both at his press conference and in private conversations with Pelosi that he would not resign.

“I’m sure the House Democratic leader would privately want Weiner to go, but it’s hard to push someone out when there hasn’t been anything illegal,” said a former House Democratic leadership aide.

Boehner, on the other hand, has been known to give a forearm shiver to lawmakers teetering on the edge of a sex scandal. In 2010, with Republicans poised to win back control of the House, Boehner told then-Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana to resign after having an affair with an aide. Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.) quickly resigned after it was revealed that he had sent bare-chested photos of himself to a woman he had met on craigslist, though Boehner’s office would not discuss whether the speaker had influenced Lee’s decision and reporting at the time did not reflect a push from above.

At an emotional and unusual Monday press conference in New York, Weiner admitted to having online relationships with six women over the course of the past three years, including in the months since he married senior Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin last year. The scandal broke after Weiner posted a photograph of himself in his underwear to Twitter rather than sending it directly to its intended recipient. More photos sent to another woman, including bare-chested shots that resembled the now-famous picture of Lee, surfaced after Weiner denied that he had sent the first picture and instead claimed his Facebook account had been hacked.

Weiner said he would cooperate with any investigation by the ethics committee, and longtime observers believe the panel will look into the matter. But that can be a lengthy process — and it’s highly unlikely that it would lead to Weiner’s expulsion by the House — meaning there’s little congressional leaders of either party can do to make it go away.

And for Boehner, at least from a partisan standpoint, there’s no reason to want it to go away. Already, the National Republican Congressional Committee has asked whether Democratic lawmakers who took campaign cash from Weiner will keep the “tainted” money. Some of his campaign cash went to the legal defense fund for fellow New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, who was censured by the House last year for a series of ethics violations ranging from the abuse of his office to failing to accurately report income.

Ronald Peters, an expert on the speakership at Oklahoma University, notes that strictures against interference with the ethics committee put speakers of the House in a bind when it comes to policing the institution.

“Speakers have both a institutional responsibility to the House and a political responsibility to their congressional party. The former relates to standards of official conduct, the latter to the political fallout of public scandal,” Peters said. “Ironically, in exercising their institutional responsibility, speaker are constrained to observe the processes under standards of official conduct. With respect to purely political scandals, they are not so constrained, but of course have no power to force the resignation of a duly elected member.”

As for who gets protection and who gets thrown under the bus, Peters said that “will depend upon the value of the member to the party caucus and the extent to which the scandal is affecting the party’s political prospects. “

John Bresnahan contributed to this report.