Two years after picking up the gavel, Republican Paul Ryan faces his first big test as Speaker of the House. Supposedly pro-life congressman, Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, urged his mistress to get an abortion.
Now Ryan must decide whether to turn a blind eye on the congressional infidelity or give Murphy the boot. He should look to John Boehner, that hard-drinking former House Speaker, that chain-smoking paragon of family values.
When Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., was discovered in 2010 in an extramarital affair with a staffer, Boehner called him personally Monday night and encouraged him to resign. His spokesman issued an unflinching statement saying that the then minority leader “has been perfectly clear that he will hold our members to the highest ethical standards.”
Before Boehner even got wind of the affair, his House GOP conference chairman had urged Souder to leave Congress. “I approached Mr. Souder on the House floor on Thursday,” Indiana Rep. Mike Pence told Politico. “At that time, Mr. Souder informed that he had an extramarital affair, but he did not inform me that it involved a part-time staffer.”
That Sunday, when Souder called Pence to tell him the affair was with an employee, the future vice president reported urging “him to immediately resign. And I notified ethics on Monday.”
Under pressure from Boehner and Pence, Souder manfully resigned the next day, owning up to his failings without excuse (I was an intern in his Fort Wayne district office at the time).
Seven years later that old guard is waiting to see what the new guard will do. “Everyone has heard rumors about this crap and known for years that Murphy was just a poison pill,” a former GOP leadership aide tells me. “Where is Ryan on this one?”
At press time that was an unanswered question. An hour-and-half after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the Murphy story, the speaker’s office still had not released a statement or returned my requests for comment.
The conservative “family values” mantle has taken considerable abuse in recent years (the nomination of Donald Trump left it in shreds). But if Ryan wants to save what’s left of the personal reputation of the Republican party, he must follow Boehner’s example. He must kick Murphy out of conference and force him out of Congress. It’s the only test of leadership that matters.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
