Weigel

Young John Boehner Explains How Fractious the GOP Is

A Twitter user clips this video from the aftermath of the 1995–1996 shutdown, in which then-GOP Conference Chairman John Boehner is lightly grilled on how the party put together votes.

Boehner sounds word-for-word the way he sounds in 2013. The difference: He’s now the speaker of the House. He’s talking, as speaker, about what his conference was, as if he doesn’t have more of a role in moving their votes.

Read the rest of Slate’s coverage of the government shutdown.