Newsday profiles John Boehner, who defeated Roy Blunt and libertarian favorite John Shadegg (who dropped out) to replace Tom Delay as House leader:

John Boehner came to Congress 15 years ago as a crusader against what he saw as the excesses of Democratic power.

[…]

Boehner has a strong conservative record, but has also shown an ability to reach across party lines. He pushed pension legislation through the House last year, attracting nearly 300 votes after a last-minute accommodation with the United Auto Workers.

Boehner, 56, was born in Cincinnati to a family of 12 children. He ran a successful plastics and packaging company before winning local and state elections in the 1980s and capturing his seat in Congress in 1990.

During his freshmen year, Boehner became part of the “Gang of Seven’’ that went after the ethical lapses, mainly of the Democratic majority, including the House Bank scandal. It turned out that lawmakers were writing checks to the House’s internal bank without the money to back them up.

Boehner and his wife, Debbie, have two daughters.

Glenn Reynolds has more, and notes:

Boehner’s said some decent things; perhaps he’ll be more of a reformist than the above take suggests. For the sake of the Republicans, he’d better be. And Boehner rhymes with “explainer.”

Here’s a recent article by Boehner on competitiveness, here’s his Wall Street Journal piece on earmark reform and porkbusting, and here’s his interview with Hugh Hewitt.

See also, NZ Bear:

[…] While the first choice of many of us in the blogosphere, Representative Shadegg, did not win the election, his impact on the race cannot be denied. His candidacy reminded his fellow Representatives that real reform, and real change in the leadership, was not simply the right thing to do, but utterly necessary to ensure the success of the GOP in November.

It is my sincere hope that Representative Boehner takes this message to heart, and takes up the banner of real reform with enthusiasm and commitment. And his past statements give reason for optimism. In our blogger conference call, and in his interview with Hugh Hewitt, Rep. Boehner reiterated his strong commitment against earmarks, and expressed support for the idea of posting legislation online for 72 hours prior to any vote. Limited government fans will be pleased with his direct and positive answer when asked if he’d support rules requiring legislation to contain statements identifying the authority within the Constitution that grants the Congress to legislate in that area (“That’d be fine with me.”), and his even more direct answer to concerns about McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform (“We ought to blow the whole bill up.”).

It is a critical time for the House GOP, and Boehner’s leadership will be essential in bringing the party out from the cloud of corruption scandals. He has the opportunity to make this not simply a defensive measure, but a truly positive one that will lead to victory in November — and not incidentally, real reform in the way that our Congress does business. I’m hopefull he will seize the opportunity…

And here’s McQ, summing up a widespread sentiment at QandO:

to Rep. Boehner, congratulations and good luck. We’ll be watching and writing. We hope you’ll do as you’ve said and seize the opportunity you’ve been presented to root out the endemic corruption (and change the structure which supports it) and return the House, and the party, to ethical and fiscal conservatism.