You'd think that John Boehner would have seen enough drunks blubbering into their drinks at his dad's tavern to be wary of easy tears.
You know, that humble boyhood tavern in Ohio Boehner is always talking about, where he mopped floors and waited tables, until he eventually worked his way up to becoming the third most powerful man in America after Tuesday's epic Republican midterms victory.
Whereupon Boehner, telling a story he must have told hundreds of times in his career, choked up in tears recalling his own accomplishments.
Politicians do cry in public. The Bushes, father and son, have been known to shed a tear. Bill Clinton wells up. Barack Obama cried at a rally on the eve of the 2008 elections, when he learned the grandmother who had raised him had just died of cancer.
I might be less offended if Boehner had been crying about a 9.6% unemployment rate, or the tens of thousands of people who lost their homes at the stroke of an auto-signature pen in the wrongful foreclosure scandal.
But there is something unsavoury about seeing a well-off, white, middle-aged male overcome when the subject moving them to tears is their personal career track.
Rahm Emanuel, a man notorious for once sending a dead fish to a political enemy and shreaking obscenities at co-workers, plumbed the same teary depths at his White House leaving ceremony last month, when he choked up at mention of his family's sacrifices.
But Boehner is tearier than most when the cameras are on. He has cried accepting awards, at an unveiling of a statue of Ronald Reagan, and at a rousing chorus of America the Beautiful.
Is it genuine? That's between Boehner and his handkerchief.
But it's interesting to note that when Hillary Clinton teared up towards the end of a long and gruelling campaign for the New Hampshire primary in early 2008, conservative columnists accused her of faking it to win votes.
And, though it's entirely unsurprising, there were no tears from Nancy Pelosi, who just lost her job as speaker on election day. Women politicians are still not permitted to cry in public, lest they be accused of being too soft for the job.
So, John, man up!
