John Boehner, behind the tears

Boehner's announced exit as House speaker and from Congress altogether caps a political career that began as the head of a homeowners association in an Ohio neighborhood and made him second in line to the presidency.

A firm opponent of abortion rights, he was essentially undone by disaffection from conservatives who want to push an anti-abortion struggle over Planned Parenthood financing to the point of closing the government, a step too far for him.

The 65-year-old Boehner was never one to hold back his exasperation with recalcitrance in his own ranks as well as frustrations with what he saw as a slippery negotiating partner in President Barack Obama.

Boehner summed up the lawmakers he was overseeing this way in 2011 to the Wall Street Journal columnist and Ronald Reagan speechwriter, Peggy Noonan: We got some of the smartest people in the country who serve here, and some of the dumbest.

[...] oldest in a Catholic family of 12 in the northern Cincinnati suburb of Reading, Boehner swept floors in his father's bar, played high-school football and worked his way through university.

There he soon became a lieutenant of the rabble-rousing Gingrich, who as mid-1990s speaker steered him to No. 4 in House leadership, with a plush office and a taste of power and the high life for a man who loves his Merlot wine and golfing.

Hostility from some in his ranks had grown raw and he faced the possibility of a revolt on the House floor that has not been seen for a century.

In 2013, conservatives had driven him to accept a partial government shutdown to try to delay Obama's health care law.