"Which John Boehner will show up as speaker?" asks Lesley Stahl in her introduction to 60 Minutes. "The compromiser that he's been in the past, or the more hard-line conservative of late"? We don't really get an answer. Actually, it was the emotional side of the new House speaker that appears to have interested the shows producers the most. Yes, there were also the requisite sound bites: the President showed Boehner "disrespect" by calling him a hostage taker. And the mystery of Boehner's golden tan was only deepened when Boehner responded "I've never been in a tanning salon in my life. I've never used a tanning product in my life."

But the main thrust of the 60 minutes profile appears to be the man's tendency to weep at the most inopportune moments (like at the 6 minute mark in the video below when talking about making sure "kids have a shot at the American Dream"). When prodded about his crying habits, Boehner responds: "What you see is what you get . ... I know who I am. I'm comfortable in my own skin. And everybody who knows me knows that I get emotional about certain things."

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ehayden at nationaljournal dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Erik Hayden