Even though Mitt Romney debated President Obama this fall and got the top slot at the Republican National Convention, House Speaker John Boehner has been the GOP’s leader (and lead negotiator) in Washington for the last two years. It was Boehner whose 2011 talks with Obama raised the debt ceiling and set in motion the so-called fiscal cliff, and the Republican leader, fresh off a successful defense of the House at the ballot box, will play a central role in crafting a resolution to the current standoff. Some of his conservative members have been unruly at times, but Boehner enjoys strong support for his continued Speakership in the House—a strength he put on display in December when he revoked the committee assignments of a handful of Republicans who had defied the leadership.