Sometimes politicians rise to the occasion.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina said, “We don’t know why he did it.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said that he thought the Republican leader “reached a feeling of peace about his own time in public life.”

He will step down in October.

Boehner cried, natch.

Many historians are saying that Cantor’s upset has “few parallels in American history.”

“I really haven’t seen what the D.C. Council did, but I’m sure we’ll look at it.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner successfully enrolled in D.C.’s Affordable Care Act exchange yesterday. But not with a few hiccups first.

The House of Representatives passed a bill 285-144 late this evening that will reopen the government until January 15 and raise the debt ceiling until February 7. The Senate first passed the bill, which President Obama is expected to sign tonight, 81 to 18.

“We support the Speaker in his efforts to reign in federal spending. But this is not about federal dollars,” D.C. Republican Party executive director Robert Turner said in a release. “This is about locally collected tax dollars. No other American city is forced to close during a federal government shut down. The District of Columbia should not be forced to do so either.”