Last year wasn’t my best for predictions. I understood when the primary contest was over before many others who harbored unrealistic hopes, but that’s not really a prediction. It’s just knowing something. Of course, with no help from the polls, I didn’t see Trump winning.
One thing I predicted though was that Paul Ryan would not last long, especially working with a Trump presidency. I think I was right, but we’ll have to see how he comes out of the next week.
If he survives it, he may be weakened enough that the next gale will take him out. For example, the debt ceiling debate at the end of the summer…
once that happens, then what? we never fund our government again?
I know you think a governing majority will emerge with Republicans and Democrats but I still don’t see a path there with the current group in power
I think that coalition should emerge. It doesn’t mean that it will happen.
If it does, it won’t be until the end of a prolonged failed attempt to find a new Speaker acceptable to enough Republicans.
Is there such a person? Ryan seemed like the last gasp.
Oops, gotcha. Nevermind.
That sounds like the story of the frog and scorpion crossing the steam.
I doubt Ryan will be speaker much longer, nor do I think he wants to be.
Ryan has always been a smaller-than-life politician. He has a great future in local Wisconsin politics.
The interesting thing is that Trumps uselessness has forced the more sane GOP congress critters to start exercising some of their branch’s power for the first time in what, since at least the start of Bush II? It’s been pure id since 2006, and before they could outsource all policy to the WH and focus on looting the country.
Its not enough to make things functional but if a realignment like you suggest were to happen thats probably a fiundational requirement.
I see a path, Jim and I don’t like it. Hint: Think of Obama making the Bush tax cuts permanent.
hint – he only made some of them permanent, he raised taxes on those making over 450k
He should have done nothing.
so you were in favor of raising taxes on workers and middle income people? because that’s what would have happened if he did nothing
No, the Bush rates would expire and the Clinton rates gone back in effect. They may have been slightly higher, but going back to normal is not the same as raising taxes as Trump is proposing.
the Clinton rates are higher than the Bush rates for everyone, during an election
doing nothing was never going to happen
I don’t see anyone smart enough on the GOP-side to pull anything off. Seriously. Who has shown any ability to govern for the Republicans over the last 10 years?
A series of Speaker crises will slow these morons down from looting the country. I am all for it.
Did you hear the Tax Plan {shudder}. Maybe that won’t get off the ground either.
Chaffetz, who has been plotting for the speakership for years, has now run away, apparently so he can spend more time with his foot. Ryan was crazy to take the job in the first place, he’s far less able to deal with the GOP caucus than Boehner was, and Boehner couldn’t do it at all, and with Trump in the White House the Speaker’s position is twice as anomalous as it was–Obama gave them a readymade excuse for their inability to do anything, but with a Republican president who’d gladly sign any bullshit legislation they gave him and call it a victory, they have no excuses left, and yet they’re unable to move on anything (couldn’t pass a 1-week continuing resolution without Democratic votes!). It’s the worst job in Washington.
Maybe Ted Cruz would be willing to be Speaker (you don’t have to be a House member and he has expressed interest back in 2913), but I don’t think anybody else would.
Thats the biggest reason I think Ryan stays, there is no one else. Maybe it was spin but after Boehner was out Ryan only took the job fir the same reason.
He wants to be Pres. he only has to get rid of trump and Pence.
I never felt that Ryan actually wanted the job;not then, not now.
No one knew what to expect.
We watched, bemused at first, as Trump slayed every dragon the Republicans sent forth. He dismantled the bench every time they showed up for debates. Most people on both sides thought he would race to the end and succumb to a “regular Republican”, so Republicans let Donald be Donald. To disastrous results.
I gotta believe that true Conservatives despise Trump. He’s the turd in the punch bowl, the crass “new money” at a party filled with Old Money, Harvard diplomas and blue blood. They let him in because he was an attention-grabber, among other things. And they felt he would, being a businessman, cut them some big breaks if given the reins.
Major assholes like McConnell, Sessions, and Priebus, as well as other significant Republican party leaders benefitted hugely from Trump’s election, but I wouldn’t say any of them particularly like him. He was the means to an end for them. Paul Ryan benefitted as well, but to a lesser degree, and because he’s caught in the middle of it all, trying to keep everyone moving in the same direction, he’s the most likely to get knocked out. He is not the brassy liar Trump is; he couldn’t convincingly yell for water if his hair was on fire. He isn’t strong enough to lead, and I think he’ll get trampled down soon. But I don’t know who will replace him.
The Granny Starver is a diminutive politician no doubt about it (and opposite of how the Villagers fluff his reputation). But, I think the Krazy Kaucus that is the House GOP realizes that nobody else wants the job. I get the sense that they learned the hard way when ousting Boner that House Speakerin’ is hard work.
As such, they’ll be in no hurry to oust him in favor of…nobody since they all know that they themselves make the job impossible to do.
My heart bleeds for them…assholes.
Ryan was a weak leader from the word go: He tried to assume a tough stance with the GOP House with his statement listing his demands for assuming the leadership; they told him to get bent, and he said, “OK then.”
The only reason he could be considered strong to any degree was because compared to his predecessor, who actually was far more skilled in the general process of legislating, Ryan was younger, had those baby blues, and most importantly wasn’t drunk off his face after lunch and prone to bizarre crying jags. In all other respects, he’s been the epitome of a figurehead, a chunk of painted wood presented for public viewing who has absolutely no real decision-making power when it comes to the course the ship pursues. He signaled his fundamental lack of leadership ability to his caucus when he accepted the job, and it’s been on prominent display to the public ever since.
What others here have pointed out repeatedly is that as pathetic a leader as Ryan is, the GOP literally have nobody else who could even attempt to fill his shoes. (this is the best leadership our Constitution and electoral process are capable of providing us in the 21st Century)
The likelihood that Ryan would have to step down from his leadership after a relatively short and ineffective reign was foreshadowed by his inauspicious elevation.