New York Magazine (Opinion)
By Jaime Fuller
October 12, 2015
Though
it took John Boehner a few years to go from being the Republican
Party's leader to its arch-nemesis, the groundbreaking opportunities
afforded by the internet news
cycle have given Representative Paul Ryan the chance to go from beloved
to potentially the worst Speaker in history in only a few days — even
though he has yet to be elected House Speaker, or even say that he has
any interest in taking the role.
A
few days after it seemed like the whole Republican Party wanted Paul
Ryan to be Speaker — except for, of course, Paul Ryan — conservative
hardliners of all stripes came
out of the woodwork to say that they had a very bad feeling about all
of this.
Tea
Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin called Ryan "anything but
conservative," and Erick Erickson said he was acting like "John
Boehner’s even weaker sister."
The dreaded "B-word" has appeared frequently in the latest volley of
insults aimed at Ryan. A guest on "Breitbart News Sunday" said Ryan was
the "absolute worst option." Several local tea party groups have
reportedly threatened to retaliate against elected
officials who support Ryan in a Speaker election.
The
tea-party types are wary of Ryan for the same reasons they hated
Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy: Because he is an
insider in an age when they are
only interested in elevating the least likely political leaders, and
because he is willing to use compromise — which firebrands consider one
of the Unforgivable Curses. This wing of the party is also outnumbered,
and at some point, their season of overthrowing
Establishment leaders is going to end — and it probably won't end with a
complete tea-party takeover. Because of this, conservatives actually in
the House have made sure to dress up their disapproval for Ryan in very
nice backhanded compliments. They may not
like the idea of Ryan being Speaker, but they also realize that their
influence will only take them so far.
Representative
Louie Gohmert told reporters on Friday that he could never vote for
Ryan, but added, “I love Paul, he's one of the smartest guys here."
Representative Jim
Jordan, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said his group might "look
favorably on" Ryan, "but we’re not there yet."
Even
Donald Trump, the filterless muse of a certain flavor of conservatism,
couldn't help joining the passive-aggressive fun, though he won't be
able to vote for or against
Ryan in the near future. He told Sean Hannity on Monday, "I think he’s a
terrific guy. But he’s very, very weak on illegal immigration, and that
hurts from my standpoint ... I know plenty of tough guys that aren’t
smart, and I know the other, too, and I don’t
think that works either in this case. We need tough and we need smart,
and if we don’t get that, it’s problems.”
While
the right fringe of his party tests out different ways to voice their
continuing indecisiveness about the Speaker race, Paul Ryan is still
trying to convince people
that this is a stupid thing to debate at all. He is instead prepping
his Halloween costume; according to CNN, he is dressing up like Mitt
Romney — the patron saint of those definitely not thinking about
entering a race, unless they are.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment