A sorry end to Paul Ryan's speakership

[CatWoman]

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s last year in office is proving disastrous, a fitting end to the speakership of a man once considered a principled conservative reformer. His refusal to fulfill his constitutional role as leader of the House but rather play the role of presidential poodle and Republican attack dog for his increasingly unhinged caucus has had dire consequences for the GOP House majority, the intelligence oversight process and the broader conservative movement.

Among his most egregious failures has been his refusal to rein in House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who, in concert with the White House, created a phony “unmasking” scandal and released a misleading memo casting aspersions on the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in connection with the warrant to conduct surveillance on suspected spy Carter Page. As Nunes’s crowd, together with the president, now threatens to reveal a secret FBI and CIA source, in an unprecedented breach of the House’s intelligence oversight responsibilities, the extent of Ryan’s reckless disregard for his oath becomes clear.

Ryan’s legacy will be not only of someone who politically enabled an unfit president, but also of someone who presided over the erosion of trust required for a proper intelligence oversight process. Ryan has done his party no favors in permitting it to become irrational conspiratorialists and antagonists of our intelligence community. His passivity has only encouraged Trump to abuse his powers, which may, when the facts are laid bare, amount to obstruction of justice.

This week Ryan completely lost control of his own troops, watching the farm bill go down in humiliating fashion as he tried to stave off an immigration compromise that might actually pass. He is no longer doing the people’s business — either to pass necessary, bipartisan legislation or to defend the people’s security. Perhaps he should retire now. Any temporary replacement could hardly do a worse job for the remaining months of the GOP majority.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/05/20/a-sorry-end-to-paul-ryans-speakership/?utm_term=.62beb4eeb53b

[procon]

1. "...for the remaining months of the GOP majority." A prediction? nt

[sharedvalues]

2. Paul Ryan has ALWAYS been a con man: he embodies the lying GOP of the past two decades

Paul Krugman in 2012

https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/a-public-service-reminder-paul-ryan-is-a-con-man/

A Public Service Reminder: Paul Ryan is a Con Man
NOVEMBER 19, 2012 6:48 PM November 19, 2012 6:48 pm 221
So now that the Unperson/Ryan ticket has lost, Republicans are clearly expecting Paul Ryan to move right back into his previous role as Washington’s favorite Serious, Honest Conservative.

He might get away with it; but I hope not.

The fact is that Ryan is and always was a fraud. His plan never added up; it was never, contrary to what people who should know better asserted, “scored” by the CBO. What he actually offered was a plan to hurt the poor and reward the rich, actually increasing the deficit along the way, plus magic asterisks that supposedly reduced the debt by means unspecified.

[sharedvalues]

3. I do appreciate that J Rubin is seeing the light in 2018. Thank you Jennifer for having principles

[Marie Marie]

6. Is Ryan running as a congressman again?

I mean, did he just give up the Speaker role or is he quitting congress?

[BigmanPigman]

9. Whichever pays the most,

or whichever has fringe benefits like bribes and other perks will be his next gig. He follows the money and for laughs he can live it up by tripping little old ladies by throwing banana peels on the floors at the local nursing home.

[shanny]

10. Quitting Congress. nt

[Iliyah]

4. Honest Conservative - LOL

When running as VP with Rmoney, I remember he and his family missed a Mission Soup event, got there late, but atlas, he and his wife and children put on aprons and acted that they were cleaning a already clean kitchen. That right there proved how dishonest he was.

[Gothmog]

5. I have always thought that Paul Ryan was lightweight

Watching Ryan lose control of his caucus is amusing

[C Moon]

7. lying sos

I've never met someone who supports the current GOP to be anything less than creepy.
That said, the leaders of that party must be horrible people...creepier than creepy.

[oasis]

8. Ryan can flush any chance of ever becoming President.

[marble falls]

11. Why wouldn't it end like it started and was served?