Discussion: Chaffetz: Paul Ryan Would Be A 'Wonderful' Speaker

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Discussion for article #241640

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Ryan is just smart enough to say no to that thankless job.

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I do not envy Paul Ryan this weekend. This is one of those very rare cases where what is best for him politically, what is best for the GOP, and what is best for the country as a whole lines up equally. He shouldn’t take the position. But if he doesn’t his current colleagues are in for a world of hurt in the near term, while ensuring their long-term political success. Some will blame him for the pain. However, the GOP desperately needs to cut the Freedumb caucus off at the knees, or they will never get another conservative idea passed ever again, so they need to make a deal with Dems in the House for a bipartisan speaker.

So by no logical argument would he take the job of speaker. But the emotional argument, to help out his friends, might win out.

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Chaffetz: I would be a wonderful speaker, but I’d rather railroad someone else into the job because the only language I can speak is to fuck things up and then wail about it like a ginormous baby.

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One theory going around is that Boner blindsided McCarthy by announcing his resignation and not talking it over with him in order for McCarthy to round up his support. But even if that had happened McCarthy is still a clueless unaccomplished pol who can’t lead a body that simply won’t be lead. So Paulie or Chaffetz, it doesn’t matter. They’ll all get same disdainful treatment Boner got, so he might as well stay until someone in that body grows a brain and grows cojones as well.

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Chaffetz really doesn’t want it either. He knew he had no chance against McCarthy. Now that there isn’t a frontrunner,Chaffetz is sweating

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I can’t help but wonder if maybe this was Boehner’s 11th dimensional chess strategy. He got tired of hearing the nay-sayers in his own party, and his resignation was more a ‘you think it is so easy? You govern!’. But then he will come back after they still don’t have a speaker, and he will graciously un-retire, and he will tell the obstructionist wing of his party they had their shot and to shove it from here on out. Boehner really could be the savior of the party and he would come back stronger than he has ever been.

Wow. That sentence was hard to type.

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In simpler words, ryan is a better liar than chaffetz.

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He thought he wanted it. Since then, he has learned that he really doesn’t want it and he has learned that he needn’t worry about it happening.

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Yes, but will his smarts trump his vanity, and the implied threat that if he defies the will of the entire Republican establishment by not running he will create a boatload of grudges among the most resentful batshit crazy group to have served in Congress since the 1850s?

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So his choice is:

  1. take the job, find the GOP House impossible to lead, watch grudges and plots against him develop until he quits or is forced out
    -or-
  2. refuse the job, instantly create grudges against him, watch eventual Speaker fail at leading the GOP House, repeat
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Couldn’t happen to a phonier guy.

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If Boehner stays on nothing changes. The crystal pure hype-conservative chunk of the R caucus is rather fond of chaos. Their power to stop legislation is all they have, but it is enough to get them reelected by gerrymandered and primary dominated electoral districts. They can’t do anything in the face of Senate and Presidential balances.
Boehner can take a nice vacation and have pretty women bring him lots and lots of yummy drinks with paper umbrellas on a beautiful beach and meditate on the Fifty Ways to Leave Your Liver. Then he can return to DC and get filthy rich on the lobbyist racket. There is no reason to stay and let a bunch of crazy people moon him every time he does his job.
For that matter anybody who becomes Speaker will fail in the face of the vandal faction. There is no ‘Wonderful’ in the Speaker’s position for Ryan to exploit.

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Yes, Ryan will be “wonderful” … they will eat his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti …

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I expect news that Eddie Munster and his aides have been attacked by"Paiute Indians" as they travel to Capitol Hill to take the mantle of the Speakership. Caffetz, expert in Prostitution and Prostitution Accessories, will bide his time and let Eddie put his foot in a Crazy Caucus bear trap. They litter the floor of the house and are almost impossible to avoid.