Discussion: Ryan Vows To Step Down As Convention Chair If Trump Asks Him To Do So

TPM Article Topics
22

Please ask me to step down. PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!

3 Likes
23

You had me until this part. HRC was seen as likeable and trustworthy until the Benghazi BS began. And she’s been the most admired woman in America for over a decade. I fully expect that after Sanders drops out, after the convention, and after voters take a long hard look at Trump, her numbers will rebound significantly.

Also, I think it’s a fairly safe bet that after four years of what will be a monumental Republican crack up in which they are openly bickering among themselves and with Democrats, the idea of electing the leader of the Republican Party will be utterly laughable to most Americans. And that’s if he can somehow manage to hang onto his speakership without being unceremoniously given the Boehner treatment by his caucus.

20 Likes
24

Just don’t threaten my Speaker salary.

6 Likes
25

Despite the fact that it seems quite a few people on this and some other sites think I am extremely intelligent, I am basically a dumbass with a very limited vocabulary, so it took a mighty big heap-a thinkin’ to come up with the proper phrase to describe Paul Ryan’s response to Trump’s threat, but I believe the best phrase to use is: BAWK-BAWK-BAWK-BAWK-BAAAAAAWK!
How do those Trumpy balls taste, Speaker Ryan? Are they velvety and vinegary enough for you? Did the attacks by Sarah Palin make you go Number Two in your Congressional Pampers?

2 Likes
26

ROFLMAO

Ryan can’t get away from the Trump shit-show fast enough.

In the words of the classic story “please don’t throw me into that briar patch”.

13 Likes
27

I see it kind of the opposite. Ryan is showing his disdain for actual conflict yet again. Whenever he is confronted with being the front guy on some potential confrontational issue…he always defers an starts backing up with wishy washy words.

Just go back and look at his statements each time the Tea Party confronted Boehner…Ryan takes a pop shot, people start “volunteering” him to the front of the line…and Ryan backs out.

Look at how he has handled being Speaker. He almost immediately caved on everything that the Freedom Caucus demanded, and still refuses to bring up any legislation that has the slightest possibility of causing a confrontation. He just avoids it entirely

Its also precisely how he acted when he started publishing his budget plans. Lots of rhetorical statements, then when confronted with the realities that he has to defend it while he fellow House members are getting beaten…he retreated into hiding.

Ryan is the loud mouth creep in the back of a crowd, who, if he gets pushed up front, immediately remembers he has to go return video tapes.

It would seem puzzling for Ryan to lay down a challenge to Trump in the first place, but he obviously thought he was in the back of a much bigger crowd that would form around him. He wasn’t. And now he is being pushed to the front of the fray…video tape return time.

4 Likes
28

Anything could happen in the era of advanced reverse psychology as designed by Thug-nation, answering the question what would thugs do? One thing for sure is not grant any wishes of the Pipsqueak Speaker.

1 Like
29

I think he should do it either way.

30

Someone called all this Kabuki theater. I couldn’t agree more.

3 Likes
31

In my opinion, Ryan has very little chance at actually getting the nomination in 2020. And this dust up only lowers those chances.

Ryan is an incredibly ineffectual Speaker, and that is going to become increasingly obvious in the months to come, let alone years. He thought he could reduce the job to just a figurehead that prances out and makes pronouncements of lofty goals…lots of pie in the sky stuff without any actual agenda to be held accountable. Trump is now going directly after even that one goal.

Of course, Ryan has still to even deliver his long promised “GOP national agenda”…and he never will. Precisely because he traded away all the power of the Speaker right up front, he now has no ability to marshal his caucus for even getting behind largely symbolic statements, let alone actual legislation.

And its the failures looming ahead on actual legislation that are going to damn him the most. The only way Tony got the Sharks and the Jets to both like him…involved being dead. And that’s where Ryan is heading politically, because a budget will be required in just a few short months. Right now, he has nothing…and no plan to get one, and even less tools or skills than Boehner to force even a compromise through.

Remember when everyone talked about Boehner “cleaning out the barn” before he left? Well, the barn has more manure in it now than ever before…and Ryan traded away the only pitchfork and shovel he had.

By 2020, he will either be more reviled than Boehner as the Speaker, or will have either abdicated or gotten tossed out. Neither scenario sets him up to run in 2020.

6 Likes
32

My thoughts exactly. He’s on his knees praying for Trump to let him off the hook.

2 Likes
33

Ryan with the stronger hand hits to Trump with the weaker hand running backwards.

34

I also think she’ll be aided by a huge Democratic swing in congress and possibly liberal shift on the Supreme Court. If she gets 4 years and actually gets stuff done, I think the country will come around.

4 Likes
35

The Republican “Establishment” which still holds the purse strings should follow Ryan’s move (which is intelligent) and say to The Donald … “Ok, fine … you’re going to be the nominee, so go ahead and take over the entire running of the convention.” They should then just show up, but let Trump prove his organizational “abilities.” Gee, I wonder, if you can file bankruptcy over a convention?

3 Likes
36

Of course not, and because of that, she will the worst president in all of human history. (Quoting another quote here, not from pluckyinky.)

37

What if Trump requests that he step down as Speaker of the House?

1 Like
38

Brer Rabbit’s eyes got very large. “Oh please Brer Fox, whatever you do, please don’t throw me into the briar patch.”

“Maybe I should roast you over a fire and eat you,” mused Brer Fox. “No, that’s too much trouble. Maybe I’ll hang you instead.”

“Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please,” said Brer Rabbit. “Only please, Brer Fox, please don’t throw me into the briar patch.”

“If I’m going to hang you, I’ll need some string,” said Brer Fox. “And I don’t have any string handy. But the stream’s not far away, so maybe I’ll drown you instead.”

“Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please,” said Brer Rabbit. “Only please, Brer Fox, please don’t throw me into the briar patch.”

“The briar patch, eh?” said Brer Fox. “What a wonderful idea! You’ll be torn into little pieces!”

6 Likes
39

Very intelligent on Ryan’s part. He disavows himself of the whole Trump debacle, and then when Trump loses big, Ryan can make the argument that;

  1. Trump lost because he is not a “true conservative” like Paul Ryan; and
  2. Ryan had nothing to do with this disaster.
    Ryan for GOP nominee in 2020.
3 Likes
40

What Ryan is really saying is, “Please ask me to step down.”

5 Likes
41

perfectly summed up, fargo116! that’s exactly what Ryan is saying to Trump.

it’s the perfect “triple dog dare” right outta the starting gate!

3 Likes