Captain Missed-the-Point needs to calm the fuck down and realize the biggest problem is the consistent, epidemic failure of the Dems as a party to focus on state elections. TIP O’NEIL TOLD YOU WHAT’S WHAT AND WHERE IT’S AT, FUCKERS. GET A CLUE.
Edit: Frankly, I would really REALLY like to see TPM and Vox do some in depth analysis and reporting on this phenomenon as it is precisely what is holding back liberals/progressives and our policies despite our demographic advantages.
Maybe he could replace Steny Hoyer as whip. No time to fuck around with new blood as leader.
… going with a hard pass on this guy.
Tim Ryan is from Ohio. Nancy Pelosi is from California. On the one hand, if leadership is responsible for losses, then he does not seem to be doing a bang up job in Ohio. On the other hand, having someone who is demonstrably knowledgeable about swing states where the party has difficulty could be a plus, but most of that stuff is done at the party level. Ryan was an absolutely stalwart and vocal and eloquent opponent of the Iraq War but has been a little wobbly on some social issues (maybe not recently, I don’t know). He would have been a better candidate for senate than Strickland. I just don’t know if he has the organizational chops for this job that Pelosi obviously does. Pelosi has shown that she can work with legislators of every state and political temperament.
“All politics is local.”
Nice. A challenge is good.
The real story here is that, if this challenge is successful, both the speaker and minority leader would have the last name Ryan. Having narrowly averted a Clinton “dynasty”, will we really allow the Ryan dynasty to run our country? /s
Ryan? That’s a foreign name. We need to look into building a wall on the Irish border.
After all, we are a civic society…
Wall on the Irish border? No wonder Trump supports Brexit.
I suspect this may be about establishing his “outsider, fighter against the status quo” credentials before Ryan runs for governor in 2018. Or maybe he figures he’ll make some headlines, inspire a bunch of elite media thinkpieces about how Ryan’s Democratic stronghold district, which Obama won by 20+ points and Clinton won by 3, is emblematic of Democrats’ weakness in the Rust Belt, and leadership will accommodate him and give him a leadership role or create one for him.
Either way, this symbolic challenge seems to have a lot of upside for him with little downside.
It seems odd to me that he can make such a strong stmt against leadership when his disrict dropped in D votes so far. What was his role in getting out the vote in his district? If the district had maintained the Obama margin would Ohio have gone for Clinton?
“Leader Ryan denounced Speaker Ryan’s legislative proposal as unnecessary and reckless, to which Ryan replied by calling Ryan out of touch. Ryan went on to accuse Ryan of refusing to work with Ryan, to which Ryan countered that it was actually Ryan who refused to sit down with Ryan. When asked if compromise was possible, both a spokesman for Ryan and a spokesman for Ryan declined to comment.”
Here’s the thing, Tim: If the demographics of OH, in general, are really going against the Dems (ala MO) there’s not much you can do anyway. We can try to appeal to their better angels but if they genuinely believe that a narcisisstic sociopath can makes positive inroads for OH (like reopening mines and factories), I don’t know what you can say.
As I’ve stated before, the Democratic Party reflects the new multicultural society. Period. It’s not going to change. I’m not being nasty; WE are the Dem Party. Now, if OH doesn’t want to deal with that, what exactly are you going to say to them? Keeping in mind that, feral trumpers and those who just decided to not vote the top line at all aren’t (all) experiencing “economic insecurity.”
He has had the opportunity to run for statewide office multiple times and never has. I don’t know why. He would have been a better candidate than Strickland.
He may not be the one, but the dems have to move past the boomers. I worried from the beginning that it would be hard to motivate younger voters who enthusiastically voted for a young Obama would not be enthused about voting for a boomer even though the boomer candidate was a woman.
Not if it was just his district, as Donald won Ohio by around 450,000 votes. But Tim Ryan won his district with 68%, so he can make an argument that he is the white, working-class voter-whisperer. That won’t be compelling to most of his colleagues, but Chris Matthews will love it and praise Ryan in bizzarely sexual language.
We’ll give leadership positions to the niggers and the chinks, but we don’t want the Irish!
(With apologies to Mel Brooks.)
Tim Ryan would be a smart move: a way to start working on getting those Swing States back.
Got to make a similar smart move in the selection of the DNC head.