"Would you like some more tea, Polly Prissy Pants?"
Posted on 10/21/2015 4:26:36 AM PDT by 1010RD
It looks like Paul Ryan will do the job, but he’ll do it on his own terms.
He laid them out at a Republican-conference meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, telling his colleagues he wants the bickering to end. That means, Republicans said as they exited the meeting, he wants universal endorsements from the various caucuses, specifically from the conservative Freedom Caucus, the Republican Study Committee, and the more moderate Tuesday Group. He gave members until Friday to let him know if they could rally behind him, so that he could make preparations or give other candidates the opportunity to do so.
“If I can truly be a unifying figure, then I will gladly serve,” Ryan reiterated to reporters later. If not, he said, “I’ll be happy to stay where I am at the Ways and Means Committee.” Ryan told reporters the next speaker should be “a visionary one,” and said he told colleagues “we need to update our House rules so that everyone can be a more effective representative,” and to do so in a way that brought an end to the constant “crises.”
But he emphasized that he had grave concerns about the toll this would take on his family, especially his young children, and told members he would not be giving up weekends, or traveling as often as Boehner has done in the role. “He said he had to make it home on weekends for his oxygen, which included his family, his church, and a deer stand,” Representative Ann Wagner, of Missouri, tells National Review.
Ryan opened the speech by telling his colleagues he had written his remarks in a deer stand. The speaker has traditionally taken on heavy fundraising duties, helping to elect Republicans to the House. Wagner, who serves as finance chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, says the committee is fine with Ryan’s proposal and is working on a plan to ensure the committee’s fundraising remains in good shape. She says she was also heartened by his statement that when he did travel to help Republicans campaign, he would focus not just on fundraising but on communication, and would do more local press and grassroots events – activities past speakers have not usually engaged in.
The response to the speech, which Wagner describes as “uplifting” and “visionary,” was hugely positive. “Overwhelming applause,” said Representative Darrel Issa, of California, as he was leaving the meeting.
Ryan was the only one to speak at the meeting, Wagner says. She says that when Boehner introduced him, he said, “he’s been in the witness protection program now for a week, and we’re gonna hear from him.”
Though it wasn’t a night in which Ryan was making many concessions — aside from a nod that he was seriously considering taking a job he has said publicly he does not want — he also hinted strongly that he will not bring an immigration bill to the House floor. He told his colleagues the issue was simply “too divisive” and he wanted to focus on the things on which the conference is in agreement, like border security and internal enforcement, as opposed to a comprehensive bill.
Whether Ryan’s proposals will be enough to placate conservatives who have been clamoring for broader institutional reforms that would democratize the House remains to be seen.
Issa and Wagner say they did not see any opposition when Ryan concluded his speech, but in a conversation with National Review, Representative Tim Huelskamp, of Kansas, says he and others were “put off” by the “list of unmeetable conditions” Ryan had put forth, specifically his demand to repeal Thomas Jefferson’s motion to vacate the chair, which gives representatives the power to oust a sitting Speaker, as they did with Boehner.
“It was my understanding that Thomas Jefferson thought that was good for the House,” Huelskamp says, “and Paul Ryan thinks he doesn’t have to live by that?” Boehner’s failure, Huelskamp adds, was in his desire to “consolidate power,” and based on Ryan’s message, it seems he’s interested in doing the same thing.
“What Paul Ryan is asking for is even more power and less responsibility.” For Huelskamp, Ryan’s conditions, which also included “not traveling on weekends” and “not campaigning,” were “baffling.”
“The best thing I can assume is that he really doesn’t want the job,” he says. “You put forth a list of conditions that nobody is going to throw their weight behind, and force people to tell you ‘no,’ rather than the other way around . . . that’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”
Wagner saw it differently. Ryan seemed excited, not reluctant, she says, and said if he won the speakership, he would fully embrace the role.
“He said, ‘Hey, I’m in for a dime, I’m in for a dollar. I’m all in,’” she recounts.
Sorry, Adolph...not buying it!
The key to conservative victory is acting on all those areas of agreement within the GOP coalition and there are hundreds of areas of agreement. Keep winning yard by yard, issue by issue.
Nope. What matters now are the big issues like TPA/TPP, Obamacare and amnesty. And on those issues K Street and progressive GOPers are running the show. The lesser issues won’t matter if the country is fundamentally transformed by progressives.
[I’ll be happy to stay where I am at the Ways and Means Committee.”]
I think he really doesn’t want the job but he has been hounded and hounded to take it so he laid out his oppressive demands just to get them off his back.
I wonder why nobody from the Freedom Caucus has stepped up?
Because they are all talk. Jordan talks a big game, but then kisses Boehnor’s ring.
Look for him to lead the fold for that POS Ryan.
Webster’s House seat district has been realigned by a Federal Judge that pretty much makes it a solid Democrat District in 2016 which means he wont be around after the next election. Forget him as Speaker. I still like Marsha Blackburn(R)TN.
There is a civil war going on in the GOP. Ryan is demanding that everyone surrender.
But you don’t make demands from a position of weakness. Who or what does he know?
stepped up to what?
there is no one there with the stature to be elected speaker. it would be like graham or chafee running for president. there is just no there there
with the endorsement of the Heritage society, Rayan had a powerful backer. it seems, however, he can’t square the speakership with his family. if his wife said yes, we’ll come to DC, the problem would evaporate.
Because they couldn't get more than 40 votes. They can prevent someone from being elected speaker but they can't get one of their own elected.
Sounds good to me. Jason Chaffetz has apparently endorsed Ryan, too.
This could be a head fake, but maybe not.
I am troubled if it is true that Harry Reid the rubber band man has endorsed Ryan...but that could be spin, too.
stephen moore the spokesman for the heritage foundation and presumably jim demint approved Ryan
I thought Stephen Moore was Club for Growth.
he was billed as heritage foundation yesterday afternoon on Cavuto I believe
The fact he feels he can demand conditions tells me he is completely unqualified for the job and would be yet another GOPe disaster.
Those SOBs feel they can demand things of Republicans and set conditions, yet they completely fold and surrender when dealing with Democrats.
Go to H*ll Paul Ryan!!!
“But you don’t make demands from a position of weakness. Who or what does he know?”
His power is that the R’s stand a very good chance of not being able to elect a speaker.
I think the Freedom Caucus should stand firm. They don’t have the juice to elect a conservative. But they do have the power to force the RINO’s to be elected only by relying on D support. That would be a clarifying vote.
"Would you like some more tea, Polly Prissy Pants?"
I would bet that they will try to pass amnesty soon because they think that will take it away from Trump as an issue.
Feed him to the pigs!
As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, what Conservative accomplishments has Ryan enacted?
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