Or you can’t admit you’re wrong. How Trumpish.
For example … ?
Maybe not his strenuous efforts to keep the working poor from having access to health insurance; that* can’t *be what you mean.
I don’t even know what you think I’m wrong about. Did I pee in your cornflakes?
Again, Ryan has not faced a difficult political situation. He’s facing a really easy political situation. If he’s finding it difficult, that’s just evidence that he’s really incompetent at politics.
The problem for Ryan and other veterans in the GOP is, it’s not clear that they have the support of the mega donors. There has been considerable talk that Ryan would have been facing a primary challenger this year, and even if he were to stave that off threat to his political career for another election cycle, it’s not clear if Republicans want him back as Speaker. At this point, he probably figures, he’s done all he can do. I’m not sure Ryan’s doing this because he fears a blue wave as much as he fears that he’s about to get fragged by his own soldiers.
Yeah, I disagree with him on his Randian, (currently denied Randian) approach to economics.
However, Ryan’s failure to stand up to Trump on Trump’s dishonest attempts to bar selected Muslims (those with whom he has no business dealings) in order to appeal to the mob that Trump courted) and Ryan’s description of poor people as “takers” and Ryan’s (admittedly tepid) support for the Mexican wall boondoggle along with numerous similar events remove Ryan from any list of “fine” people.
“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.” - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)
At least his tenure as speaker did a little to expose what a fraud he always was. Remember when the line was that he was this great genius and policy wonk? (Then there was that period, not that long ago actually, where he got people drinking some kool aid about how he just cared so much about eradicating poverty and his life’s mission was going to be helping the poor.)
No no, you got it backward. It was his mission to help *poverty *and eliminate the poor.
If Republican congresscritters from purplish districts are the casualties this November, his replacement will most likely be worse.
Nancy Pelosi? No, I kinda like her.
Brilliant!
Not really. He never wanted to be Speaker of the House and only accepted it to keep the Republican cohort from splintering (further) into warring factions. Now he can spend a couple of free years drumming up funds for his run for POTUS while he hopes that the short public memory will not link him to the current disaster come 2020.
This is why it’s a good idea to QUOTE the post you’re (the general “you”) replying to. Avoids this sort of “nyah-nyah” stuff. Only takes one extra keystroke to do that. Carry on.
Emphasis added.
It is futile to use the word “cognizant” when referring even obliquely to thump’s…um… process. “Cognizant” isn’t even in the room.
Late to the party, but joining the crowd gleefully dancing on Ryan’s political grave. (Note to tomndebb: his campaign for President won’t go far, assuming it ever gets started.) Not only was he an avid screw-the-poor, shovel-money-at-the-rich Republican, but the media had bought into his story that he was a deficit hawk and budget wonk, neither of which was true. Good riddance to bad rubbish. ETA: now he’s free to spend more time with his collection of Ayn Rand novels.
And kudos to IronStache, aka Randy Bryce, the Democratic candidate for Ryan’s House seat. He’s raised a ton of money, and apparently Ryan’s polling wasn’t looking great. It’s not clear how much having to put up a serious fight just to keep his House seat affected his decision to call it quits, but it couldn’t have hurt. 
I did do that.
ISTM that you’re playing it both ways here. You’re correct that Congress is a co-equal branch of government, but that works in reverse too. The president has certain powers that are his by constitutional right. Most of what people seem to be complaining about (WRT Ryan’s approach to dealing with Trump) is that Ryan didn’t use his power in Congress to trump Trump’s presidential power.
Beyond that, while it’s true from a constitutional standpoint that the congress and president have delineated powers, the reality is that the president has traditionally been accepted as the leader of his party, and this has a force of its own.
And further beyond that, the fact is that Trump continues to have considerable support from Republican members of congress and from the Republican electorate. Ryan, unlike Trump, was not elected by the people to a set term from which he could only be removed by impeachment. He was elected by the House, and could be removed at their pleasure. He simply didn’t have the ability to disregard the opinions of his colleagues and (by extension) the voters.
Per your own quote, those Republicans were simply messengers informing Nixon “that his support in Congress had all but disappeared”. It’s not like Nixon’s support in Congress disappeared because Goldwater et al bent Congress to their will. Nixon’s support disappeared, and these congresspeople recognized it one step ahead of Nixon, that’s all. That’s not at all comparable to the current situation, where Trump’s support has (unfortunately) not disappeared.
So you’re saying, we shouldn’t blame Ryan; we should instead blame the members of Congress? I hate to break it to you, but that’s what Ryan is (a position to which he was, in fact, elected to for a set term and from which he can’t be removed early, just like you said he wasn’t).