I forgot to add this. If it turns out that Boehner has done this to defeat Cruz and Co once and for all, I’ll take back everything I’ve ever said about him. (And it’s enough to choke a blue whale, believe me.) I’d do it gladly though, to see Cruz brought to heel.
Two real good reasons right there.
Well if experience isn’t important for the Presidency, it can’t be important for Speaker of the House. I nominate Trump.
More seriously, the problem with Kasich is that he’s already governor of Ohio. I’m not sure he would want to give both that and a shot at the Presidency up right now. Jindal is more intriguing, as Louisiana is a bit of a drag on his political fortunes.
My take though is that Ryan doesn’t want the (thankless) job, but he might respond to a draft. Though really (and weirdly) Newt is a decent choice. Like Cantor he has establishment, K Street and Tea Party connections. Unlike Cantor, he has the personality to feed the base the rhetoric and symbolic victories that it craves. He wasn’t an exceptional deal cutter, but he has a basic understanding of the job and may be the man for this particular season.
ETA: Also this:
That might not be quite as much as you think.
The difference is that Boehner has already put in his time, nearly 5 years of it, in this difficult position. He’s paid his dues; he’s got a right to say, fuck it, I’ve had enough. Especially given that he really was about to be pushed out by the Freedom Caucus: it’s hard to see his resignation as being anything but the best thing for him and for his party. It was his only way to stand up to them, really.
But while under normal circumstances I could buy into Ryan’s argument that it’s just not something he wants, sometimes that’s not the way it works.
He may not be cut out for the Speakership, but other than choosing someone who’s not even in the House (theoretically possible, but it would be a clear desperation play), who else is there? He may be the only House Republican who commands the respect of enough of his fellow members to get 218 votes.
Sometimes, even when you’re really not the right guy for the job, you’re still the best person available. (I have some recent personal experience with this that I won’t go into, fwiw.) And when that happens, you can step up, or you can be a dick. Those are Ryan’s choices right now.
Issa, Sensenbrenner, Price, Rohrabacher, off the top of my head, but Chaffetz is just fine.
Can’t speak knowledgeably about Sensenbrenner or Price, but Issa, Rohrabacher, and Chaffetz are (a) lunatics, and (b) wouldn’t have a prayer of getting enough support.
Chaffetz seems to be the most plausible guy left standing who is actually willing to take the job.
Holy fucking shit.
Things are worse than I thought, then, and I thought they were pretty bad.
“In the GOP leadership fight, I think Obama should arm the moderate rebels.”
-a tweet from Michael Dougherty.
(I don’t know who he is, but damn. :))
It looks like Issa wouldn’t mind the job. And according to Issa, Chaffetz could not get 30 votes, much less 200 and something.
It’s looking more like Paul Ryan.
But the morning joe pundits don’t seem to think anyone can make a real difference.
In the background, Sarah Palin clears her throat loudly…
Okay, maybe not Ryan as he has said no, NO, Hell NO.
Some folks seem to think Boehner will just stay for awhile longer and maybe even actually start doing his job. I don’t share their enthusiasm.
Of course! We should have guessed! It was all Trump’s doing.
Oh, and here I figured he talked to Pope Frank.
He doesn’t have to choose. 
The dick part has already been covered very well, with his budget proposals to gut Medicare and Social Security.
There *was *that Vice President thing, just a couple of years ago.
Does it serve *us *right too? It’s fun to point fingers and laugh, but they’re doing real harm, to us. However, if they won’t vote for anybody but one of their own, and nobody else would, then there can’t be a majority for *any *Republican without Democratic support. That’s when Ms. Pelosi goes to work, hmm?
As so many, including myself, have been saying for the last several years…the R’s are headed for a complete meltdown. A significant percent of their members are willing to keep the legislature from doing the things it takes to keep the country afloat (‘shut down’). They are saying, clearly, ‘give us exactly what we want, or we will stop the legislature from functioning. we don’t want compromise, we don’t want temporary extensions, we want what we want and you’d better deliver, or else.’
anyone actually disagree with my characterization of those wingers?
Okay, then what happens if they manage to paralyze the operation of the US government? Why, exactly what would happen in any government – the executive, with the consent of the courts, takes on the powers of the legislature. SCotus can do nothing else. There is no choice.
If Congress cannot act, we will get some form of dictatorship, a domestic one that will last so long as the military is paid, a military coup with the consent of the American Public if the executive lets things go to hell.
There is a certain poetic elegance to replacing a speaker who caused two government shutdowns with the last speaker to cause one.
Moderate R’s moving across the aisle and Moderate D’s can make it work. Lefties will have to measure their potential gains against the prospect of complete chaos…and go to work negotiating with the suddenly larger moderate wing of their party…
It occurs to me that Jon Stewart isn’t doing anything these days.
I hadn’t mentioned bringing in an ‘outsider’ lately. Probably too late for that. No one will get the full support of all the R’s, short of the moderate R’s threatening to caucus with the D’s.