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The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

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Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Paul Ryan should say no because once you become speaker of the house you become the magnet for all of the attacks from the other side. You have half the country who sees you as the lead a hole.

Now, if you do a **** job and you're that young, it also means you have a good chunk of your own side who hates you too.

It's a political dead end.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

dxmnkd316 said:
Paul Ryan should say no because once you become speaker of the house you become the magnet for all of the attacks from the other side.
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You also own every piece of legislation that Congress passes, and are associated with Congress inextricably. Why would Ryan do that with a Congress that has roughly the same favorables as genital warts?

I believe POTUS said the last Speaker to go on to the presidency was Polk.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Dick Cheney for Speaker.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), just one year removed from the House, was asked for his thoughts about the tumult in the chamber in which he used to serve. The far-right senator responded with his choice for the next Speaker.

“Look, these are trying times for our nation,” Cotton told Politico. “It’s important to have a steady hand on the helm during times like this. I think experience really counts in a matter like this. I think House leadership experience really matters. And as you know the Speaker doesn’t have to be a member of the House: So therefore, Vice President Cheney for Speaker.”
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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-...aker-cheney-gets-endorsement?cid=sm_fb_maddow
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

If Ryan was smart (a big IF), he'd play it like this....

1) Convey the impression that he's super reluctantly taking the job. Complete with a dramatic floor speech on the House floor ("I serve" or something like that). Agree to take job only if given free reign to do what you want while secretly making deal with Freedom Caucus nutters to advance their agenda.

2) Pledge to only serve until election day. Will not serve during lame duck session, thus giving party two months to find new leader or interim person. Lots of bipartisan deals are cut during the lame duck session, and he doesn't want his grubby fingerprints on them.

3) Turn around and screw Freedom Caucus nutters by tacitly allowing discharge petitions for controversial items like debt limit and budget. Again, hands are clean if 20 rogue Goopers (wink wink) side with dastardly Dems to fund Planned Parenthood. Amazed the Boner never figured out how to do this, although in his defense he was probably too loaded to think straight most of the time.

So, what's the end result? Ryan gets gold plated press coverage from lamestream media desperate to find a non-crazy Republican to latch onto in a futile attempt not to be labeled as bias. New York Times will send their best bootlickers to fawn over the guy. Big bucks campaign contributors owe him as well for keeping the graft flowing their way. Nutters are peeved that he screwed them, but his hands are clean as there's no direct connection to him when gubmint funding gets passed. All this comes in handy if he ever makes another run for national office.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Rover said:
Nutters are peeved that he screwed them, but his hands are clean as there's no direct connection to him when gubmint funding gets passed. All this comes in handy if he ever makes another run for national office.
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Problem is, the plan fails because when he screws the nutters he loses any chance at a future nomination. The Freedom Caucus is radioactive -- it kills you if you're anywhere near it, whether you're pro or con. The only way for a Republican to preserve his chance at a future nomination is to lay low, never be on record actually opposing any of the delusions the Crazies have, and wait for the fever to break.

There has never been a better time to be a nondescript backbencher.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Kepler said:
Problem is, the plan fails because when he screws the nutters he loses any chance at a future nomination. The Freedom Caucus is radioactive -- it kills you if you're anywhere near it, whether you're pro or con. The only way for a Republican to preserve his chance at a future nomination is to lay low, never be on record actually opposing any of the delusions the Crazies have, and wait for the fever to break.

There has never been a better time to be a nondescript backbencher.
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Kep, the fever isn't going to break. That's the difference between our views on the Republican party and conservatives. Nutters are the majority. Ryan and whoever wins the nomination needs to play chess while Freedom Caucus is playing checkers. While allowing discharge petitions to occur, Ryan could parlay that into a call for electing even crazier Republicans via the primaries thus making him look good to the crazies. Mind you this wouldn't work if the Senate was controlled by Dems but with Itch in charge through next year the House can accept Senate budget bills as is since they're hardly going to be flaming liberal in nature. That's also why he needs to make his time as Speaker short, sweet, and finite. Get the party over this crisis, collect your chits for doing so, then get the hell out of Dodge before the sh !t hits the fan.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Rover said:
Kep, the fever isn't going to break.
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It's already breaking. A decade ago David Frum and Andrew Sullivan were all alone out on the edges of the Republican solar system, and whenever they spoke truth to crazy the entire party rose up against them as apostates. Now, one third of the GOP is actively calling another third loonies. Peter Freaking King is talking about "the fever swamps" and Republican congressmen are unapologetically talking about the "governing wing" of the party.

A decade ago the most hated public face of the Republican party was the embodiment of the establishment. Now it's the embodiment of the insurgency.

The ledge is crumbling.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Just because you're not as nutty and the nuttiest nut in the caucus doesn't make you sane. Paul Ryan is not a moderate. Neither is Peter Lets Jail All Muslims King. No, they may not be in Goehmert territory but who gives a fvk? If 90% of your positions are pure lunacy, how many points are you supposed to get for not going along with the remaining 10% that Steve King and Michelle Bachmann support? If you're in the media, a lot. For the rest of us, you get zero credit.

Not sure what your profession is, but if you said "I work for CNN" I wouldn't be surprised one bit. ;)
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Rover said:
Just because you're not as nutty and the nuttiest nut in the caucus doesn't make you sane. Paul Ryan is not a moderate. Neither is Peter Lets Jail All Muslims King. No, they may not be in Goehmert territory but who gives a fvk? If 90% of your positions are pure lunacy, how many points are you supposed to get for not going along with the remaining 10% that Steve King and Michelle Bachmann support? If you're in the media, a lot. For the rest of us, you get zero credit.

Not sure what your profession is, but if you said "I work for CNN" I wouldn't be surprised one bit. ;)
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That's getting a little tired, particularly when I see everything you're arguing on the "Democratic-but-not-liberal" articles that Politico allows themselves to link to.

The point about the fracture in the GOP is our opinion of it means squat. The point is it's now Republicans themselves who are eating their young, and the situation is excellent. The adults allowed the children to run around screaming with no supervision because when it came time for decisions Mommy and Daddy still had complete control. But now the children have tied Mommy and Daddy to a stake, piled up the hay, and have lit a torch.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

joecct said:
Newt. He works well with an opposition administration. He's probably smarter and more politically intelligent than any of the buffoons currently in the GOP Leadership.

And he's indicated that if nominated he'll run.
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And if they pick him or Cheney it gives Hillary a clean shot to the White House.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

ScoobyDoo said:
And if they pick him or Cheney it gives Hillary a clean shot to the White House.
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Regardless of how this all plays out for the Speakership, the White House stays D, the House of Reps stays R, and the Senate is up for grabs, perhaps a slight R advantage due to incumbency preferences.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

St. Clown said:
Regardless of how this all plays out for the Speakership, the White House stays D, the House of Reps stays R, and the Senate is up for grabs, perhaps a slight R advantage due to incumbency preferences.
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This is true if we get a 2016 electorate that looks like the 2012 electorate. Which we ought to, but you never know.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

St. Clown said:
Regardless of how this all plays out for the Speakership, the White House stays D, the House of Reps stays R, and the Senate is up for grabs, perhaps a slight R advantage due to incumbency preferences.
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If Hillary wins the White House then the Senate flips. R has a big issue with the Senate elections this year. They're defending everywhere. And from what I heard the Dems are getting their top picks for candidates to run in those swing state Senate elections.
 
ScoobyDoo said:
If Hillary wins the White House then the Senate flips. R has a big issue with the Senate elections this year. They're defending everywhere. And from what I heard the Dems are getting their top picks for candidates to run in those swing state Senate elections.
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Remember, the 2010 tea party wave senators are up for re-election next year. There are a lot of swing states with not so moderate senators up for re-election. A normal presidential turnout will kick some of them to the curb, even if it's not a "wave" election.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

unofan said:
Remember, the 2010 tea party wave senators are up for re-election next year. There are a lot of swing states with not so moderate senators up for re-election. A normal presidential turnout will kick some of them to the curb, even if it's not a "wave" election.
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The 6/4 asymmetry makes it interesting, since each Senate class elected in an off cycle then has to defend in an on cycle, and vice versa.
 
Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

ScoobyDoo said:
David Brooks hammers the GOP. Great OP ED.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/o...tence-caucus.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&src=me&_r=0
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The two things that kept echoing through my head while I read that were:

1) This is the first remotely competent piece of writing David Brooks has authored in a decade, and

2) You know who enabled and carried water for these anti-intellectual, self-important "revolutionaries" all these years? His initials are D.B.

BTW, if anyone is interested in pursuing Brooks' thesis further, it could be called "Russell Kirk For Dummies." Here's the original, one of the two (along with Michael Oakeshott) most intellectually fascinating and brilliant voices of genuine conservatism -- which hasn't been seen in the US since William F. Buckley lost the struggle for right wing intellectual supremacy to the nattering nabobs of Neoconservatism.
 
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Re: The 114th Congress: How Low Can They Go?

Kepler said:
The two things that kept echoing through my head while I read that were:

1) This is the first remotely competent piece of writing David Brooks has authored in a decade, and

2) You know who enabled and carried water for these anti-intellectual, self-important "revolutionaries" all these years? His initials are D.B.
Click to expand...


And that's why Krugman took him out to the woodshed and beat him silly.
 
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