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Pierce writes: "I'm no fan of the current Speaker, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, and he's transparently one of the worst legislative leaders in American history."

Representative Paul Ryan. (photo: Getty)
Representative Paul Ryan. (photo: Getty)


Let's Talk About This Alleged "Coup" Against Paul Ryan

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

08 September 17

 

s an observer of the successful, if eternally floundering, modern American right, I think my favorite stall on the midway is the one where everybody does constitutional cosplay, kitting themselves out mentally (and, now and then, literally) in tricorns and knee-breeches, as though they’re exhausted from a rough night knocking back fine madeira with Elbridge Gerry and Rufus King. For example, did you know that nothing in the Constitution says that the Speaker of the House of Representatives has to be an elected member of the House? So cool, right? Coolest beans there are. From The Washington Post:

Several influential House conservatives are privately plotting ways to use the legislative calendar this fall to push their hard-line agenda — including quiet discussions about possibly mounting a leadership challenge to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. The group has gone so far as to float the idea of recruiting former House speaker Newt Gingrich or former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum as potential replacements for Ryan (R-Wis.) should there be a rebellion. The Constitution does not require that an elected member of the House serve as speaker. While the chances that a non-House member could mount a credible threat to Ryan are exceedingly slim, the fact that the group has even toyed with the idea underscores their desire to create trouble for GOP leaders if they believe their demands are not being addressed.

Baby Jesus is not so much my amigo as actually to let this happen. N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of Civilization’s rules and leader (perhaps) of the civilizing forces, got run out of Congress on a rail by his own caucus the last time around. (Another, sturdier rail was found to carry his ego off behind him.) And Rick Santorum set standards for congressional friendlessness that were unsurpassed until the arrival of Tailgunner Ted Cruz. This dung-balloon that floated out of the Capitol on Thursday was so obviously crackers that Mark Meadows, the head of the Freedom Caucus whence the dung-balloon apparently was launched, spent most of Friday morning trying to knock it down. That this was partly a Steve Bannon production should surprise nobody. It’s exactly the kind of half-delusional, half-ham-fisted political maneuver that somebody like the last heir to House Harkonnen would try.

God knows, I’m no fan of the current Speaker, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, and he’s transparently one of the worst legislative leaders in American history. But a small sliver of a smidgen of a piece of a slice of that is the fact that he has a choir of loons for a caucus and a vast asylum of loons for a Republican base. That somebody even came up with this idea is prima facie evidence that somebody’s tricorn is on much too tight.


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