You see the news in our feature story that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) just sort of announced his candidacy for the Speakership. We’ll have more reported details shortly. But the gist is he’s going to try to turn the dynamic of the GOP caucus on its head. I emphasize, try.
Ryan is saying he’ll accept the Speakership if all the major factions agree to his terms. So he’s trying to make it something he accepts rather than runs for, as it were. Everyone has to agree to his terms rather than getting each faction’s buy-in by agreeing to their terms and then trying to make all those hopelessly conflicting demands function together.
House Republicans seem so desperate for Ryan at this point that I think there’s a good chance he can do it on the front end. It seems decidedly more dubious that he can make it work over time. The real division is between those who want traditional legislative practice and those who embrace government by shutdown. It’s not clear to me that division has been settled or submerged. But we’ll see.
