Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) office is denying reports that Ryan plans to resign in coming weeks, Ryan’s spokesperson AshLee Strong told TPM Tuesday.
“The speaker is not resigning,” Strong said.
Ryan’s office was responding Monday to comments from Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), who told a local news outlet on Monday that the “rumor mill” on Capitol Hill is suggesting that Ryan is “getting ready to resign in the next 30 to 60 days.” Amodei told the Nevada Newsmakers that Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) would be elected to replace him as speaker.
“Now that is interesting, because no one has talked to members on how they are going to vote,” Amodei said Monday. “Now, maybe they have talked to all of the members but me. I don’t know, so that is the rumor mill from last week.”
Scalise’s office has denied the claims as well, telling The Washington Examiner that Scalise “fully supports” Ryan as Speaker of the House.
Late last year, Ryan’s office also had to deflect rumors that he was planning to retire, which were perpetrated by reports from The Huffington Post and Politico that said Ryan wanted to serve as speaker through the end of his term and then leave Congress altogether.
Hard to say what’s going on here. On the one hand, if he leaves office before the expected mid-term bloodbath, he’d be in a better position to launch a primary challenge against Trump, if Trump is still planning on running in 2020. I think there’s a non-zero chance that he’ll declare “Mission Accomplished” and resign before then.
Anyway, back to Ryan.
On the other hand, while Ryan helped to get the tax cuts for rich folks and corporations bill passed, that’s only half of what most of us have suspected he wants to accomplish in office. The second half of his agenda is, of course, dismantling the social safety net. Charlie Pierce didn’t nickname him “The Zombie Eyed Granny Starver From the State of Wisconsin” for nothing.
So, to sum up, fuck Paul Ryan.
In a radio interview Ryan claimed he had once run a marathon in under three hours; he later stated that he forgot his actual time and was just trying to state what he thought was a normal time. His one official marathon time is recorded as slightly over four hours.
Courtesy Wiki
If Ryan resigns past the filing deadline, he is ceding his seat to the Democrats. But at this point, resigning at all is damn near the same thing. Because Randy Bryce’s campaign is for real, and has lots of money. Any republican coming into to replace Ryan is going to be a money disadvantage AND a name recognition disadvantage. Which is a horrible combination to have to face with just months to overcome.
And is Bryce wins, any retirement by Ryan will be viewed by the GOP as a surrender, and will plague him forever going forward in politics. It would also even be a problem going into lobbying…because a lot of GOP doors would stay permanently closed.
All that being said, I see the internal logic of “No more legislation this year, time is now to leave” makes sense. But I don’t think he will do it, if only because I don’t think he has the ability to self reflect and realize he is absolutely horrible at doing this job. The cost to him personally is too high to quit. Of course, losing to Bryce won’t help his ego much either, but rest of the GOP will get over that eventually.
That’s never going to happen. Ryan’s Presidential dreams died the moment he took up the gavel. Quitting now as Speaker makes it even more unrealistic. Every donor and big GOPer will lay the blame for the 2018 midterms squarely at Ryan’s feet if he quits.
EDIT TO ADD: One other key aspect that is being missed by this current articles. These rumors are coming from the GOP, not Dems. That’s not a good sign for Ryan even if he does stay on and somehow avoids losing to Bryce.
Paul Ryan’s theme song–sing to ‘My Favorite Things’
Starve the all the grannies and gut old folks’ health care,
Put lots more comp’nies on corp-o-rate welfare,
Cut up the safety net fast as I can,
This is all part of my Grand Master Plan.
Tax cuts for rich folks and drug tests for poor ones,
Gut all the ACA’s key regulations,
I will become a much wealthier man,
This is all part of my Grand Master Plan.
Democrats hoped that this all would unravel,
But I’m the one who is wielding the gavel.
My smile is smarmiest when Congress can
Pillage the country with my Master Plan!
With the tax cut, I’m now richer,
Loving all that cash!
I’d better retire so I can avoid
A loss to the Iron 'Stache.
Another Nevada rep starting a rumor? Sen. Dean Heller recently claimed that Justice Kennedy was going to retire this summer.