Politics –
Paul Ryan Should Not Be Speaker

After initially claiming to be uninterested in the job, Republican congressman and former Mitt Romney running mate Paul Ryan now says he is a candidate to become Speaker of the House.  This could potentially be the worst political decision of his career.

Politics
Indeed, ascending to the top job in the House of Representatives would give Paul Ryan a high-profile platform and would make him second in line to the President of the United States, but it could also mark the end of his political career.  Here’s why.

The Speaker of the House post is one of the most powerful jobs in Washington. However, only James K. Polk went on to become president — and that was way back in 1845.  A quick look into the history books will show that the careers of former speaker’s have often ended in controversy or defeat, driven from power by either voters or fellow party members. Just consider Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert and John Boehner, to name a few.

The Republican Party is broken. It consists of so many “party’s-within-a-party,” including the Tea Party, pragmatists versus idealists and other groups with varying degrees of conservativeness, that they are rarely unified.  In fact, the GOP is often at odds with itself. Speaker Boehner spent years fending off cantankerous members within his fractured party since his tenure began in 2011. Realizing he could never please all of the people all of the time, Boehner was driven from power, just like so many before him.

Now, “The Boy Wonder” Paul Ryan has surfaced, insisting that he wouldn’t run for the job unless the entire Republican caucus united behind him. After a closed-door “Come-To-Jesus” meeting late last week between the House Freedom Caucus, the Republican Study Committee and the “Tuesday group” of House GOP moderates and, after Republicans realized they are leaderless and void of direction, GOP members reached a half-hearted conclusion that Paul Ryan may be their best, if not only hope.

In announcing his candidacy, Ryan laid out a bold set of conditions, including rules changes that would make it more difficult to overthrow a sitting speaker, which riled up conservative factions within the caucus.

“We have to remember everything in the House and everything in Congress is about checks and balances,”Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho and a leader of the Freedom Caucus said. “We have two houses of Congress for that reason. We have three branches of government for that reason, and one of the reasons that every board has the freedom to vacate (the chair).”

Ryan also insisted that he be allowed to spend time with his family instead of work on weekends, which irked some members.

“You can’t do the job 9-5, Monday through Friday,” Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas said. “The speaker has to work on weekends. I’m not running for speaker, I’ve got young kids at home. … The time commitment is not 40 hours a week.”

The fact that Ryan is still standing after his list of demands shows just how desperate for leadership the Republicans truly are.  It also resets the countdown clock for how long before the party faithful grow weary of him.

“I never thought I’d be speaker,” Ryan said in a statement to his colleagues. “But I pledged to you that if I could be a unifying figure, then I would serve — I would go all in. After talking with so many of you, and hearing your words of encouragement, I believe we are ready to move forward as a one, united team. And I am ready and eager to be our speaker.”

Um, yeah…good luck with that one, Paul.

Politics
Republican bullies just ran Speaker John Boehner out of office, so what makes Paul Ryan so optimistic that his tenure would miraculously be any different?  Should he be elected (as expected), Ryan would be thrown into a longstanding and ever-growing Republican civil war that he has largely managed to avoid so far. He would also be forced to take personal responsibility for difficult and polarizing decisions and be charged with the impossible task of keeping his party together.

Can it be done?  It hasn’t been so far.

If elected, Speaker Ryan would immediately face a painful vote on raising the U.S. government’s debt ceiling. With the country’s borrowing authority due to run out early next month, Ryan would also face the wrath of investors, veterans and retirees should Congress fail to promptly boost the debt limit.  However, agreeing to do so without winning significant concessions from the Obama administration would almost assuredly infuriate the varying factions of conservative lawmakers and interest groups within the party.

Speaker Ryan would also become the face of an institution that is so unpopular, only 14% of U.S. adults look on it favorably (according to an August 2015 Gallup poll). Further, should Speaker Ryan ever consider making a run for the White House, he should know that historically, congress has not been an ideal launch pad for the presidency.  In fact, President Obama is a rare exception and is just 1 of only 3 U.S. politicians to go directly from the Senate to the White House.

A rising Republican star, the 45-year-old congressman from Wisconsin initially resisted pressure from Republican colleagues to succeed Speaker Boehner. Now, it appears empty promises from Republican lawmakers that they’ll play nice has convinced Ryan he will be a unifier and is just what the GOP has been waiting for.

Oh, poor and naïve Paul. How long before the GOP wolves turn on you too?

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Paul Ryan should not be House Speaker.
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