Well, if this insurrection from within the GOP is what stymies our nation's march toward fascism, I'll take it.
1
Paul Ryan is a toothless tiger. He chose to ride the back of another tiger...only to end up inside.
3
Sooner the better for our country to get rid of the cruelest speaker of the house. To save his job, he has been trying his best to please Trump and became a pet. He did big favor to the super rich , corporations and the wall street. They will take care of him and his family forever. He is a selfish hypocrite whose obligation has been only to his donors and not to his voters. Good riddance very soon.
4
No love lost with Paul Ryan....Good Riddance is correct! He and McConnell did such a Machiavellian disservice to the American people!
4
Ryan and the rest of the republicans are up to their necks in the Trump toilet. Their comeuppance is on the way. Listen to the gurgling screams when they and their preening president are all flushed. Oh, happy days.
4
Compromise
In exchange for giving current DACA recipients the right to work here, all other undocumented immigrants should be kept from working here. There are so many of them that they have pushed down the wages of our lowest paid citizens and legal immigrants. (Harvard economist George Borjas found that they are depressing wages by 8%) The undocumented have also displaced many of our citizens and legal immigrants from the workforce. (eg. Borjas also found that the rate of Black employment decreases as the number of undocumented workers increases.) We have tens of thousands of unemployed citizens and legal immigrants who have been out of work for so long that they are no longer counted in the official unemployment figure. Instead of spending billions to subsidize the undocumented, we could be using that money to help our own citizens and legal immigrants. Congress could require all employers to use “e-verify” to quickly and easily learn which individuals are allowed to work here. Any employer who does not use it could be first warned, and then given increasingly higher fines. With the exception of the DACA recipients, illegal migrants would not be able to find work, and would self-deport. Once they have left, NGO's in their home countries could apply to us for grants to help improve matters there. It would cost us less to help people in their own countries which would let us focus more resources on our citizens and on legal immigrants.
He should resign
4
For his retirement they are buying him a spine.
6
Ryan has contributed to the destruction of our republican form of government through sheer negligence and lack of character. He thought he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, but it turned out to be just his vanity and ego.
11
Can't wait until he unveils the statue of Ayn Rand in Janesville, Wisconsin: a young boy Paul Ryan sitting at her feet and gazing up to her. What a hollow idol. Be happy, you failed statesman, that you can retire early, while denying it to others. Turn up the headbanger music, and reminisce the pain of your teen years. When you mourned your father's death, admired Reagan, collected Social Security, and were sure that Atlas Shrugged provided answers for the rest of us too.
10
Well put.
3
He may easily become the least effective and least liked Speaker in our country's history.
6
If Paul Ryan worked in the private sector, he would have been fired a long time ago. I have never cared for Paul Ryan because from the beginning I knew he was a liar.
Here is how: several years ago he claimed he had run a marathon (26.2 miles/42 kilometers) in under three hours. I used to be a very serious distance runner and have broken the three hour mark twice. I know it takes a lot of hard work, and he was never a serious runner. Outside of perhaps a collegiate running career and awesome genetics, I didn't believe him for a second; neither did thousands of other distance runners. And we were proven right because Ryan was forced to admit he had never come close to the goal he claimed he had achieved. Some may think I am being a little silly, but...
Someone who lies about their sport's accomplishments will lie about anything. Moving forward I believed nothing he said, and for the last almost 18 months I have been proven correct.
Ryan claimed he was for fiscal responsibility. Ryan claimed he was for the rule of law. Ryan initially said he could not support Trump, but then did; and has continued to do in shameless fashion. He has not been true to the oath he took as an elected representative. I could go on and on here.
In other words, Paul Ryan has been and alway will be just an empty suit who, like the president and so many other politicians, will say whatever helps him in the minute.
Good riddance.
11
I am not going to spend any time empathizing for Paul Ryan. His aim was to hurt the poor, and humiliate minorities, and to a large degree he has succeeded. Maybe he will now learn a little of the suffering he has inflicted on others.
6
Ryan will probably squeak through to the end, but his words are moot, his effectiveness diminished almost completely. This young upstart way back when arrogantly took his seat in the House with Atlas Shrugged as his bible and Ayn Rand as his prophetess. I was no fan of Boehner, but he had enough foresight and experience to understand that the GOP was splitting into so many divergent directions that it was akin to "herding cats." Let's remember too that Ryan's main focus in politics was tax reform. Well, how is that turning out, sir? Have you noticed the profits lately among big business and financial institutions while we get diddly-squat?
Most importantly, during the next few months we Democrats need to unite to retake the House. It is within our reach. Let us not split hairs as to who is the more conservative or the more progressive. Democratic candidates throughout this nation must heed the needs and philosophies of their constituents. What works in the Left Coast does not work in the Mid-West and certainly the South. Respect our candidates agenda. They know their people.
4
While I agree that Paul Ryan is in a tough spot: I would hope the NYT would also place a spotlight on Pelosi and Schumer.
Younger Democrats are getting quite tired of these older pols getting in the way of a vigorous push for a stronger democratic agenda.
The Democrats need to be clear about what they stand for and not merely be an opposition party. New leadership in the House and Senate will be a step in the right direction in achieving this goal!
1
I guess Karma does really exist. Paul Ryan's legacy will include how ineffective he was in Congress, and of how he got out with his pension while the getting was good.
He is a hypocrite, and anyone who idolizes Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and of the Value of Selfishness has no business being in the governing business.
Good riddance, Paul. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
35
In re-reading my post, I meant to write the Virtue of Selfishness.
1
Thanks to the spineless Ryan the American concept of three co-equal branches of government no longer exists. It's all Trump's show now — Congress has been rendered meaningless because of Ryan and his Senate co-weasel McConnell.
16
the path forward:
just tell the truth when you use words - even it means burying your crazy colleagues in a mountain of their self-generated barnyard waste.
9
Paul Ryan should become an undertaker in his retirement. He has harmed and helped people die with his tax for the poor, his hatred of people of color and his damage to DACA. As a fellow Wisconsinite I am ashamed of him and the evil he has done.
16
Paul Ryan may be allowed to serve (really?) the rest of his speakership but his presence has become irrelevant, with a republican congress in disarray and totally complicit with Trump's misrule, and as his doctrine of cruelty towards the poor will follow him relentlessly; as well as being a con man even as he tried to appear knowledgeable in finance. His tax cuts for the wealthy corporate world is proof of his recklessness. And his current support of Davin Nunez to create havoc in the Justice Department is another vile interference with the rule of law. And with decency. Good riddance Paul, even though your miserable seat seems safe for now. Enough of self-serving politicians, too arrogant for their own good.
18
Ryan is a SHILL to the party. The GOP are not about looking out for you and me, and they have not been in decades. They play the patriotism card as they steal more and more from their supporters and funnel the cash toward efforts to ease such things as RESPONSIBLE environmental regulations while bolstering the weapons industry by stirring up trouble abroad. They are a cancer upon us.
10
Another rubber check writing foul minded ex-citizen of the great state of Wisconsin. He deserves no pension, no publicly paid for by taxes benefits for robbing our country of its integrity.
7
By not stopping -- actually enabling -- House Intel. Comm. Chair Nunes from reporting to another branch of gov't (the presidency) by carrying messages from his "secret" committee to the WH and back again, Ryan undermined his own Constitutional authority as Speaker. Supported by the alt-right and the Freedom Caucus, Nunes has led the anti-democratic attack on both the separation of powers and the critical checks and balances allowing Trump to bully all three branches of gov't.
5
Seems that the important take-away from this piece is not that Ryan is a craven sycophant -- we knew that already -- but the extent to which the GOP is on board with the Trump agenda. Governance is the least of their interests. They are determined to protect the president, destroy democracy, discredit journalism and the rule of law, and vanquish their opponents.
This is a coup.
9
Forging consensus among House Republicans may be an impossible undertaking, but Ryan gets no sympathy for allowing himself to be recruited to the job.
He is most often spineless, yet has the gall to consider himself an individual of principle. The image that always pops into my head is of him campaigning for VP on the Romney ticket, insisting on washing an already clean pot in a homeless shelter because, well, photo op.
That Ryan has been branded the intellectual of the GOP speaks volumes about how bereft of brains that party actually is.
11
As Bill Shakespeare put it: " Do not stay on the ceremony of your going but go at once."
7
When the blue wave comes, Ryan won't know what hit him. He and Trump are a cut of the same cloth. They both take pride in their ability to fool the people
6
Couldn't of happened to a nicer guy. I wish the Speaker well in his retirement from politics. I hope he has a nice comfy chair from which to watch the implosion of the Congressional party he headed but refused to lead. And may he get some good, solid reading done too (ps - Ayn Rand was a fiction writer and an atheist, Mr Speaker).
8
Ryan has certainly demonstrated how complicit he is in the Trump debacle and destruction of our democracy, preferring his own self interest and the GOP self interest over their sworn duties to our country. No better outcome than the complete implosion of the Republicans and their sick agenda -- one that only confirms their contempt for this country and the democratic ideals we supposedly (and perhaps mythically) stand for. Along with McConnell and Nunes, this trinity of complicity will long be remembered as the "bought" leaders of the Koch's, Mercer's, Murdoch, and Ailes. Good riddance...
7
Nancy Pelosi was right. She said if Paul Ryan were a woman they'd be calling her the worst speaker ever.
8
It's kind of funny. There was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over unseating Boehner and realizing that Republicans had no one to replace him. This led to their begging Ryan to take his post.
Now the Republican House is in the same situation. They should realize that they will *always* have a problem with *any* Republican Speaker, because the problem lies fundamentally with their members, not in whom they select as their leader.
23
Republicans are simply unfit to govern: we have a Speaker whose highest aim (now realized) means that our country will descend into debt the size of our GDP at the expense of the middle class while corporations and the wealthy profit heedlessly (little care they about Social Security and Medicare). We have a President who can't make a deal to save his soul, spills bile out at minorities, has managed to alienate most of our allies, will eventually bring financial ruin to his own voters, and has no respect for the law. This isn't a circus or a farce, it's a tragedy and we're living through it right now.
37
Reap what you sow.
Ryan was front and center on "The Party of NO!"
He thought that was good fun.
That was almost 10 years ago.
Today, the Republicans still scream, "NO!", only they do it in each other's faces.
The "Freedom Caucus" is the logical extension to the Tea Party and Libertarianism. No, no, no!
Tax money to rich: Good!
Tax money to poor: Bad!
Ryan has been preaching that for years.
When he's gone, there will be a "new one".
That new "One" will be equally as ignorant,
equally as mean,
and even LESS civil.
Isn't 40 Years in the Republican Wilderness enough?
15
Paul Ryan isn't perfect by a long shot. But, have you looked at Pelosi, Schumer, Sanders, Warren, Holder (I know he's gone, but not.)? When is the Dem party going to come to the table with reason, with evidence, and with a willingness to NOT be abducted by the far left?
Yes, I have looked at the people you mention. I've looked at the way they stand up for equal treatment for all Americans, I've looked at their backing of affordable health care and education, at their support for clean air and water. I've looked and I've voted and will continue to do so.
26
I suppose it'll happen when the Republican Party comes to the table with reason and has a willingness not to be abducted by the far Right.
10
"When is the Dem party going to come to the table with reason, with evidence, and with a willingness to NOT be abducted by the far left?"
Considering the debacles the GOP has created ALL ON ITS OWN you are hardly qualified to be pointing fingers at any other party,like the collapse of the recent Farm Bill, the whole issue of immigration, ObamaCare, the republican "tax cut" bill that will soon be an anvil around our necks. The list of republican missteps is endless.
9
Paul Ryan is an incompetent company man and a racist who thinks black men are lazy and that is why they are unemployed. It has never occurred to him that black men suffer grievous discrimination as do Mexicans.
He came from a poor Wisconsin family as did I and he should understand poverty and discrimination better than he does. He should have helped his people. But no he helped pass a tax law to punish the poor
Let’s hope this man who has forgotten his roots never runs for any public office again.
17
I agree with your criticism of Ryan, but he did not come from a poor family. His father owned a construction company and Ryan was absolutely middle class, tilting into upper middle class.
3
Congressional republicans are a complete waste.
They are devoid of ideas and actions other than to cower to their 0.1% owners and Trump's madness.
Ryan who is/was supposedly a conservative idea man is an empty shell. I'm sure he'll be a highly successful lobbyist.
12
Frankly, I really don't care what happens to Paul Ryan, so long as it's bad. He likely will go down as the worst House Speaker of the modern era, which is saying something, considering Gingrich, Hastert, Frist, who would also be in the running for the award of "Worst Ever."
17
Paul Ryan's legacy will be his cowardice and hypocrisy.
18
And his lies. The clean dishes at the soup kitchen that he pretended to wash, his marathon time etc.
5
His proudest achievement is taking people's healthcare insurance and adding $2 trillion to the debt he had previously railed against in order to give 83% of the recent GOP tax scheme to Trump, his wealthy friends and corporate interests. I do not wish him good fortune in his future.
29
Ryan is a cheap hack on the take from his true masters, the Koch brothers and their anti American cohorts....how can anyone take an adult who publicly claims to admire Ayn Rand seriously?...and they call I'm an intellectual...what a joke.
7
Spot on! Raise the debt, tax breaks for the 1%, constantly bellowing and rumbling to end/destroy Social Security and Medicare. His delusional version of reality re: how average Americans live and struggle clearly demonstrates it is time to put him on an iceberg, with zero future "entitlement" $$. Give him what he espouse for all, no Social Security, Medicare nor pension for his many years of non productive "service". Maybe a national holiday: "No more Paul Ryan" day of celebration is in order
2
Since the piece mentions Dems leery of Ms Pelosi, even though unbidden advice is not often welcome-
Perhaps that time bomb could be defused if she announced this will be her last run for her seat. She could even say that she would leave this time around BUT... the situation is too dire and she has the skill set to flip the House, a second time, so...2020 will be her farewell.
I understand it is hard to step away, but the farfar better thing calls... no sharp edge involved...
1
Paul Ryan made this bed and now he has to sleep in it. He has helped spread the misinformation that gets the far right revved up. He pretended to agree to allow an immigration bill to reach the floor.
His problem was and continues to be his delusion that he only represents the people who voted for him and not the rest of us. He could have gotten impressive legislation through if he had worked with the highly skilled Nancy Pelosi, but instead he played like a four year old who owned the football.
I hope the Republicans do pick another speaker, then the Democrats will be able to use him In negative campaigns (their Republicans so I am sure it won't be a woman.)
I hope Democratic candidates will skip the anti Pelosi trap. She is a highly motivated and intelligent representative who deserves to be back as Speaker.
22
He could do something that might help his legacy. It would require courage. He could push for legislation that benefits the majority of the population regardless of political party affiliation. DACA is one possibility. Health care is probably too much to hope for. What the parties seem to ignore is if there is enough support on an issue, a veto can be overridden.
I can dream he has a conscience.
5
Don't hold your breath!
Paul Ryan is a phantom of a human being.
His public policy ideal is tax cuts for millionaires paid for with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and the ACA.
He loved Ayn Rand his entire life before pretending to reject her in 2012 when his Randism became public.
He is a fake Catholic who paints the toenails of the rich.
Begone forever, fake, phony, fraudulent whited sepulcher Paul Ryan.
You disgrace humanity.
58
He sets a poor example as a so-called Catholic.
Like most of the so-called Catholics I know all too well.
6
People always thought one day we can create a new political party and expand politics beyond the two-party system: the greens, the Libertarians, Constitution party, etc.
But at least in America, it must be impossible to engineer such a thing beyond merely coming up with the idea and filing papers because there has never been a third political party of any substance.
But here folks is where we see how the natural political forces do it, guided perhaps by an invisible hand akin to how we understand market forces.
We will not ever get the third political party we want by trying to create one, no matter how many times we try, however it appears we're gonna get one whether or not we like the result.
2
This GOP darling, "leader" - NOT - needs to go as soon as possible so let the GOP fight between themselves and drive him out.
Paul Ryan is a wunderkind fantasy that the GOP embraced based upon nothing. Paul Ryan does the bidding of paymasters from the Koch Brothers on down the chain. Good riddance.
12
Ryan is a failed leader. His Congress became a Band of Cowards who refused to safeguard checks and balances and rule of law.
History will not be kind to Paul Ryan.
39
For the good of the country, the spineless Ryan should quit immediately. His complicity with the Trump disgrace is inexcusable.
19
He has not done his job for the last several years. He is only staying on to fatten this federal pension, a benefit he denies to other public employees, the Americans who actually work.
11
I don't care whether he survives it or not. I am just grateful that his legacy will bear the black mark he so richly deserves. He betrayed his oath and protected an openly corrupt president. The history will be written one day, and when it is, it will name him along with every one of his traitorous Republican colleagues. Paul Ryan didn't do a single positive thing to help America or Americans. He was a reckless, destructive force, and a man without character or honor.
28
...and we taxpayers have paid him well all this time to not represent the best interests of the American people. He is nothing but an unethical paid hack on the take from the Koch brothers.
4
Who cares? Mr. Ryan has clearly shown "who he is" and "what he stands for". If he cared about the country over party, over pacifying his right wing liars, and his lying president, this article would have meaning, but, as written, it is a waste of ink and paper. Hope his sycophants enjoy their 'Republican only' intel briefing, it will be leaked before the day is out likely, leaked and the content distorted.
13
Paul Ryan will go down in history as the worst Speaker of the House in our nation's history. His single legislative achievement, the trickle down tax cut part two will devastate our economy. Ryan's refusal to protect America from the Russians and a Criminally Corrupt President will be his legacy.
35
Mick Mulvaney's belief that a vote on a new speaker would give Republicans campaign ammunition to use against Democrats by forcing them to vote for Nancy Pelosi is a delusion. Nearly all of those Democrats already voted for Pelosi against Paul Ryan at the beginning of this congress last year. A new election for speaker might even give a few Democrats a chance to vote for someone else for speaker since no Democrat will win that vote.
9
Might as well go, he isn't doing anything for the Republic at this point for his constituents; which includes every citizen of the United States and our protectorates.
13
Ryan has devolved from compromise placeholder to presidential enabler to complicit obstructionist. Unless, by a miracle of regenerative medicine, he plans to grow a new spine and speaks truth to Trump by reigning in Nunes, he should just go, the sooner the better. History will judge him as a failed Speaker for allowing Trump to destroy Constitutional checks and balances.
28
Really shows the GOP's true character when they eat their own. One can only hope that there are none left after the blood clears from the water. The levels of craziness know no bottom.
11
How does Speaker Ryan want to be remembered after nearly 20 years in Congress? Why doesn't he take a stand on defending the rule of law and the separation of powers?? What is keeping him from protecting the fundamental basics of our democracy??The legacy of Paul Ryan is severely damaged now -- even if you didn't agree with him on issues, once upon a time you could respect his integrity...Sad.
6
Good Grief BAB,
He NEVER had any integrity.
2
Ryan is not and has never been meaningfully tested. If he was his callous corrupt cynical hypocrisy would be exposed.
Ever since his father died when he was a teen Speaker of the House Paul D, Ryan has been on the government benefits and employment welfare dole. Welfare Queen Ryan postures, prances and pretends to be a deeply intellectual policy wonk by babbling and bloviating inane socioeconomic nonsense.
Ryan has never been bravely honorable and patriotic enough to volunteer to wear the military uniform of any American armed force. Ryan has never been humble humane and empathetic enough to voluteer to perform any community civil rights human service.
8
A fake and failed Speaker. He has no clue as to how to assert the responsibilities of Congress as an independent branch of government. As long as the lying president is protected they have a partner in protecting and enriching the super rich and the bankers who now benefit from lack of responsibility in loaning. The Washington welfare line is closed to the poor and middle class; open only to the rich friends of Ryan. No Speaker, no majority after September. The people will speak.
12
"emboldened conservatives taking aim at the Justice Department’s Russia investigation ".
There has to be a new word for members who believe in exploding the defect, putting the government in the bedroom, intervening based on religious affiliation, attacking law enforcement credibility, failing to defend the country against known enemies, and failing to separate church and state.
What do you call a group that has declared war against the majority of the American people and environment?
And is the pay of foreign and domestic potentiates?
Conservative isn't it.
11
Paul Ryan is a shameless phony Christian with a black heart and an empty soul. He lies and doesn't care about the poor, sick or elderly of this nation. I hope to never see him again after he steps out of his role and I hope Trump and the rest of the crooks vacate, too.
26
More infighting and paralysis within the Trump-Republican Party ranks is truly a reason for great celebration. Let this circular firing squad continue with its masochistic tendencies right up to election time, further exposing itself as a destructive force incapable of governing, despite controlling both Houses of Congress. As for Alter Boy Ryan, he has appropriately reaped what he has cynically sown with his crazy caucus of political clowns.
8
This is the party that has enabled a cancer to take hold and is now eating at our democracy from the inside out. What do you do with a cancer? Cut the thing out and throw it in the dustbin of history.
48
Here's the worst part, we all know that this President has to be without doubt, the biggest liar ever in America. This guy lies just to lie and we should stop calling what he says as "inaccurate, not correct, not supported by facts, etc.". All of us, including the news media should just call him out for what he is...A LIAR and UNFIT man.
8
"“Look, the members drafted me into this job because of who I am and what I stand for,” Mr. Ryan told reporters on Tuesday, as he insisted that he intended to stay in the job. “I think members very much agree that what we should be doing is completing our agenda and our work.”"
Just what do you stand for, Paul Ryan? You are the weakest speaker we've had in a very long time, always trying to go along to get along with disastrous results.
Do you really think it was appropriate to support Devin Nunes in his egregious conspiracy mongering on behalf of the president? Because of your giving him free rein--house oversight does NOT include actively participating an an executive branch breach of the sacred wall of independence of the judiciary-- you will go down in history as being just another rubber stamp in weakening constitutional norms.
I don't give a damn if you're in an uncomfortable place--that's what you're paid the big bucks for. I hope you ride out your term and never come back to Washington.
You and the other Freedom Caucus traitors have done possibly irreparable damage to our country by doing the president's bidding.
We will remember all this should you come crawling back to run for any office in the future. Go home, ponder your future, and starting attending daily Mass for all the ways you've hurt the middle and lower classes in this nation.
39
Devin Nunes is a danger to our democracy. It’s past time for sharp media focus on the damage Nunes as done and continues to do our nation.
10
I agree but nothing will change.
Trump voters will hear nothing about the horror and fear the rest of us feel today.
Why? Because Fox will never cover it.
How much longer before hundreds of thousands of us take to the streets?
well he will have a pension & cushy benefits that we the people will be paying for all of his life.
1
Paul Ryan and a good portion of the GOP are traitors to the party of Lincoln.
They have either forgotten what a Republican stands for or don't want to be Republicans anymore.
This is what it means to be a true Republican.
I believe that the proper function of government is to do for the people those things that have to be done but cannot be done, or cannot be done as well by individuals, and that the most effective government is closest to the people.
I believe that good government is based on the individual and that each person's ability, dignity, freedom and responsibility must be honored and recognized.
I believe that free enterprise and the encouragement of individual initiative and incentive have given this nation an economic system second to none.
I believe that sound money policy should be our goal.
I believe in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, age, sex, or national origin. I believe that persons with disabilities should be afforded equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity as well.
There is more but this is what a true Republican believes in and not what Trump is spewing.
So if they loose control it's because they deserve to.
14
BTO,you have hit the nail right on the head.
6
Honestly, the Republicans have forgotten what it means to be American.
1
Paul Ryan has been a major dissapointment. He might as well retire if he is not going to stand up to Trump's attack on the Constitution. He has been gutless standing up to Trump's lackys Devin Nunes and Mark Meadows. Just go home Paul.
34
Paul Ryan is old news. He brought all this on himself.
He was always a con man, a slick proponent of the bait-and-switch hustle, all the while getting over on the tribe and the rubes on the Right with his innocent-looking basset hound eyes, eyes that hooded the darkness of soul behind them. He hated the poor; he all but said, “it’s all their fault, anyway.”
His family survived on the “government” dole after his father went to the sweet bye-and-bye. Yet, after finding a “government” job as a representative from Wisconsin, he took a pick axe to entitlements—unless, of course, the recipients of the “entitlements” were white, wealthy, well-connected and Republicans. Moral choices, indeed.
When he assumed the speakership after the Freedom Caucus and Tea Party zealots ran off John Boehner in 2015—no great loss there—he drew his line in the sand with “we can’t trust this president”—hardly an olive branch to the executive. The newly-minted Speaker, Mr. Ryan, went right to work crafting his manifesto on wrecking the New Deal. His lone “success” was in unlocking the Fort Knox vaults for the one percent. What else did he accomplish?
His worst moments, to me, was his completely willing acquiescence of candidate Donald Trump’s obvious character flaws. And, after the disastrous election, Ryan covered for an obviously unqualified president by smoothly assuring us that “he’s learning; he’s new to the job.”
Go lightly, Mr. Speaker; but go—and quickly. Your country will thank you for it.
74
@Sox -- the sweet irony here is that Republicans are now saying "we can't trust" this speaker. That's pure payback and a fitting coda to his undistinguished speakership.
21
Paul Ryan: a classic example of Calvinist/Social Darwinist principles in action; benefits are for the deserving me, not the undeserving thee.
4
Poor guy, who would have thought??? Karma, Dude. Just go away.
29
The Republican Party is in pathetic shape. They are the majority party, hold the House, Senate and Presidency and all they can seem to do is self-destruct. They don’t know who they are anymore or what they stand for so they are clinging to and defending a second rate president so that they can hold on to any kind of power. The so called conservative party pushed through a lop sided, deficit increasing tax cut and now may back another tax cut that Trump is proposing to boost the Republican chances in November.
Ryan should resign. The House is a joke. Nunes is making a mockery of the justice system and Ryan is just sitting back waiting for his term to end. This is the most pathetic state that I’ve seen this country in recent times and I’ve been around over 6 decades. This is all the fault of the Republican party and it started with a dysfunctional House during Obama's administration.
32
Disagree. The current GOP made it's turn toward abject evil during the Clinton administration, under the oversight of the remarkably poor excuse for a human called Newt Gengrich. It's leaders have modeled themselves after his lies and moral failings ever since.
3
Ryan has stood for the wealthy and repeal anything Obama. He never answers a question but skirts around an issue. It is hard to believe that the majority of the people in his state will benefit from his tax bill. He should be ashamed of how he has not helped people in need or stood up for REAL Christian Values. You were not elected by the wealthy alone, or maybe you were. Sad but not sad to see him go.
20
How can Republicans make a case for maintaining power in Washington when all they do is fuss and fight among themselves? They haven’t done anything at all for the country except enable a corrupt tyrant and undermine law enforcement and the rule of law in America. The GOP has made it quite plain since 2016 that their party is what matters to them, not the best interests of Americans, unless they’re wealthy and privileged.
Republican lawmakers are falling all over themselves to push Ryan out and grab power for themselves while keeping a hands-off policy regarding the president. That is not responsible governing. Republicans know what’s wrong with the government today but they have no desire to fix what isn’t working. Also, vicious infighting among the party faithful won’t send a positive message to voters in November.
25
When Democrats take back control, the whole "let bygones be bygones" thing needs to end. We need to prosecute the people who covered up these crimes and allowed this to happen. We still may yet have a constitutional crisis or new war started before the midterms, but this type of lawlessness that Ryan is complicit in can't be tolerated. People who commit crimes need to sent to prison.
70
Yeah, that was my only complaint about Obama. The '08 crash? So many crimes yet NO one went to jail. And the same criminals who should have been serving jail time, just got massively richer off the bailouts.
Banks are still too big to fail and financial instruments too complicated to nail fraud.
Trump dismantling Dodd Frank is a gift to the same criminals who manipulated the financial markets.
9