On Re-Evaluating House Leadership

Paul Ryan on the Singapore Summit

John Brennan on Enabling Trump

Paul Ryan on the Tax Code

Immediate Analysis After Speaker Paul Ryan Revealed No Re-Election Plans

Franklin Graham on Honoring Billy Graham at the Capitol

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Repeal and Replace Obamacare

On Exploding Cell Phones and Exploding Obamacare Premiums

As President Obama went out on the hustings for Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY), he offered some puckich perspectives about innovation and Obamacare.



This quip about smart phones catching fire seems particularly apt in assessing the challenges for Obamacare, as notices for premiums for the Affordable Care Act have gone out and the rate for the benchmark premium has increased by 145% in Phoenix. 

Speaker Paul Ryan echoed Obama's analogy but lamented that families can't just return their junky product to the source and choose another device. 

Speaker Paul Ryan on Trump's V.P. Pick Gov. Mike Pence

House Speaker Paul Ryan Suggests Consequences for Clinton Emails

Did Speaker Paul Ryan Lose Respect for FBI After Clinton E-Mail Recommendation?

In February 2016, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan deflected a question concerning expansion of the Clinton e-mail case because of his said respect for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

After F.B.I. Director Comey laid out a case of careless recklessness on the part of former Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it is dubious if he still has the same respect for parts of the storied G-Men.

George Will on Leaving the GOP

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Textbook Racism

Despite House Speaker's Paul Ryan's reluctant admission that he would vote for presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump in November, the House Speaker has sought to distance himself from the Manhattan Mogul's meandering mouth.

Speaker Ryan refused to be associated with Mr. Trump's injudicious attacks against Judge Gonzalo Curiel's character on the basis of race. 

 Ryan went further to illustrate that Trump's charges were a textbook definition of racism.

Palin Pans Ryan-Trump Pow-Wow

After the highly anticipated meeting between presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, there were positive notes emanating from Capitol Hill.



Alas, not all in the Trump campaign cohort got the message that The Donald is making motions to unify the party. Sarah Palin put out a blistering post on Facebook panning the Ryan-Trump Pow-Wow.

Palin's perjuice peaked last week, when she claimed that Speaker Ryan would be "Cantored".  Currently, Rep. Ryan is 64 points above his challenger in the Wisconsin 1st Congressional district.  Oops. But Palin has a spotty success ratio on her endorsements.

Perhaps Palin has forgotten Civics 101 in which the Legislative Branch must pass laws which the Executive Branch approves (or vetoes) and then enforces. So if Trump does win the White House, he needs a party to pass legislation, and the cooperative House of Representatives to begin a budget.  Speaker Ryan did win the backing of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, so it is strange to think that Ryan is the epitome of the establishment.

Palin's post epitomizes a troll tone which wants to stick it to the establishment, without having concrete goals or a realistic plan.  It's like the Sex Pistol's anarchy ode  from 1976 "Don't know what we want but we know how to get it. I want to destroy the passerby. 'Cause I want to be anarchy." The expression of anger may energize those in the circle but it makes it impossible to expand the outreach and ultimately to get things done.

The Trump campaign has a penchant for pointing to polls to validate their "yuuuge" presumed victory.  Well, polling is premised on having an accurate turn-out model. If conservatives do not pull the level for a Manhattan Mogul who slashes and burns anyone in his own party who does not immediately jump on Trump Train, such surveys may be worth less than the paper that it is printed in.

Palin has the reputation of being a pit bull hockey mom, which may have helped during a contentious primary campaign. But those sharp elbows hinder efforts at inspiring party unity. Does Palin think that her presumed gravitas will garner an emolument in a hypothetical Trump Administration?  Or is it just an orchestrated celebutard campaign to keep her name in the spotlight prior to her "Judge Judy" like syndicated TV stint" 

Paul Ryan on Rallies and Responsibility

John Boehner on Catholic Guilt

It is dubious whether Boehner's pile of Catholic guilt was the deciding factor in new House Speaker Paul D. Ryan's decision making but the State of the Union episode illustrates the Ignatian admonition about discernment. Manipulating someone in order to escape a hard fate certainly seems like some bad spirits. 

Contrasting Visions of Slavery and Hard Work

When analyzing the ascendancy of Rep. Paul D. Ryan to become Speaker of the House, MSNBC hostess Melissa Harris Perry interrupted her guest for characterizing Ryan's reputation of being a hard worker on account of political correctness.

Harris Perry, who is also the  Presidential Chair Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University, can only seem to think of hard workers as being people forced to pick cotton in the fields in the antebellum South.

This tact was greeted with much derision in conservative public affairs circles where "our betters" (meaning self-satisfied, intellectually entitled liberal Democrats) would never deign to venture. 

One wonders if Ms. Harris Perry is just obsessed with race, if she panders so pliantly to political correctness to please management and viewer(s) at MSNBC or if just she is just seeking publicity (like when she wore tampons earrings supposedly to support abortion "rights").

Mike Rowe, the host of Discovery Network Dirty Jobs  and CNN's "Somebody's Got to Do It" took on the dirty job via Facebook to intellectually challenge Harris Perry's reservation of the term "Hard Worker". 

It should be noted that Mike Rowe has been committed to stop the decline of the American infrastructure and assist Blue Collar workers  since 2008.  Wonder who is doing a better job in helping people, by paying lip service to political correctness and injected racial analogies into everything or someone celebrating hard work and helping others find lucrative "dirty jobs". 

Perusing the Political Pumpkin Patch

The Jack-O'-Lantern is a Halloween tradition associated with the strange flickering lights over peat bogs thought to made by will-the-wisps or Jack-O'-Lanterns. To emulate this flickering light, the flesh of a pumpkin is scooped out and an image, which is usually comical or grotesque, is carved out on the gourd. 

Pumpkin carving can be traced to the mid-nineteenth century in American and the British Isles. But today, pumpkin carving is not confined to crudely hewn scary faces for Halloween. This allows folk artists with stencils to create all sorts of scary countenances and images from the political pumpkin patch. While most of these carvings depict faces, some renditions are more conceptual.

The President is often a subject for pumpkin portraits.

But a lame duck President like Barack Obama just may not be scary anymore. Or more likely, we have to live the nightmare not vex over it. 

Partisans may create Jack-O'-Lanterns to depict their favored party in a positive light.

Top contenders from the Presidential nomination often get the pumpkin carving treatment.  Former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-AR NY)  seems to be a favorite to depict for both supporters and detractors.  

Surprisingly, cursory searches could not find carvings of Hillary clad in more Halloween attire.

Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the other leading contender in the Democrat primaries, also had many depictions in pumpkins.  

It took twelve hours for that folk artist to carve the pumpkin homage to Sanders. Many progressive Jack-O'-Lanterns may also  "Feel the Bern".

There was a curious quirk among Republican pumpkin carvings.  Logic would lead one to believe that the most popular candidates would be more likely to be popular carvings.  But it there is nary a carving to be found of current frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson.  

Could this be because the Seventh Day Adventist Church frowns on Halloween for occult associations?  Not very likely.  A more reasonable explanation is that Jack-O'-Lanterns traditionally depict comical or monstrous images.  Opponents may disagree with Dr. Carson but his characteristic soft spoken and thoughtful delivery makes it difficult to demonize.

On the other hand, there were plenty of Jack-O'-Lantern depictions of  strong second place challenger for the Republican Presidential nomination--Donald Trump. 

While this rendition of "The Donald" was colorful and employed multi-media, it only merited fifth place in the Oklahoma State Fair.  It would be a huuuuuge mistake to associate "The Donald" with anything but the best.  So a more traditional pumpkin carving is in order.

Although I suspect that stencils may be out there, it was hard to find carvings for Gov, Jeb! Bush (R-FL) or Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). And the carving for Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) paled in comparison to his eminence during the GOP CNBC Debate.

By this time next year, as we will be in the culmination of the Election 2016 campaign cycle, there this little doubt that there will be many more adorned gourds in the political pumpkin patch 

As Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) has become speaker of the House, there was no need for the Boehner-O'-Lantern

Too many knives seemed to have spoiled the Jack-O'-Lantern.

Freedom Caucus to Speaker Ryan: "Go Early, Stay Firm"

What Makes for a Good Speaker?

After four and a half years as Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH 8th) announced his resignation. Boehner allegedly wanted to resign after the 112th Congress but his handpicked heir, seven term incumbent  former Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA 7th), but he was ignominously upset by Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA 7th) in the Republican Primary. So  Boehner blustered that he wanted to resign after the pinnacle of his career in hosting Pope Francis to speak before a joint session of Congress.  Of course, this “Zip-a-Dee Doo Dah” excuse conveniently ignores the looming Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC 11th) Motion to Vacate the Chair, which the Speaker would either lose or have to win with Democrat votes. Boehner gave a month for his resignation to take effect in late October, 2015.

It is a good thing that Speaker Boehner gave a month to let things shake it.  Everything was arranged for Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA 23rd prior 22nd) to assume the big chair. But then McCarthy opened his big mouth during a friendly interview with Sean Hannity in which inartful articulation about Hillary Clinton blew two years of non-partisan investigation by House Select Benghazi Committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC 4th).

McCarthy’s gaffe enlarged a gulf between the House Republican establishment and the Freedom Caucus, which was reluctant to back a Cocktail Party candidate.   The Freedom Caucus had been poised to support Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL 8th), who is less conservative then the Freedom Caucus but open to rules reform.  However, before the Republican Caucus secretly voted on their choice, McCarthy suddenly resigned and the vote never took place.

In the aftermath of this announcement, there was pressure to draft House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) from divergent voices like Trey Gowdy and Mitt Romeny. But Ryan   was leery about leading what some might characterize as a den of vipers to spend lots of his time fundraising away from family.  Ryan took a week to decide his druthers.  Ryan announced that he would run if his candidacy would unite the party and under certain conditions (such as reducing his extra congressional travel).



Paul Ryan was hailed as a conservative when he was chosen to be former Governor Mitt Romney’s (R-MA) running mate in 2012, yet was run down by some radicalized conservatives for his stance reformist inclinations on immigration.  As Ryan readied himself to possibly assume the Speakership, he tapped  David Hoppe, a veteran conservative who now works at the Heritage Foundation to be his  chief of staff. Yet even this move was characterized by discontented populists as “picking a Washington lobbyist”.  Moreover, some said that the Freedom Caucus would be sell outs if they backed Paul Ryan for speaker. But a super majority (but not 80%) of the Freedom Caucus expressed willingness to support Ryan for Speaker so the Wisconsin Congressman put his name forward for consideration.

Keeping these recent events in mind, it would be wise to discern what makes for a good Speaker. Some would claim, res ipsa loquitur, that the person must be able to speak.  Thus, Kevin McCarthy’s disjointed utterances should have disqualified him. There is no doubt that the Hannity snafu killed McCarthy’s bid to be Speaker.  But it was not because he was not articulate in his utterances.  Former Democrat House Speaker and now Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 12th prior 5th and 8th) was not a skilled speaker but was on message and ruled her caucus with an iron fist (and is aided by a sympathetic mainstream media).  Looking back into recent history, Rep. Denny Hastert was not chosen to be the chief spokesman for Republicans or the House.  Neither was Rep. Tom Foley (D-WA 5th).

On the other hand, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA 6th), Rep. Jim Wright (D-TX 12th) and Rep. Tip O’Neil (D-MA 8th) were able media front men while being Speaker.  So being clean, well spoken and  articulate, to borrow a compliment from Vice President Joe Biden, can augment the Speaker’s role but is not quintessential.

A second trait often associated with the House Speakership is as a fundraiser.  This would have been a task that Rep. Kevin McCarthy would have excelled at, lest the Benghazi bungle.  Boehner seems to have done well at raising funds, particularly for those who would support establishment leadership.  But this party role is something which Rep. Paul Ryan did not relish.  Obviously, it is ancillary to the job of being Speaker of the House and constitutionally the second in the line of succession to the Presidency.

A third quality associated with being Speaker is setting priorities.  Newt Gingrich was legionary for nationalizing the 1994 cycle and voting on the Contract with America in the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. Nancy Pelosi rallied her caucus in supporting legislation which impeded the waning George W. Bush administration in the 110th Congress and facilitated President Barack Obama’s agenda in the 111th Congress.

While current Speaker John Boehner has done some things to quell conservatives in the GOP caucus, like eventually launching the Benghazi Select Committee, suing about Obamacare and recently establishing a select committee to study Planned Parenthood abuses, his style tended to be top down and accommodating the powers that be in the White House. For instance, the lawsuit on Obamacare is window dressing with little chance of success (as it is a political issue that courts will eschew).  Congress voted many times to repeal Obamacare, but it was not really attached to budgets or fought for doggedly in conference committees.

Boehner also reneged on understandings which irked the base and conservatives.  For instance, Boehner repeatedly broke the Hastert Rule (bills must receive a majority of the majority to be put on the floor).  This meant that legislation passed with Democrat votes. Boehner would also jam down bills, like a continuing resolution or other lengthy legislation without giving members (and the public) three days to read it before voting.  So, to echo Nancy Pelosi on Obamacare, “We have to vote on the bill before we know what is in it.”.  Not a wise way to run a railroad.

Many rank-and-file conservatives wanted one of their own to be Speaker.  So social media pushed Trey Gowdy or Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH 4th).  This is under the assumption that a true Conservative would dominate the GOP caucus and get things done.

[L] Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH 4th) [R] Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID 1st) [photo: BD Matt]

Well, the popular press has branded the Freedom Caucus as being ultra-right wingers bent on their own way.  But at the October Conservation with Conservatives presser, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID 1st) struck a much more restrained set of expectations.  The Freedom Caucus realized that with unity of around 38 votes they had a certain amount of power, to deny a candidate the requisite 218 votes, but they could not successfully back one of their own as Speaker.

It may seem strange that a Republican member generally considered an up and coming Conservative like Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT 3rd) only got lukewarm support in his bid for Speaker, as the Freedom Caucus was initially poised to back Rep. Daniel Webster, who had a 57% Liberty rating.  Rather than have a conservative warrior in the big chair, they wanted someone who would hear their voice.

What really bothered members of the Freedom Caucus was process issues.  They were tired of being shut out in the Committee process, not being able to advance their own legislation or  offer amendments during mark-ups. Ironically, this was not always because their amendments might lose, but that they could carry the day and ruin the pre-baked cake that House leadership had concocted with their counterparts in the Senate or across Pennsylvania Avenue.

Webster promised to have a bottom up leadership process and that influenced the Freedom Caucus.  While Ryan issued some daring demands (like get rid of the Motion to Vacate the Chair), he seems to have mollified the Freedom Caucus.  Scuttlebutt is that Ryan promised to not raise immigration reform until there is a new President. Politico reported that the Freedom Caucus and Ryan agreed in principle on most items and the Freedom Caucus would have some “buy in” on legislation, but his candidacy was still “take it or leave it”.  That was still good enough for 70% of the House Freedom Caucus.

This meeting of the minds did not win over all anti-establishment Republicans.  Rush Limbaugh posulated that to donor class got what they wanted in Paul Ryan.  Glenn Beck accused the Freedom Caucus of being sell-outs. But Beck wanted the House to look outside of its chambers to find a leader, by endorsing Senator Ben Sasse's (R-NB) modest proposal to draft AEI President Arthur Brooks.  In addition, Mark Levin railed at Ryan for never meeting a bailout he did not like.

Ryan may not be the essential man for Speaker but one wonders what Conservative critics want. Who would they choose and why?  If no one is likely to win, would firebrands be OK with Speaker Boehner remaining in place?  This is why discerning what makes a good Speaker matters to understand what candidate to support and appreciating the consequences of the choice.

Representative Ryan tends to be a conservative but has some bagging regarding bailouts and lingering concerns about immigration.  If he becomes Speaker, he may not be out of the rubber chicken circuit as much fundraising. But Ryan will probably be more of a media friendly face of the House and can articulate the Republican message.  Ryan’s reluctance to leave the Ways and Means Committee is because he wanted to radically reform our tax code from the burdensome stack of bureaucratic regulations.  It remains to be seen if this reformist impetus can be instituted while in the Speaker’s chair.

The Republican House Caucus will vote in secret on October 28th. If Ryan is a clear winner, then a formal floor vote should follow on October 29th as Boehner steps down.  But if the votes are not they, all hell will break loose and the House will need to discern what makes for an acceptable choice for Speaker. When Gingrich resigned in 1998, Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA 1st) was poised to be Head of the House, but some kinks came up in that ascension, which brought about Speaker Denny Hastert.