Any way you look at it, House Speaker Paul Ryan faces a living hell when Congress reconvenes on Nov. 13. Or more of a living hell than it already was.
Some in the deeply factionalized Republican Party, including Mr. Trump and some of his senior aides, are already fanning the flames for a revolt against the House speaker, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, once Congress reconvenes after the election. Mr. Trump, who has lashed out at the speaker for being critical of him, has privately said that Mr. Ryan should pay a price for his disloyalty, according to two people close to Mr. Trump who insisted on anonymity to describe internal campaign discussions.
Mr. Trump made his frustrations plain on Tuesday. “The people are very angry with the leadership of this party, because this is an election that we will win, 100 percent, if we had support from the top,” he said in an interview with Reuters ...
“There’s a huge chunk of people who want to see a fight taken to D.C.,” said Representative Dave Brat, Republican of Virginia and a member of the House Freedom Caucus, which has pressed Mr. Ryan on several issues since he became speaker last year. Mr. Brat said many conservatives remained perplexed as to why Mr. Ryan and Republican leaders would choose to criticize Mr. Trump rather than focus their energy on Mrs. Clinton.
“Leadership comes and smacks our guy?” Mr. Brat said. “That’s where you’re going to put down a marker? Really?”
Oh, goody. It's not like the Freedom Caucus types really had to have an excuse to fight Ryan, because infighting is their whole reason for being. But this sure is a good one! Ryan is facing the very happy prospect, on our side anyway, of a Republican conference so diminished, the biggest bloc will be the maniacs. That would be true whether he kept the majority or not. Gee … that’s too bad.
What would be extra good, though, is for him to lose both the majority and the speakership and any reason for staying in national politics. There has to be something good that comes out of Trump, and if it's an end to Paul Ryan's political future, so be it
Can you chip in $3 to each of these House candidates to hasten Ryan on his way out?
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