What took him so long?
A leading House conservative delivered a stark message to Speaker Paul Ryan: the honeymoon is over. […]
"It's too early to judge the speakership of Paul Ryan […] But, as I have also said, the honeymoon is over," said [Rep. Raul] Labrador, an Idaho Republican. "I think he needs to start putting up real conservative reform in the House and doing the things that are necessary to show the voters that he is a different speaker than John Boehner because frankly, everything he has done so far is no different than what John Boehner would have done." […]
He added, "The question is will Ryan be a good speech-maker or a good policy-maker... The question is not just can you deliver on the speech but can you deliver on the substance. The question is whether the Republican party is a conservative party or not. I'm afraid that so far we've shown that [the Republican Party] is not a conservative party."
Seriously, it's been two whole months, which is like ten working days in the House (I joke, it was actually 20, which might be a record for a two-month period with these guys). Apparently getting an Obamacare repeal and Planned Parenthood defunding bill on the president's desk just isn't enough for some people.
This was so predictable, we called it within the first week of Ryan's speakership. That's because Labrador and his fellow maniacs are fundamentally opposed to the House actually governing. Literally. "If people just want to 'govern,' which means bringing more government, they're always going to choose the Democrat," he told the The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza last fall. It doesn't matter who is speaker, these guys just want to fight. If Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) was speaker they'd find some reason to squabble with him and threaten his leadership. That's what they do.