Speaker Paul Ryan is everywhere these days hawking Trumpcare. It infuriates me because there is almost no one politician I have as little respect for as Ryan.
He is smarmy, but thinks of himself as a stud. He tells everyone he’s a “policy wonk,” but doesn't understand fundamental concepts—like how insurance works. He fancies himself a master politician, but has never once been able to build a coalition to get, well, anything passed. If I count that one post office he named in 2000 or that one tax modification on hunting arrows in 2004, I can bring his grand legislative successes to ... two. Somehow I doubt Trumpcare will be his third.
As a politician, Paul Ryan is a complete and utter failure.
But he’s so much more than just another failed politician. And it’s way past time for Democratic politicians to start calling him what he truly is:
Paul Ryan is a damn unpatriotic traitor.
“It was like I was standing out there naked. I just can’t describe it any other way. Our entire internal strategy plan was made public, and suddenly all this material was out there and could be used against me.”— Annette Taddeo, unsuccessful Democratic candidate for House District 26.
According to a declassified summary by our intelligence agencies, President Putin personally ordered the cyberattacks that helped Donald Trump win the election last fall.
Lost in the outrage over the undermining of our presidential election is the fact that tens of thousands of pages of hacked D.N.C. documents were "selectively released" by Guccifer 2.0 to political bloggers and newspaper reporters that were designed to cause "a backlash against Democrats” running for the House in highly competitive contests. Let me make that point clear:
Foreign agents actively worked against Democrats in the most competitive House races in the nation. These included districts in Pennsylvania, Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois, New Mexico and North Carolina.
First, personal information was released. Democratic candidates were followed and harassed. Yet immediately following was the release of internal strategy documents and dossiers on the candidate's potential weaknesses. DCCC chair Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) sent a letter to his GOP counterpart warning that the GOP would be "complicit in aiding the Russian government in its effort to influence American elections” if they used the hacked material. Rep. Pelosi echoed those sentiments in a separate letter. Both were ignored.
Worse, Paul Ryan’s Super PAC proceeded to be complicit agents in Russian espionage. Stolen data from Russian hackers was used to smear the Democratic candidates. (Note that Ryan’s own spokeswoman called it “his” Super PAC and never disputed that the material had been stolen as part of an act of Russian espionage.) Ads using the stolen material were run in races such as Florida Congressional District 26, a district that not only leans Democratic but one where Hillary Clinton won by a very large margin. The Republican won.
Lest you think that any politician would turn into an unAmerican slimeball like Paul Ryan just to get ahead, then I give you Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA).
Rep. Costello flatly refused to use the Russian espionage material provided to him. His campaign consultant said, “We believed it was neither necessary nor appropriate to use information from a possible foreign source to influence the election.”
Now that the elections are over, Paul Ryan has made it clear that he wants Democrats to leave Russia alone, and to quit "setting their hair on fire" over it. Although this is the first time in American history where enemy foreign agents played a major role in altering the outcome of the electoral process, Ryan steadfastly opposes any independent investigation of Russian interference. Amazingly, he adds that "we should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election." (Go f*** yourself, Ryan.)
It is at this point that I lament the fact that I am but a Democrat, because if it had been proven that Russian agents undermined our elections to help Republicans lose, the GOP would have shut down the Senate already. Nothing would be moving forward, and they would use every single tool at their disposal to fire up their base that illegitimate usurpers are in positions that were stolen from the American people. The GOP screamed "lock her up" at Hillary for using a damn private email server, so just imagine what'd they’d scream at Nancy Pelosi if she was Speaker in no small part due to espionage.
Every conservative politician and media personality would be demanding a revolution in the streets. My goodness, look how the Republican base acted out in 2010 when a legitimate president tried to give them healthcare ...
Paul Ryan is all over the airwaves giving canned bullet points and literal powerpoint presentations on his failed healthcare replacement. Rather than getting drawn into debating Ryan's nonsensical rants, Democrats would be better served calling him out, both for what he did, and the investigation he still refuses to do. Americans need to be reminded that after Trump, Ryan is America’s #1 traitor. Get that message across first, and the last thing you'll have to worry about is Ryan selling them healthcare.