What the what?!
This is cute—Republicans are still dreaming about the one way in which Paul Ryan would actually take the House speaker job: if he becomes the consensus candidate. Heh. Jake Sherman has
the details:
But there’s one remote scenario, people close to him say, in which Ryan would consider abandoning his long-laid career plans and go for the speakership: if he was the true consensus choice of the party. That means no opposition, no sniping, no acceding to demands in exchange for support.
No opposition, no sniping, no acceding to demands. Well here's what I want—to be transported to the GOP's parallel universe where Republican House members find reasonable ways to get along. Perhaps world peace also exists there.
For starters, the House crazy caucus is kicking things off from the very first by making demands. Here's Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio explaining that they'll only support Ryan "if":
The anti-establishment firebrand said his group would be willing to support Ryan if he committed to decentralizing power in the House.
“I think he will agree to that, I think the next Speaker has to agree to that, because this place has got to change,” Jordan said.
Right. And here's Ryan's
pre-reqs:
He might be open to some of the rules changes they want, but it’s extremely unlikely that he would commit to such reforms in exchange for votes in a speaker election.
Ryan wants people to support him because they think he’s a good leader who will do the right thing for the party and the country, not because he’s agreed to a set of demands, according to people close to him.
That's what we thought. Deal's off unless someone caves.