Now that the House "Freedom" Caucus had their "private" strategy meeting and immediately blabbed about it to every outlet that would listen, it's clear that Paul Ryan’s worst-case scenario is really keeping a trimmed down GOP majority in the House. Emmarie Huetteman writes:
Moderate Republicans are most at risk in next week’s election. Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, expressed optimism that his fellow moderates will prevail, but if they lose, he said, it could be more difficult for the House to deal with pressing matters such as tax reform or an overhaul of the nation’s infrastructure.
“There is the potential for a smaller, pragmatic and governing wing of the Republican Party,” Mr. Dent said.
First of all, that's pure fantasy. Dent is suggesting that if a certain number of moderate Republicans survive, suddenly a GOP House majority will be able to govern. Is he joking? If that were true, we would have seen anything—ANYTHING—decent come out of the House in the last couple years. Instead, John Boehner and then Paul Ryan let the "Freedom" Caucus have its way on everything from pro-life to immigration issues and nearly shut down the government again in the process. The right wingers in the House have repeatedly beat leadership into submission, so the idea that saving some GOP moderates could make the House suddenly functional is pure fantasy.
What is true is that an empowered crazy caucus is bound to dog Paul Ryan right from the get-go. In fact, in order to secure support for his speakership, Ryan may have to cut a deal with the right wingers that will imbue regular GOP members with certain powers and responsibilities usually only accessible to leadership.
In other words, they'll not only be rabid but they'll be on the loose. So expect a completely dysfunctional caucus divided against itself with rampant investigations into Clinton being the only thing they manage to produce.
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