Steve Bannon may or may not have popular vote loser Donald Trump's ear anymore, or at least has more hoops to jump through before getting to him, so he's taking one of his grudges elsewhere. If he can't keep goading Trump to get at House Speaker Paul Ryan, he's going to use the Freedom Caucus to do it.
Leaders of the Freedom Caucus met with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday to candidly express their frustrations with his leadership and his handling of the Republican legislative agenda, according to two people familiar with the discussion.
The exchange comes as former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon is having conversations with hard-line GOP lawmakers about how they should exert greater influence in the fall’s political fights and pressure congressional Republican leaders.
Ryan heard out three members of the influential conservative group: Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the people said. Meadows is the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, which counts about three dozen members, and he has been a friend and ally of Bannon for years.
A source "familiar with the discussion" says the three were "frank" about their concerns that Ryan was insufficiently kow towing to them and warned Ryan that "the House Republican conference could desert him in the coming months if the leadership fails to enact conservative policies." Also, too, friends of the maniacs say, Meadows and Bannon have been casually batting around the idea about who is going to replace Ryan but "those discussions remain speculative and informal, with no plan yet for action." Uh, huh.
The maniacs themselves wouldn't comment for the record on this story, but another "conservative lawmaker who is close to the Freedom Caucus" told reporter Robert Costa that he's "talked to countless Americans who are fed up with Congress's inability to get anything done. They see Mitch McConnell and Speaker Ryan as the biggest impediments to enacting President Trump’s agenda." Right. This isn't the maniacs' idea, they're just listening to the people, who are warning that "If things don’t change—and fast—the American people will demand new leadership in Congress." Uh, huh. No word on if they noticed that Trump just sided with the Democrats on their big obsessions—government spending and the debt ceiling.
It's unclear whether the Freedom Caucus is dim enough not to understand that they are being used by Bannon, or if they're fully on board with this Operation Chaos. But in the end, it amounts to the same thing—a totally dysfunctional Republican party in control of government. Which means Ryan is going to need to depend on Nancy Pelosi and Democratic votes more and more. Which in turn means more fuel for maniacs' fire against him. Rinse and repeat for as long as Republicans hold the House.