The policy wonk loses his inhibition about scandal.
.. The speaker’s office is even considering offering a House companion measure to a Senate proposal that would revoke security clearance for Clinton and her closest staffers, according to senior GOP leadership aides.
While the idea is mostly symbolic — President Barack Obama would never sign such legislation into law — Ryan’s actions amount to a sea change in tone and posture for the Wisconsin Republican, who tends to favor white papers and budget charts over partisan finger-pointing and scandal-hunting.
.. While Ryan said he wasn’t sure if Congress has the authority to prevent officials from briefing Clinton before the election — that’s probably something only intelligence officials can do — his office is looking at the Senate proposal closely.
How Low Can the G.O.P. Go?
A week earlier, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, cut off reporters’ questions about Trump, declaring
I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential candidates today.
John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate majority whip, told Politico last week that he will not discuss Trump until Nov. 8, adding wistfully, “Wish me luck.”
On June 19, Paul Ryan, the House speaker, told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press”:
Well, first of all I feel like I have certain responsibilities, as not just Congressman Paul Ryan from the first district of Wisconsin, but as Speaker of the House. And imagine the Speaker of the House not supporting the duly elected nominee of our party, therefore creating a chasm in our party to split us in half, which basically helps deny us the White House, and strong majorities in Congress.
As if that were not enough, Ryan continued down this path:
The last thing I want to see happen is another Democrat in the White House. I don’t want see Hillary Clinton as president. I want to see a strong majority in the House and the Senate. And I think the way to achieve those goals is to have a more unified party, than a disunified party. Now having said that, you know me well, Chuck. If something is done and said that I don’t agree with that I think puts a bad label on conservatism, then I’m going to speak out on it as I have, as I will continue to do, and I hope I don’t have to keep doing.
.. You know the Republicans — honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but you know what I think I’m going to be forced to. I think I’m going to be forced to. Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don’t talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter. We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. I’ll do very well. I’m going to do very well. O.K.? I’m going to do very well. A lot of people thought I should do that anyway but I’ll just do it very nicely by myself.
Paul Ryan Has a Plan, But No One Is Listening
Donald Trump’s oafish hegemony over the news cycle leaves little room for the House speaker’s earnest pleas to talk about congressional policy.
.. The event generated no buzz—unlike Ryan’s press conference that day, in which he rejected Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigrants. That definitely got people’s attention.
.. It’s hard enough getting people to embrace complicated policy debates in normal times. How the heck is Ryan supposed to get anyone focused on reform when there is a trash-talking, thin-skinned, bomb-throwing carnival barker busy turning the presidential race into the political equivalent of The Jersey Shore?
.. After its scorching affair with Trump, Republican voters may well find themselves ready for a more boring suitor—one whose idea of sexy talk involves an in-depth critique of Article One authority.
The Paul Ryan Delusion
There are essentially two Republican parties right now: the Party of Donald J. Trump and the Party of House Speaker Paul Ryan—who has, nonetheless, endorsed Trump for President. One of the ways in which members of the Ryan faction delude themselves is by believing that Ryan’s policies would dominate if Trump were President and Ryan remained Speaker of the House.
.. Ryan noted that when he took over as Speaker, last fall, his top priority was to fashion a detailed Republican policy agenda. The idea was to ignore the circus of the Republican Presidential primaries, which was sure to push the candidates into making reckless statements, and instead to have waiting at the end of the process a sober general-election platform that the Republican nominee could embrace.
.. This instrumental view of the Presidency—that a Republican in the White House would serve more or less as an Autopen for Ryan’s ideas—rested, even apart from Trump, on two shaky assumptions.
The first was that Ryan could do a better job forging consensus than John Boehner, his predecessor
.. Ryan’s second assumption was that any new Republican President would respect a historical shift in the way that Republicans think about the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches.
.. But in the Obama years, when Republicans’ base of power became more firmly rooted in Congress and, in their view, Barack Obama expanded the powers of the Presidency, Republicans became loud advocates of the primacy of the legislative branch.
.. But it’s an especially absurd assumption when it comes to Trump, who has displayed authoritarian instincts and has argued that he will exceed Obama in using the powers of the executive branch.
.. Ryan called for “a security test and not a religious test,” and pointed to a report on national security with sixty-seven recommendations that he had released just last Thursday.