Paul Ryan to Attend Secret Donor Group Meeting Next Week in Manhattan

"House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has spent a lot of time denying any interest in the presidency.

Last week, when his office put out a 43-second video, the Drudge Report tweeted an all-caps siren reading “Paul Ryan launches first campaign ad?” Despite the video so resembling a campaign ad that even NPR’s Steve Inskeep joked this morning that he got choked up by the swelling music, Mr. Ryan’s people have aggressively swatted down speculation that the Congressman and unsuccessful 2012 vice presidential candidate was indeed waiting in the wings to be drafted should a consensus not be reached on any of the candidates who have been working to earn the votes of Republican primary voters over the last year.

..The Observer can now report that Todd Ricketts, the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs who is also the son of the founder of Ameritrade, is arranging a meeting of some of the GOP’s top financial bundlers, to be attended by Mr. Ryan. The meeting is to take place next week at the Mandarin Hotel and will be comprised of a discussion with “twenty or so” Republican donors, including Mr. Ricketts and several people he has raised money with before, such as Randy Kendrick, the wife of Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick.

...The planned meeting came to the attention of the Observer via one top Republican donor who was approached and described himself to the Observer as “disgusted that he [Ryan] is saying one thing publicly but secretly trying to garner support with all of these NeverTrump people talking about all their strategies to subvert the people who are voting for Trump and Cruz.” He declined to join the group and either did not know or would not reveal others who would be joining the secret meeting at the Mandarin."

http://observer.com/2016/04/exclusive-paul-ryan-to-attend-secret-donor-meeting-next-week-in-manhattan/

Crux and Sanders Win Wisconsin

Of course we know from Althouse that half of the Cruz voters were #nevertrumpers. They will be disappointed if Cruz is actually the nominee. They want Paul Ryan.

Hey, the whole Bernie thing (and his winning streak) is pretty much being ignored by the same people who despise Trump, amirite?

Who's Challenging Paul Ryan? Meet Paul Nehlen

This is an article on Right Wisconsin. He is described as a wealthy businessman with Tea Party ties who has promised his run will shake up the establishment in a profound way.

He supported Ryan and feels betrayed by the Ryan's omnibus deal.

Paul Nehlen wrote the piece on American Thinker that stakes out his position. It boils down to Washington has developed into an elite class that considers themselves separate and distinct from the people they are meant to represent. He describes how Ryan's speech indicates that Ryan considers himself ruler whose job it is to rally the ruled and unite them. Soaring rhetoric with roles of master and servant reversed.

This was linked on Drudge, presently only 102 comments, so far they all follow this same line. The key word throughout "representation." I don't know why this is so difficult to internalize. One commenter said that this is what he had been trying to explain to his relatives and friends without much success.

"Donald Trump and Paul Ryan on Collision Course"

NY Times:  Speaker Paul D. Ryan, chairman of the Republican National Convention, recent vice-presidential candidate and the highest elected Republican in the country, has one goal for this year: to form a conservative policy agenda for the Republican presidential nominee to embrace.

If that nominee is Donald J. Trump, that may be a waste of time.

Panicked Republicans question whether Mr. Trump will be able to unite a Republican-controlled Congress that would normally be expected to promote and promulgate his agenda, an internal crisis nearly unheard-of in a generation of American politics. On nearly every significant issue, Mr. Trump stands in opposition to Republican orthodoxy and his party’s policy prescriptions — the very ideas that Mr. Ryan has done more than anyone else to form, refine or promote over the last decade.

“You’re hitting on a very big problem, which is that Trump is not a Republican,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who dropped out of the race for the White House in December “I have no idea how we reconcile a Donald Trump agenda with a Republican agenda. How do we write a platform?”

End of year omnibus deal a "cake already baked."

This is an infuriating interview with Paul Ryan defending the massive spending deal covered on the Washington Times. 

Paul Ryan said the cake was already baked when he took over and he made the best of it and seized key GOP wins.

I know of one omnibus win that is no win at all, crude oil on the global market. It's never explained how that is considered a win. America, capitalism exemplar supposedly, and yet its own crude is not available on the global market until now. Somehow attaining that is a win for Ryan's conservative base of voters expressing their deep concern about federal budget.  And the cake analogy is rejected. It's offensive. We know how to get rid of cakes we don't like. You drop them on the floor and say, "There's your cake." You ruin the party shut off the lights send everyone home unhappy. Comparing expenditures of United States government to party bakery product is rejected. We are not talking about a cake.  

"In divided government, you don’t get everything you want"

But Democrats did get everything they what and more. Democrats are lauding Ryan on process. Ryan respects process, they say. They are saying this to assuage Republican base that has seen process abused against them for seven years by an administration that foils process wherever required, using  their money to do it, beginning with the beginning and persisting throughout and not yet ending. So process might be a good argument for Eagle scouts another time but not for Republicans and not now. Screw process. That is the present mood. 

Bless Ryan's heart for following good solid Roger's Rules of Order process. We've all had so much of that lately. And nice now to settle down to reliable law. Only Republicans straight laced conservative boy scouts do that anymore. This is the age of community activism by the highest offices. Having t others doing the dirty work for them of shutting things down. Ryan failed, and Ryan failed for process. The same people who laud Ryan for excellent process also mock Ryan for being a pushover. 

The interview is painful all the way through. It is impossible to resist Fisking Ryan line for line as you read slowing it down considerably as he repeats the same things we heard all week as if they are fresh and his dismissiveness is intolerable. 

He first states the crude oil thing. Ding. 

We fought for as much as we could get. 

No, he did not. No fight at all. Nothing. Nothing whatsoever far less newsworthy. He will say things were in committee being fought there out of sight as they should, but that's for their recommendations, not for them to gather with their lobbyists and list their demands as legislation as they have. That is not proper process. Because we are watching closely and it went like this: nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, omnibus, vote. 

And that is why efforts to primary Paul Ryan are being stepped up. All I saw were a few Facebook posts and we'll see how far they get but the point is they're having Ryan know they are not pleased with him and his answer about a brighter 2016 doesn't cut it. 

Apparently it's conservative's fate to be ever disappointed and betrayed. Put to his first real test of consequence and Ryan failed his constituency in the same way John Roberts Failed conservatives his first serious test. As if it is Washington itself that wrecks people. The miasma irresistible. Once saturated in other people's money the permeation of fiat currency means nothing more substantial than air being breathed. 

Republicans lawmakers ditched the Planned Parenthood problem that their base presented them by stuffing it into an Obamacare repeal bill that will be reliably vetoed by Obama. They imagine their base will not notice, that they will forget, that the issue will soften. So, that means Republicans must do Democrats do naturally, push with tremendous enthusiasm, double the effort, take the signal to be activated, increase the heat, turn up the pressure, crank up the noise, repeat the catchphrases, slap on the bumper stickers, produce the satires, draw up holiday talking points, destroy careers and lives, make sure everybody is upset.

"We advanced our priorities and principles. Not every single one of them, but many of them. And then we’re going to pick up next year and pick up where we left off and keep going for more.”

More debt, and the principles of open market for crude oil and mere parliamentary procedure. He didn't hold any meetings behind locked doors and make deals without any Democrats present as did happen with Affordable Health Care. That sort of holding to procedure.  He didn't buy off any Senators as did happen with Affordable Health Care.  He didn't switch terms in the final stretch from fee to tax contrary every single discussion.  Didn't use any of the power available and vested to apply pressure but still insists that he fought. Didn't allow the president to shut down government and have Republicans absorb blame/credit for being ideologic and uncooperative.

Ryan finishes by saying the people who put him into position know he is conservative with an eye to actually achieving success. Doubly, as  Longfellow does, they know I come from a conservative movement and that I'm a movement conservative with an eye on the prize and that prize is achieving success.

Actual success, not fake success like access to markets that were closed artificially.  

The success of making Democrats happy and conservatives of all strips quite lastingly cross. 

Democrats must be wondering why they didn't demand more of everyone else's money.

Paul Ryan

His eyes read, "I'm doomed." They do. He can buff up all he wants, his body knows he's doomed.

Sanpaku, "three eyes" there are two types, one, I've gone daft, and two, I'm doomed. Ryan's type. All photos of Ryan, not just this one are like this. His face honestly conveys what his body knows about all the things bearing on him that his mind believes he is handling and throughout all that his body says, "I am done for."

And he is.

It's very odd. The whole thing is odd. The political situation so bizarre it's untenable. Civil war in slow motion across the country so slow that its wave breaks over Washington like this omnibus package. Paul Ryan rides the crest of that wave to high office then abruptly turns against it for a "clear slate," worst of all reasons for his base, that gives opponents all that they want to avoid the fight that from the base's point of view he was elevated to wage. He failed them. And they're not in the mood for excuses. He does this when the base is in prolonged turnover mood.

A way to understanding is bizarrely inappropriate too. From the East, not even our system of understanding. We don't look at eyes like this, but once you do it's quite impossible to ignore.

Paul Ryan new House Speaker

Here are two competing views, acceptance and rejection.

The Ryan Revolution, Free Beacon by Matthew Contenetti describes Ryan oddly supported by Freedom Caucus known for being "combative, aggrieved, empowered" upon their encounter with Ryan their adversarial relationship "melted away."

After reviewing Ryan's recent history, Contenetti contends Ryan's election as speaker would be the culmination of a long journey for Ryan and for Republicans and asks what have we learned since this began when Ryan refashioned Social Security and Medicare reform from the 3rd rail of politics to GOP platform? He answers, tacking on  entitlements needn't be political suicide, Republicans needn't dismiss the subject of poverty, compassion, civil society, these categories that should influence our thinking. Ideas, even controversial ones, are not hindrances in politics but boosters.

Enough of Contenetti.

Paul Ryan"s Selection as Speaker Represents All That's Wrong With GOP, National Review by Mark Krikorian begins, GOP to its own voters: Drop dead. Krikorian describes Republican leadership out of step, that Ryan as chairman on Ways and Means worked but Ryan as GOP leader does not for three reasons. Reading carefully through more of GOP out of step positions and GOP drop deads to voters we see the the three reasons are immigration, immigration and immigration. Ryan is described as dedicated libertarian regarding free flow of labor.

Both suggest Ryan is the thin edge to a wedge, that this is all preliminary, the action about immigration will happen after Obama. Both have the ring of après Obama, le déluge within the Republican House.

House Republican Women's Caucus to vote en bloc for Ryan as Speaker

"“The unanimous support of the women members of the Republican conference represent a broad range of views and a broad geographic range from coast to coast,” [Rep. Virginia Comstock, VA] said in a statement.""

http://www.politico.com/blogs/the-gavel/2015/10/paul-ryan-gop-women-lawmakers-215089

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*ferklempt*

The Tax Collector for the Welfare State

RedState.com by Erick Erickson

There is a cult of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) that is as strong as any cult of personality in American politics. It’s just the people who eschew populism and conservative politics are the ones in the cult. And these people would never consider themselves part of a cult as they kneel in their prayer closets and thank God for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) ,

Ryan is, to be sure, not a bad guy. But his cult of personality will make it problematic for conservatives should he be Speaker because everyone calls Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  a conservative and you are a loon if you think otherwise. In other words, House conservatives who might take issue with Ryan in the future will immediately be labeled as fascist totalitarians more willing to set everything on fire than work hard.

Personally, given Washington these days, I think the default should be to burn it to the ground (metaphorically speaking), but you know what I mean. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  will give the veneer of conservatism to whatever he touches.

“It’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to”

"Paul Ryan’s Pelosi-esque Obamatrade Moment"

What Ryan is trying to convince House Republicans to do is vote for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) which would fast-track at least three highly secretive trade deals—specifically the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)—and potentially more deals. 

Right now, TiSA and T-TIP text are completely secretive and unavailable for even members of Congress to read while TPP text is available for members to review—although they need to go to a secret room inside the Capitol where only members of Congress and certain staffers high-level security clearances, who can only go when members are present, can read the bill.

Romney says Clinton won't be able to distance herself from Obama

Are they running again?

"At a book event for Rep. Paul Ryan, his former running mate, Romney said that Hillary Clinton distancing herself from some of President Barack Obama's foreign policy was reminiscent of the campaign he ran against the President."

"She was very critical of the president’s foreign policy, and basically said ’he doesn’t have one,’" said Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. "I used to say that during the campaign."

"Ryan, Obama and 'Racism'"

"A week later, and liberals are still lining up to assail Paul Ryan's "racism." The episode is worth noting not because Mr. Ryan said anything wrong, but because of what it shows about the political habits of today's elected and media left."

The Wisconsin Congressman has been looking into the problem of upward economic mobility and how effective federal programs are in combatting poverty. Appearing on Bill Bennett's radio program, Mr. Ryan observed that antipoverty assistance can often create "incentives not to work and to stay where you are, that's not what we want in society. . . . There are a lot of people slipping through the cracks in America that are not reaching their potential and we as conservatives should have something to say about that."

He also mused: "We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, so there's a cultural problem that has to be dealt with." (bold emphasis added)

The liberal online organ Think Progress led with the headline "Paul Ryan Blames Poverty On Lazy 'Inner City' Men," and it was off to the races. California Democrat Barbara Lee denounced his "thinly veiled racial attack," adding, "Let's be clear, when Mr. Ryan says 'inner city,' when he says 'culture,' these are simply code words for what he really means: 'black.'" Others were less charitable about his imagined neo-Confederate sympathies.

Mr. Ryan put out a statement saying he had been "inarticulate" but reiterated his point that "the predictable result" of the poverty trap for society at large has been "multi-generational poverty and little opportunity."

But don't take his word for it. "We know young black men are twice as likely as young white men to be 'disconnected'—not in school, not working. We've got to reconnect them. We've got to give more of these young men access to mentors. We've got to continue to encourage responsible fatherhood. We've got to provide more pathways to apply to college or find a job. We can keep them from falling through the cracks." (bold emphasis added)

Those were the words of President Obama, speaking less than a month ago about his "My Brother's Keeper" project to help "groups who've seen fewer opportunities that have spanned generations," especially boys and young men of color. "It's going to take time. We're dealing with complicated issues that run deep in our history, run deep in our society, and are entrenched in our minds." READ MORE

When it comes to issues of race, gender and inequality, politicians are judged not by their actions, nor the content of their words, but by the letter of party affiliation.

"Rubio Opposes Murray-Ryan Budget Deal"

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Tuesday said that he opposes the budget agreement reached by Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), calling the deal "irresponsible."

"We need a government with less debt and an economy with more good paying jobs, and this budget fails to accomplish both goals, making it harder for more Americans to achieve the American Dream," Rubio said in a statement. "Instead, this budget continues Washington’s irresponsible budgeting decisions by spending more money than the government takes in and placing additional financial burdens on everyday Americans."

The speculation, among tea party faithful, is that Boehner wants to clear the deck for negotiations on amnesty. The speaker has made up his mind to pass amnesty, and, the budget battle would only get in the way of that.

What do you think? Don't hold back.

Talking Points Memo