Laura Ingraham: A source tells me Paul Ryan might be in line to replace Boehner as Speaker
posted at 3:01 pm on December 22, 2012 by Allahpundit
Via the Daily Caller. The possibility that Boehner will be dumped on January 3, especially if he makes a deal with Obama before then, is real. (There’s already a plan circulating to make it happen, per Breitbart.com.) The possibility of Ryan replacing him is not, for two reasons. One: Ryan’s a Boehner loyalist. He even backed him on Plan B. Maybe he’d agree to step in if the GOP caucus ended up hopelessly divided between Boehner and Not Boehner and he was the only candidate able to unite the two sides, but that would have to be some deadlock for him to feel moved to step in. Two: The Speakership will be an even more thankless job next year than it is now. See Nate Silver’s back-of-the-envelope math about ideological divisions among the incoming class. There are three major groups — establishment Republicans, tea partiers, and hardcore liberals — plus a tiny little sliver of centrist Democrats. Which means that if even a small group of tea partiers walks away from any given bill, the Speaker will have basically no Blue Dog votes with which to replace them. Compromise bills will thus have to be a bit more liberal than they are now in hopes of getting to 218 with some combination of House progressives and centrist Republicans. What sort of aspiring Republican presidential nominee wants to preside over a clusterfark like that? Speaker Ryan would be forever torn between tea-party-driven standoffs with Obama over the budget, which are always risky given the public’s penchant for blaming Republicans, and demoralizing caves to the left by making deals with Pelosi to push stuff through. One way or another, he’d be brutally weakened in 2016 either in the primaries or the general. No thanks.
Update: Related thoughts from Philip Klein.
Update: Yup:
https://twitter.com/stephenfhayes/status/282553484719562752
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Michelle Bachmann’s imaginary friend whose daughter has autism because of a Gardasil shot??
I’m all for effectiveness. I think that Ryan would be very good as Speaker. But Ryan would prefer to be President.
Illinidiva on December 23, 2012 at 9:37 AM
Umm.. the taxes are going up anyway on January 2nd. There is nothing that Boehner can do to stop it. Apparently you live in a parallel world where Mitt Romney is President-elect. Winning the 2012 election was the only way that all the tax cuts were going to stay in place.
Illinidiva on December 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM
Something something three-dimensional chess and everyone else is playing checkers.
Patrick Ishmael on December 23, 2012 at 11:21 AM
Ryan would be a welcomed change.
Spine, good sense, and solid on principle.
kregg on December 23, 2012 at 12:19 PM
Seconded.
topdawg on December 23, 2012 at 12:40 PM
Here’s an organizing principle for Boehner: Stop waging war on conservatives in your caucus and focus on fighting Obama, the Democrats, and their insane tax, spend and regulate agendas.
novaculus on December 23, 2012 at 1:24 PM
I would mind a speaker Cantor scenario. He’s no better than Boehner. It has to be someone with cred on both sides (TP/Est. gop). Cantor has absolutely none.
alwaysfiredup on December 23, 2012 at 3:03 PM
She’s a bombthrower. I admit we need people in the House who will be ideological hawks, but those people do not make good leaders. Leaders have to compromise and have the confidence of their whole party, not just a piece of it. Bachmann does not compromise and does not have the confidence of her peers (if she did, she’d have had some kind of leadership position in the House by now). She is not capable of doing the job.
alwaysfiredup on December 23, 2012 at 3:06 PM
alwaysfiredup. You’re forgetting the first part of the Cantor scenario I posted.. President Ryan.
Illinidiva on December 23, 2012 at 4:22 PM
As long as there IS a movement afoot to kick Boehner out of the Speaker’s chair, I’m satisfied.
TMOverbeck on December 25, 2012 at 7:38 PM
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