Ryan's retirement wreaks havoc in Republican ranks
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Speaker Paul Ryan's decision to call it quits, but to stick around until January, has made things in the House even more chaotic than usual. Even though he tapped current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as his choice, McCarthy's pals think he should leaRyan's retirement wreaks havoc in Republican ranks
Speaker Paul Ryan's decision to call it quits, but to stick around until January, has made things in the House even more chaotic than usual. Even though he tapped current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as his choice, McCarthy's pals think he should leave now so McCarthy can take over. But his endorsement of McCarthy has angered supporters of Whip Steve Scalise (R-LS) who still want him in the job, though Scalise was pressured by Ryan to endorse McCarthy. To top it all off Freedom Caucus guy Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is jumping in, just to make things more volatile. The rest of the conference, meanwhile, is just worried about whether they'll have jobs in January. All the while, rank-in-file House Republicans are divided over whether to postpone a speakership vote until after the November elections or get the divisive process over with now. There's a fear that if Ryan remains speaker, the drama over who will lead the conference will only get worse. «Nature abhors a vacuum; something's got to fill that,» said Rep. Thomas Massie of what's shaping up to be a seven-month leadership race. «I don't know if the palace can sustain that much intrigue.» […] «I hope there is an agreement that we could throttle back a little bit on the leadership races because it's a very divisive process,» said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who thinks Ryan should lead the conference through the election but worries about the current jockeying. «It's not fun to go through.» When one of McCarthy's allies, Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), tried to make the case last week for holding the vote now instead of at the end of the year, it backfired. A clearly annoyed Ryan publicly shot down the idea. «[T]here is nobody who's comes close to being able to raise the kind of funds I have and still can raise for this majority,» Ryan said. «It makes no sense to take the biggest fundraiser off the field. And I think almost all of our members see it that way as well.» Meanwhile, McCarthy is pissing off some of the high-ranking members by continuing to work with the White House on its spending bill double-cross, the rescissions package that could nearly halve the spending authorized in last month's hard-fought agreement, which Trump signed but wants to take back. McCarthy's encouragement of this very unpopular idea has just one purpose, says Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA): «I'll say what I got in trouble for before, which is: This is all about placating the president, appeasing the Republican ‘no’ votes on the omnibus, and it can help people climb up the leadership ladder.» Help end the stupid by helping future Democratic challengers with your $1. Read more