Outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan is one of the most prominent national politicians from the state of Wisconsin, and he’s a leader of the Republican Party. As such, you’d think he might have something to say—good or bad—about the power grab in Wisconsin, where Republicans in the state legislature are sharply restricting the authority of the governor and attorney general now that Democrats will hold those positions.
But we’re talking about Paul Ryan here, spineless weasel extraordinaire. He probably likes the move, because he’s as dedicated to the pursuit of Republican power as anyone. But he can’t say so too directly, because he also likes to have reporters think of him as a different kind of Republican, one with some ethics. So:
Ryan has not commented publicly on the matter. Asked whether the speaker supports the Wisconsin GOP’s lame-duck proposals, a spokesman for Ryan told HuffPost in an email on Tuesday, “I don’t have anything for you.”
Saying how he really feels about his fellow Wisconsin Republicans refusing a peaceful transition of power would get in the way of one of Ryan’s big recent image-building moves:
In a eulogy for George H.W. Bush, who died last week, Ryan credited the former president for the graceful way in which he handed over the reins to Bill Clinton, who succeeded him as president after one term.
“He was the first president to teach me that in a democracy, sometimes you fall short and that how you handle that — that is just as important as how you win,” Ryan said Monday at an event at the U.S. Capitol.
Bush may have offered that lesson, but Ryan apparently didn’t learn it all that well.