Please Leave Already

On April 11, 2018 Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced he would leave Congress at the end of his term in January 2019.

"I did not seek this job. I took it reluctantly. But I have given this job everything I have," Ryan said. "To be clear, I am not resigning. I will serve my full term as I was elected to do."

Ryan was cast to the country as the champion of bipartisan cooperation to solve the debt crisis and the protection of the makers from the predations of the takers.

While Ryan ostensibly attributes his decision to step down to wanting to spend more time with his family, he leaves behind a House that has lost institutional capacity and public respect. He leaves behind a conference that is divided and ineffective, one that may well spend much of the rest of this year deciding who might next inherit the speakership.

The absence of a strong Speaker of the House has greatly diminished the GOP advantage in that body. Congress is always an extraordinarily difficult institution. By design, it is does not move speedily and it creates innumerable ways to block progress. With an Executive Branch that has vastly expanded in power since the early 20th century, and an electorate that is increasingly divided along party lines, effective governance requires some sort of centralizing force that can help to bring about compromise and push back against the more destructive forces in the House and the Senate.

A strong speaker is an important part of the solution to America’s illnesses. The steady erosion of the speakership (Hastert, Boehner and Ryan) is not healthy for the institution. Someone has to take charge in an increasingly dysfunctional Capitol Hill.

Yesterday Ryan lectured young congressional aides on civility in public discourse and on social media. "These days, we don’t even really set out to persuade anymore. We just hit each over the head until the music stops."

"Here is the way I see this: it is no longer just that our passions are getting the best of us. More and more, our politics is enabling the worst in us.  We no longer see our opponents as ‘the other side,’ but simply as ‘the others’. As someone not fundamentally like us. The more politics preys on our divisions, the more we become defined by them. It leads to a view of life and society as a zero-sum game where one group has to win at the expense of the other."

Ryan warned against retreating "to the comfort, and conformity, of our tribes," as "this blinds us to the perspectives that others bring to the table."

"In turn, we ourselves don’t reach out, don’t offer our time and energy. And social media just amplifies all of these trends. It is an industry where you can make money feeding fear and resentment.  We are caught in this paradox where we are more connected than ever, but we could not feel more disconnected or more alienated. We just cannot let our divisions overtake our basic respect for another. We need to recognize that we are all less-than-perfect. We all fall short, we all struggle. We all want to be heard, and to be needed. Our humanity spurs us to find perspective, to listen, and to lend a hand. This is without question the greatest antidote, the greatest antibody, we have against the forces of alienation."

He even produced a lame-ass video in which he read mean tweets:

When a resolution was issued to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein late last night accusing him of thwarting congressional oversight and obstruction by defying congressional subpoenas in the Mueller Russia investigation, Ryan opposed the move saying the “accusations don’t rise to the necessary level of high crimes and misdemeanors.”

According to The Washington Examiner, the resolution was filed as a nonprivileged motion, meaning Ryan would have to approve it for a vote on the House floor. Freedom Caucus member Mark Meadows (R-NC) said he could instead file it as a privileged motion, requiring a vote on the House floor within two days.

“We hope that it doesn’t have to come to that but starting tomorrow we can bring it up as a privileged motion.  That’s something that any member of Congress, Jim [Jordan R-OH] or I can do. And quite frankly, it’s either we hold him in contempt or we get the documents, or we impeach him.”

On Rosenstein's watch, the Justice Department has "made every effort to obstruct legitimate attempts of congressional oversight," Meadows said. "The stonewalling over this last year has been just as bad or worse than under the Obama Administration."

He added, "This level of conduct, paired with the failure to even feign an interest in transparency, is reprehensible. And whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, this kind of obstruction is wrong — period."

In the end, Meadows decided not to carry out that threat for now. He did not file a privileged motion for impeachment, and House Republicans announced this morning they would not vote on the matter before they leave for their August recess.

Meadows is “tabling” his efforts to impeach pursuing instead contempt if the Justice Department does not turn over the documents Congress has demanded.  Ryan must, as Speaker, partner with the Freedom Caucus.

Ryan discovered long ago that the Freedom Caucus buried his family jewels in the same graveyard where they buried John Boehner’s.