Jessicah Lahitou is not a fan of grandstanding. After seeing Paul Ryan speak, she is a fan of him.
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During this summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival, Paul Ryan spoke at their much-advertised Afternoon of Conversation. Given the liberal bent of most sessions and commentators, I assumed the crowd would be skeptical, if not downright hostile, to Ryan’s ideas. He seemed to anticipate that very reception, beginning his interview with a joke about how the lightning and thunder that rumbled outside must mean a Republican is approaching.
But then, the crowd held their peace. They listened as he spoke, sent up neither boos nor huffs of indignation. There were even Ryan lines that landed tepid applause.
Given the regular television, radio and Internet presence of Republicans, one might be understandably shocked to learn that a Capital R House Representative could receive hand claps in a bastion of liberal ideology like Aspen.
It is not so difficult to believe, however, once you’ve actually seen Paul Ryan in action. His answers are detailed, backed by reputable data, and delivered in a factual tone long absent from most political conversations. Ryan gives the sense that he believes in conservative economic policy because he’s run the numbers, and this is what works. He comes across as an unnaturally articulate and preternaturally intelligent accountant.
If you imagine what Ted Cruz’s antithesis might be, I’d say he would look a lot like Paul Ryan.
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For the better part of the past decade, the Republican Party has broiled in a state of outraged chaos. No other modern political group so vividly demonstrates the concept “circular firing squad.” First came the ferocious turn on former President George W. Bush over the Iraq War, and then following Senator McCain’s sleepwalk through the 2008 election, the infamous 2012 Republican Primary. Wherein candidates unleashed their inner wolverines upon each other.
Forget Hillary Clinton’s recent debate jest that the enemy she’s most proud of making is The Republicans. For Republicans in 2012, the enemy they were most proud of making? Newt Gingrich.
Fast forward to 2014. A group of “true” conservatives in the House dub themselves the Freedom Caucus, and proceed to hold their party – not to mention the government as a whole – hostage to ultra-conservative principles. Their biggest enemies? Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Republican House Speaker John Boehner.
So while the bedlam that followed John Boehner’s recent resignation as Speaker of the House was another disappointing display of partisan infighting, it was by no means a surprise.
And then, the go-to replacement, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, nonchalantly suggested that the Republican-led Benghazi committee had been formed with the sole purpose of derailing Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. Whether or not his claim is true, the fodder it provided to the Democratic frontrunner’s campaign ensured McCarthy would never get the yays to be elected as Speaker.
For a week, a few unknowns cast their name into the ring, knowing they were nowhere near the 218 votes necessary to secure the position. What they hoped to achieve from these far-fetched campaigns, who can say?
Someone, somewhere saw that if the Republicans did not put a plausible candidate forward, they risked “forcing” the media to cover their intraparty mayhem.
Thus, the Draft Ryan movement began.
Most people remember Paul Ryan, if they remember him at all, as Mitt Romney’s 2012 Vice Presidential running mate.
But in the meantime, Ryan has cultivated a reputation as someone who is actually willing to put in the work and elbow grease necessary to get things done. He helped pass a budget with Democrat Patty Murray, for instance. Not the easiest feat in a time of political polarization best characterized as epic.
Due to this rare penchant for real work over grandstanding, Ryan is not despised in DC. The number of Republicans who get even modicums of respect from Democrats or the media can be counted on one hand, and possibly less. Ryan is one of the very few.
His reluctant agreement to run for Speaker of the House is a monumental, undeserved gift to the Republican Party.
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Photo: Mary Altaffer / AP Photo
Source: 30dB.com – Paul Ryan and Speaker