Trump’s damage to the GOP generates a yuuuge Wednesday headline
The tantrum-prone “stable genius” in the Oval Office has laid waste to America’s global stature, hallowed political traditions, and (as we are starting to see in the explosion of the “Trump bubble”) the economy, in a wave of American carnage unleashed by his corruption, ineptitude, and increasingly bellicose “Tourette’s tweets.”
If there is a silver lining to be divined from the continuing and intensifying crisis, it has come in the form of the damage done to America’s oligarchic Republican Party.
The sycophantic servants of the nation’s billionaires have been dealing with an already disastrous wave of Capitol Hill retirements — so far, 3 Senators and 35 Republicans have already announced they’ve had their fill of coping with legislative sausage-making in Trumpistan and will not be running for reelection.
This morning, the biggest GOP name on Capitol Hill threw in the towel. Axios reported:
House Speaker Paul Ryan has told confidants that he will announce soon that he won’t run for re-election in November, according to sources with knowledge of the conversations. … One of Washington’s best-wired Republicans said: “This is a Titanic, tectonic shift. … This is going to make every Republican donor believe the House can’t be held.” The announcement will help Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in his fundraising because “the Senate becomes the last bastion[.]”
Just before 9amEDT, The New York Times reported:
Speaker Paul D. Ryan will tell House Republican colleagues on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in November, ending a brief stint atop the House and signaling the peril that the Republican majority faces in the midterm elections.
Mr. Ryan’s retirement will kick off a succession battle for the leadership of the House Republican Conference, likely between the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, and the House majority whip, Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
It could also trigger another wave of retirements among Republicans not eager to face angry voters in the fall and taking their cue from Mr. Ryan.
CBS’s Nancy Cordes managed to corner one of Ryan’s top aides:
“I spoke to one of [Rep. Paul Ryan's] top aides, who said he has chosen to retire for two reasons. Number one: out of a sense of accomplishment. Number two: because of family,” @NancyCordes reports https://t.co/9C8rVzKdgk pic.twitter.com/RuZm2hYZNQ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 11, 2018
And let’s not forget Number Three: Ryan is neck-deep in an investigation into evidence the GOP took illegal campaign money from Russia. Ryan is no idiot, and probably already had the lawyer Trump needs late last summer.
Ryan should have been taking a victory lap in the Republican campaign ecosystem for delivering a massive tax cut for corporations and the ultra-rich, planning the next wave of Randian “reform,” and using it as a step toward a 2020 or 2024 presidential run. Instead, he is now the most well-known rat to flee the ship of state as Captain Donald J. Queeg continues to run it straight into an iceberg — with the likelihood of a further wave of Republican retirements to come.
The move also severs Ryan from Trump — and raises the possibility that Ryan may well act against the craven reality show host’s interests, particularly regarding the Justice Department and the investigations into the many apparent crimes Trump and his Russian allies have perpetrated.
If Democrats are smart, they’ll kick the heck out of the GOP while they’re down and feed them a taste of their own medicine. Every incumbent Dem, every newbie candidate, and every campaign manager should start by reading this book. ‘Nuff said!
