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US Politics: What Price Loyalty?


mormont

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5 minutes ago, Shryke said:

Wha? No Republican is gonna vote for Pelosi as House Leader. They are gonna pick one of their own. Except there was no one last time which is why they begged Ryan to take the job. The House GOP Caucus is a clusterfuck no one wants to have to deal with.

We're gonna win the house back. He's still Speaker until next year.

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7 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Ok, any chance that Ryan not running for reelection gives him some spine to stand up to Trump in the next six months?

I wouldn't count on it.  Even if he wanted to, in what way?  There's no real budget battles left before he leaves, and even if Trump fires Mueller and half the DOJ it's not like the GOP House is gonna do anything about it right before the midterms.  Ryan waited as long as possible to announce because he knew once he's a lame duck he can't do much of anything.

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Just now, dmc515 said:

I wouldn't count on it.  Even if he wanted to, in what way?  There's no real budget battles left before he leaves, and even if Trump fires Mueller and half the DOJ it's not like the GOP House is gonna do anything about it right before the midterms.  Ryan waited as long as possible to announce because he knew once he's a lame duck he can't do much of anything.

He got his paycheck from the tax cuts, and he's such a spineless little worm that he doesn't want to deal with the dysfunction that is Congress and Trump. 

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11 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

I wouldn't count on it.  Even if he wanted to, in what way?  There's no real budget battles left before he leaves, and even if Trump fires Mueller and half the DOJ it's not like the GOP House is gonna do anything about it right before the midterms.  Ryan waited as long as possible to announce because he knew once he's a lame duck he can't do much of anything.

I'm not counting on it either. 

I do think there are things he could do though.  He could put one of the "protect Mueller" bills on the floor for a vote, and I think he could get 25 Republicans and all the Democrats to sign it.  McConnell wouldn't take it up, but just passing it in the House would increase the political costs of firing him. 

Likewise he could champion protecting elections and probably get something through the house, if he is willing to do bipartisanship.  I'm sure the Freedom Caucus et al would hate it, but I doubt they'd strip him of speakership at this late hour. 

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1 minute ago, Crazy Cat Lady in Training said:

He got his paycheck from the tax cuts, and he's such a spineless little worm that he doesn't want to deal with the dysfunction that is Congress and Trump. 

I was surprised he took the Speakership to begin with.  It was clear then that the GOP caucus lives off eating their own leadership, and he obviously wants to run for president one day.  Getting his tax cuts then extricating himself from that caucus is undoubtedly the best strategy if he wants to run in 6 years.  It should be noted that the only reason the GOP caucus turned its lonely eyes to Ryan after Boehner retired in the first place is because McCarthy was a weak heir apparent (shortest tenured incoming Majority Leader every), and he was still reeling from making the classic Washington gaffe of telling the truth about why the GOP was investigating Hillary.

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2 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

He could put one of the "protect Mueller" bills on the floor for a vote, and I think he could get 25 Republicans and all the Democrats to sign it.

I'm not so sure about that.

2 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Likewise he could champion protecting elections and probably get something through the house

In what way?

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1 minute ago, dmc515 said:

I'm not so sure about that.

In what way?

If it was put on the floor, I bet you'd get a few score of R's to vote yes.

Fuck, just the people who are retiring alone would be enough.

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2 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

If it was put on the floor, I bet you'd get a few score of R's to vote yes.

Nah.  Just because you're retiring from the House doesn't mean you don't want to maintain the good graces of the party.  Most retiring members still have political ambitions.

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2 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

Nah.  Just because you're retiring from the House doesn't mean you don't want to maintain the good graces of the party.  Most retiring members still have political ambitions.

Yeah, but if they have the political acuity to ditch this dumpster fire then I won't rule out the possibility that they know down the line there will rewards for having 'stood up' (but not really) to Trump.

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1 minute ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Yeah, but if they have the political acuity to ditch this dumpster fire then I won't rule out the possibility that they know down the line there will rewards for having 'stood up' (but not really) to Trump.

On an entirely symbolic vote?  Seems like way too much risk with way too little reward.

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Just now, dmc515 said:

On an entirely symbolic vote?  Seems like way too much risk with way too little reward.

Yeah, but then they get to say "I tried to stop the Madman!" in 4 years when nobody wants to deal with the headache of pointing out how impotent and worthless that vote was.

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Ryan won't bring that vote to the floor because he won't violate the Paedophile/Hastert Rule. The vote would fracture the caucus even more. Not immigration vote bad, but it wouldn't be pretty.

 

6 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Yeah, but then they get to say "I tried to stop the Madman!" in 4 years when nobody wants to deal with the headache of pointing out how impotent and worthless that vote was.

Yeah, but that's assuming Trump will be someone you wanna run against by then.

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21 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

In what way?

Just a general cybersecurity bill to protect election machines, etc.  Not sure it could pass the Senate (although really the question is whether it could pass McConnell, because the votes are there).

And for whether he could really get 25 House Republicans to protect Mueller, yeah, I dunno.  It's a maybe.  Retirements would help, and I think that threatened House members like Comstock or Fitzpatrick could be brought along in their attempt to establish independence.  I'm seeing Comstock ads in Virginia and they're pounding her "independence" hard. 

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46 minutes ago, Darzin said:

Link

So there is that.

Looks like Russia is pushing back quite a bit on this. Of course I can't even imagine the response if the Russia bombed a US ally. Some people on reddit were discussing whether Syrian possessed the capability to shoot anti ship missiles at the US destroyers off the coast until it was pointed out that if Syria ever successfully hit back the US would just level the country. I'm a fair bit disappointed in the US to be honest there is no alternative to Assad, the SDF (and i'm a huge YPG partisan) kind of are but they are way to far from from Damascus removing the Syrian regime without an alternative would result in a literal genocide, so taking potshots at them from the side just feels dishonest and cruel. Especially since we haven't confirmed who launched the attack. 

 

That stuff is from yesterday. It's not a response to Trump's comments now.

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2 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Yeah, but then they get to say "I tried to stop the Madman!" in 4 years when nobody wants to deal with the headache of pointing out how impotent and worthless that vote was.

I think you kinda have that backwards.  The party will have long memories about such a vote, even if its symbolic.  The public, though, is very unlikely to care as much about it.

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29 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I'm not counting on it either. 

I do think there are things he could do though.  He could put one of the "protect Mueller" bills on the floor for a vote, and I think he could get 25 Republicans and all the Democrats to sign it.  McConnell wouldn't take it up, but just passing it in the House would increase the political costs of firing him. 

Likewise he could champion protecting elections and probably get something through the house, if he is willing to do bipartisanship.  I'm sure the Freedom Caucus et al would hate it, but I doubt they'd strip him of speakership at this late hour. 

What in Ryan's venal career of peddling self-serving, half-bright, plutocratic bullshit makes you think he is personally interested in any of those things?

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Just now, dmc515 said:

I think you kinda have that backwards.  The party will have long memories about such a vote, even if its symbolic.  The public, though, is very unlikely to care as much about it.

Yeah, but we're barreling towards a party realignment in 2020. It's not going to be as openly dramatic as the fifties and sixties, but what's left of the current Republican establishment at that point is going to have much bigger issues than persecuting the minority of its members that had the (minimum) fortitude required to say something.

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