A Daily Beast Op-Ed
Everything Trump touches dies, and the speaker’s legacy is no exception.
By Rick Wilson
The news that Paul Ryan is retiring from Congress
was received by grim-faced members of the GOP caucus finally realizing
what they’ve done, and what’s coming. Ryan pulled the ripcord Wednesday
after a 19-year career in Congress, declaring he would leave Washington
at the end of his current term to spend more time with his existential
angst over what he let Donald Trump do to our country.
The happy
talk about holding the House is over. The spin for the press, the rubes,
and the donor class just came to a shrieking halt. Nancy Pelosi is in
her crone cavern, cackling with glee, knowing that the Democrats are now
in play in almost 80 congressional seats. The general of the House
Republican army just announced he’s leaving the field just as the tide
of political war looks most grim.
Ryan and his caucus hoped to run
on the tax cut, the economy, and infrastructure. All of these messages
now will be swept aside. Ryan owns his share of the blame; too often, he
behaved as if he was some deferential junior VP at a Trump resort and
not the leader of the House of Representatives in a co-equal branch of
government. The idea, popular among the House leadership, that a diet of
ass-kissing and deference would make Trump into a normal president who
didn’t need the political equivalent of Depends was always a strategic
mistake.
Ryan is now paying the price. The rest of his caucus will pay in the fall.
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