Congratulations to Rep Paul Ryan

For John, BLUF:  Poor Paul Ryan.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I was hoping to get the article from The Hill, but their website is blank, as in all white pixels.

So, from The Old Gray Lady we have have Reporter Jennifer Steinhauer and "Paul Ryan Is Elected House Speaker".

Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin was elected the 54th speaker of the House on Thursday, taking the gavel that he never sought to wield from John A. Boehner, who relinquished it under fire.

But the personal jubilance and high expectations felt by Mr. Boehner, who was elected in a sweeping Republican takeover of the House in 2011, have been replaced with a grim recognition that Mr. Ryan’s ascent stems not from electoral victory but rather the chaos in the ranks of his party’s sizable majority.

Mr. Ryan received 236 votes, a comfortable margin that included several of the hardline conservatives who had worked to oust Mr. Boehner

My Congratulations and Condolences to Mr Paul Ryan, the new Speaker of the House.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Ryan To The Rescue?

For John, BLUF:  I like Rep Ryan.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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It isn't a done deal, but, per National Review, "Speaker Ryan’s Conditions".

He laid them out at a Republican-conference meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, telling his colleagues he wants the bickering to end.  That means, Republicans said as they exited the meeting, he wants universal endorsements from the various caucuses, specifically from the conservative Freedom Caucus, the Republican Study Committee, and the more moderate Tuesday Group.  He gave members until Friday to let him know if they could rally behind him, so that he could make preparations or give other candidates the opportunity to do so.  “If I can truly be a unifying figure, then I will gladly serve,” Ryan reiterated to reporters later.  If not, he said, “I’ll be happy to stay where I am at the Ways and Means Committee.”

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Paul Ryan Ponders

For John, BLUF:  It would be a sacrifice on his part.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From The Old Gray Lady we have an article on Rep Paul Ryan, "Hometown Lets Paul Ryan Ponder Speaker Job on Own Terms".

JANESVILLE, Wis. — Representative Paul D. Ryan stepped out of St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Church after Mass here Saturday evening into the twilight of a cloudless day, far removed from the bleating of Washington that had surrounded him roughly 24 hours before.

In his hometown, he was not being chased by reporters with microphones or beseeched by his colleagues courting him to be the next speaker of the House.  Instead, he was among friends and neighbors, shooting the breeze as he meandered across a large suburban parking lot.

“Hey, Paul, what are the odds?” one of them asked about the chances he would try to ascend to the office second in the line of succession to the presidency.

A knowing Mr. Ryan stopped, smiled and gestured toward the lone journalist in the crowd.  “He’s a reporter,” he said, by way of apology, and kept walking.

But the question is on many minds in Janesville, a town of blue-collar workers, still suffering from the idling of a General Motors plant almost seven years ago, and of well-to-do families like the Ryans.  The people here seem almost as conflicted as Mr. Ryan himself professes to be.

Sounds like Janesville to me.

As for the Speakership, no one is going to make all the Republicans happy.  And, the question is, how much respect should the more conservative Members get in this process.  That is tied to the question of how much of their agenda has been accommodated.  Think of it in terms of a typical European Parliament.  They form a coalition with the Center-Right Republicans, so that they are part of the majority.  What do they get in exchange?♠

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  My two cents worth is that those European Parliament arrangements would not be good here in the Good Old USA.  See, for example,

Republican 2016 Field Narrows

For John, BLUF:  I am thinking that State Capitols is the place to look for 2016 Republican Presidential Candidates.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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In which I quote the totality of an Althouse blog post.

Clue that Paul Ryan will not seek the GOP presidential nomination.

"After winning re-election last night, Ryan said he would seek the chairmanship of the the House Ways and Means Committee.  That post would make it exceedingly difficult for him to seek the presidency next year."

ADDED:  Ryan might be thinking:  2016 is a good year for a Wisconsinite, but a bad year for a member of Congress to win the presidency.  We need a governor....

Yes, I am disappointed.  I like Paul Ryan.  But, Governor Scott Walker wouldn't be a bad candidate for 2016.♠

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  No, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is not one of my favorites.  However, I like South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley) and I like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (Piyush "Bobby" Jindal).

Praise for President Bill Clinton

For John, BLUF:  A Republican admits that a Democrat can help fix the fiscal crisis.  Unfortunately, he has timed out of office.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

From News Busters we have this short note on Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) saying on NBC's Meet the Press "If We Had a Clinton Presidency, We Would Have Fixed This Fiscal Mess By Now."

If we had a Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles chief-of-staff at the White House, or President of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now.  That's not the kind of presidency we're dealing with right now.

Congressman Ryan isn't wrong here.

Both parties - forget about just the recent past - both parties got us to the mess we are in, this fiscal crisis, Republicans and Democrats.  And you know what?  It’s going to take both parties to solve this problem.  That’s the kind of leadership we need today.

And he isn't wrong there either.

And remember, President Bill Clinton, for part of his time in office, had to work with a Republican Congress and a Senate with a filibuster rule.

Regards  —  Cliff

Poverty Growing As A Problem

For John, BLUF:  "In this war on poverty, poverty is winning."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

One in six Americans are in poverty today—the highest rate in a generation.  In this war on poverty, poverty is winning.

Exactly!  We are currently doubling down on our current approach.  Taking a new approach is not only risky, but it means choosing between alternatives.  On the other hand, government collected statistics say things are not getting better.  At the end of the day I end up agreeing with Rep Paul Ryan.

We need a better approach.

Yes, the first quote is also from Rep Ryan.  Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? translates from the Latin as "Who watches the watchmen?".♠

It is a good question, raised once again in an article in Investors Business Daily about the Paul Ryan claim regarding the now shuttered GM Plant in Janesvile, WI and the Candidate Obama.  This is a rather long extract from the article, but I am lifting it from Law Professor Glenn Reynolds (the InstaPundit) so I am expecting it is fair use:

If media “fact checkers” are just impartial guardians of the truth, how come they got their own facts wrong about Paul Ryan’s speech, and did so in a way that helped President Obama’s re-election effort?

Case in point was the rush of “fact check” stories claiming Ryan misled when he talked about a shuttered auto plant in his home state.

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler posted a piece — “Ryan misleads on GM plant closing in hometown” — saying Ryan “appeared to suggest” that Obama was responsible for the closure of a GM plant in Janesville, Wis.

“That’s not true,” Kessler said. “The plant was closed in December 2008, before Obama was sworn in.”

What’s not true are Kessler’s “facts.”  Ryan didn’t suggest Obama was responsible for shuttering the plant.  Instead, he correctly noted that Obama promised during the campaign that the troubled plant “will be here for another hundred years” if his policies were enacted.

Also, the plant didn’t close in December 2008.  It was still producing cars [trucks?] until April 2009.

An AP “fact check” also claimed that “the plant halted production in December 2008″ even though the AP itself reported in April 2009 that the plant was only then “closing for good.”

CNN’s John King made the same claim about that plant closure.  But when CNN looked more carefully at the evidence, it — to its credit — concluded that what Ryan said was “true.”

When people lose faith in institutions they look elsewhere, or double down.  The third option is to just wander aimlessly.  The reason Fox News does as well as it does is not because it is so good, but because the public, or a patch of the public, has rejected the Main Stream Media, including The Old Gray Lady, as perveyors of the truth.♥

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The Wikipedia article tells us that some question the authenticity of the quote and then notes that it is about ensuring the faithfulness of one's wife.
♥  That leads us back to the time when Pontius was a Pilatus, and asked Quid est veritas? (John 18:38).

CNN Takes a Hit, Probably Misses It

At this post over at the Althouse blog is a focus on the family of Representative Paul Ryan, but it also has this little item on CNN:

Speaking of Googling, CNN can't bother to do the most basic Googling.  I just heard it say that Ryan is from a "small town" in Wisconsin.  Janesville isn't a small town!  It's a small city, with a population over 60,000.  It takes 2 seconds to discover that.  If you don't bother to get the little, easy things right, why should we ever trust you? Of course, we don't. Speaking of small... CNN ratings are way down

But, back to Janna Ryan, she is originally from Oklahoma and is (or was) a tax attorney.  I wonder if she knows either Professor Elizabeth Warren or Representative Michele Bachmann?

Regards  —  Cliff

Shocker!

For one thing, Ryan has no significant private-sector experience.

That comment on Representative Paul Ryan from The New Yorker.  I will grant you the standard used by reporter Ryan Lizza is Governor Romney himself, but still, it seems a strange comment, given the background of our sitting President.♠

But, he is from Janesville.

Congratulations, Representative Ryan.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Where even Governor Sarah Palin had more experience in 2008.

This is Rubbish

The Janesville (Wisconsin) Superintendent of Schools Karen Schulte is against publishing salaries of employees of the PUBLIC School System.  It is public money and it is for a public purpose.  Of course there should be full and open accounting for the public.  Otherwise we don't know if things have gone off the rails in the school system.  This all came up when someone started passing this information around a few days ago.

Yes, this is a reversal from my normal mode of lauding Janesville, and especially its attention to having long term city managers, people with competency, continuity and strategic vision.

And, it isn't like the information isn't in the public domain.  It is just that the School Department and the Union object to people actually looking at it.

Strange.

And here is the Althouse blog post on the issue, with comments.

We need to learn to be honest and open with ourselves.  Yes, in private industry it is all very hush-hush, but this is not private industry.  It is public service.  Fair and open.

Regards  —  Cliff