Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this year

Embed from Getty Images

The tenure of Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House has made me miss poor old John Boehner. Boehner at least had some emotions – he would weep openly over nothing, he was orange like fire, and he got out while the gettin’ was good. Paul Ryan’s tenure has been marked by treason, complicity and enormous tax cuts. That’s it. Speaker Ryan is very unpopular in the country, unpopular in his district, and unpopular within the House of Representatives. And now sucky baby Paul Ryan is taking his crayons and his tax cuts and he’s leaving the juvenile sandbox that is American politics in 2018.

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. Why it matters: House Republicans were already in a very tough spot for the midterms, with many endangered members and the good chance that Democrats could win the majority.

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,” the Republican said.

Background: This decision has been rumored since Politico’s Tim Alberta and Rachel Bade wrote in December that he saw his “wild Washington journey coming to an end,” but his final deliberations were held extremely closely. Ryan, 48, was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2012, and has long harbored presidential ambitions. Friends say he could make another run in the future.

Friends say that after Ryan passed tax reform, his longtime dream, he was ready to step out of a job that has become endlessly frustrating, in part because of President Trump. Friends say Ryan was contemplating a minority or slim majority and decided that there was no good time to leave — it was time for at least a stint in private life. What comes next: The two most likely to replace him are Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, though Scalise has said he won’t run against McCarthy, who appears to have first bite at the apple.

[From Axios]

Is it really some tectonic shift though? McCarthy will likely win the House election for the Speakership, or rather… McCarthy will win the House election for minority leader after the Republicans hopefully, God-willingly get utterly destroyed in the mid-term elections. McCarthy will represent more of the same – he’s just as complicit and compromised as Ryan, and he’ll never say one word against the baby-fisted dictator. No, the real issue in the coming months will be: if and when Democrats sweep the midterms, will Nancy Pelosi come back as Speaker?

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

95 Responses to “Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this year”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. minx says:

    Bye, *sshole.

    • CTwinter says:

      Amen

    • Betsy says:

      Thread closed. That’s pretty much it.

    • holly hobby says:

      Yep don’t let the door hit your boney butt when you leave.

      He is the worst speaker ever. And yes I do miss Boehner.

    • Lilly says:

      Such a horrible person who won’t even attempt to protect the children and any person who can’t give him lots of money. Undoubtedly he’ll still make lots of money. But, I hope his record follows him in life and in history.

    • Saras says:

      He can see his kids on weekends in Jail! Lying Ryan can rot!

    • The Other Katherine says:

      Buh-bye. Kaiser is right, he managed to make Boehner look like a mensch. Spineless coward who stood for nothing except making the rich richer.

  2. Jenns says:

    Guess he got bored of killing poor people with his policies?

    Coward.

    I wish him nothing but chronic diarrhea for the rest of his life.

    • Belle Epoch says:

      The fleas of a thousand camels – or just rotting in hell. Does anyone think he’s not running again because it would expose all the dirty deeds with which he has been involved? Taking Russian money etc.? He has been keeping a loooowwww profile and he has done some seriously bad things.

      • Lightpurple says:

        He has been very active in helping Trump obstruct Justice by keeping Nunes in place. There are also rumors about his place on that congressional staff list of members to avoid since he keeps a bed in his office.

      • Jenns says:

        No. I don’t think he’s involved with Russia.

        He knows he could lose, so he’s taking his toys and going to a private sector where they will reward him with plenty of $$$$$$$$ because he passed that tax cut bill.

        Paul Ryan pushed the agenda for the wealthy, and to all those greedy CEOs, he’s their boy. Paul Ryan will never get what’s coming to him. He and his family will be just fine. And really f**king rich.

      • whatWHAT? says:

        I fully believe the Russia has kompromat on him, too. he’s probably taken a LOT of $$$ from them.

      • Betsy says:

        Elliot Broidy. Seychelles. Erik Prince.

        Yes, Ryan has taken foreign (illegal) money.

      • NotSoSocialButterfly says:

        I think that’s part of it, but i also think he sees the blue tsunami coming.

      • Esmom says:

        NSSB, Agreed. He does not want to lose to Randy Bryce and his hands are dirty.

      • Cranberyy says:

        @Esmom
        Listened to Randy Bryce on KPFK radio in LA last month. I liked him. He sounds like a great guy. Very relatable and on top of the real issues. Does not just scapegoat immigrants for problems with jobs and economy. Understands that republicans have been attacking and destroying unions across the country for decades diminishing workers rights and wages.
        I hope Ryans bailing out assures Bryce wins the seat. 🙂

      • Hazel says:

        Yep, I think that. My first thought was, he’s just going to take the money & run.

    • Tate says:

      Same.

    • Cranberyy says:

      +10000000. . . .00

      Burn in Hell B*tch!

    • Twinkle says:

      Chronic diarrhea? You’re too nice. I wish he burn in hell.

  3. TW says:

    Peace out you POS.

  4. Reef says:

    He accomplished a large part of his Randian goals. I’m sure someone else will get rid of Medicare/caid.

    • Who ARE These People? says:

      And now there’s not enough $$ to keep supporting Social Security, too.

      Everything he did must be repealed and for that the Democrats must take back the House and gain what they can in the Senate.

      • Anastasia says:

        Wait, what??? My parents both rely on Social Security!

      • Veronica S. says:

        We’re basically at the point where what’s being paid into Social Security is immediately going back out. It’s been raided so often over the last century that it’s bound to require reform or privatization within the next couple of decades unless taxes are increased.

      • jetlagged says:

        @Veronica, haven’t we been at that point for a while? @Anastasia, I wouldn’t worry too much about your parents – but you should be worried for yourself and your children.

    • Cranberyy says:

      Yes he mostly accomplished and laid out the ground work to complete is 1%er agenda. Paying out the corporate elites and military contractors and leaving the country with the biggest national dept ever to be balanced at the expense of Social Security and Medicare.

      He’s Vader returning to the deathstar where he and the dark emperor(s) will safely watch the death ray complete his work of destroying the social safety net programs of the poor and working class.

  5. BearcatLawyer says:

    So things get a little tough now that the whiny toddler YOU nominated is in office and you bail with your lifetime healthcare to make even more money in the private sector. @#$& you, Paul Lying (typo and it stays), and the horse you rode in on!

  6. Svea says:

    But he managed to pass a nice tax plan to benefit the wealthy. His crowning achievement.

    • notasugarhere says:

      In thanks, he’ll be handed millions in salary from whatever special interest or corporate think tank hires him. Take the money and run is his new slogan.

  7. boredblond says:

    I’m just hoping dems don’t get lulled into believing big victories are a given in November..it’s hard to keep enthusiasm ‘up’ for months, but it’s imperative now

    • Anastasia says:

      Oh no worries there. Every Dem I know (myself included) is READY TO GO. I’m fueled up every time I see Trump’s damn asshole lips or hear him speak or read a tweet from him. INSTANT MOTIVATION, my friend. All the time.

      • nic919 says:

        I believe it was Rick Wilson who said that Democrats would crawl through glass to vote against Dump’s friends in 2018. I hope he is correct.

    • Laura says:

      Florida Senate race crucial!Nelson and Scott reportedly very tight!Please,please if you are from Florida vote and vote for Nelson.We need a high turn out!

  8. Natalie S says:

    Rats leaving the ship.

    No patriotism. Treat the country as something to drain for their own benefit and then run.

  9. Veronica S. says:

    Bye Felicia.

    In all seriousness, it’s not really a good thing. He’s done his damage, and he wants out before it comes back on him. He’ll probably run for a state office where he can destroy the lives of his constituents further by manipulating their ignorance.

    • Cranberyy says:

      Yes. He’s just going to wait out the coming storm. He’ll be popping his head out once he thinks it’s passed, and people have forgotten the damage he helped author with the aid of his special brand of sh*t spinning.

    • lucy2 says:

      Sadly you are probably correct. Either that or he’ll become a lobbyist.

      I was looking forward to him losing to Bryce and/or having to lose Speaker in 2018. Instead he’s going to slink away before all the horribleness of his policies really get going. Monster.

  10. Millenial says:

    Being the Republican House leader is a thankless job. Wrangling the tea partiers, the “freedom” caucus, and all the other bozos to vote as a block is nearly impossible, unless of course the 1% will be the sole beneficiaries (e.g. the tax cuts). Boehner could have told him that.

    I’m honestly surprised there’s anyone else willing to do it. McCarthy is an idiot if he thinks it will be any better for him.

  11. PunkyMomma says:

    By announcing his retirement, does that mean he can “tsk, tsk” Cheeto Mussolini openly?

    • Lightpurple says:

      He’s been aiding & abetting Cheeto Mussolini for two years now. He has no problems with this lunacy.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      I’ve always thought he had his eye on the presidency. I wouldn’t be surprised if he runs in a few years.

      • Cranberyy says:

        Agreed. We haven’t seen the last of this d*ck. He’s just going to find some shelter from the political hurt that coming in November. He’ll be taken care of by his donor overlords. He’s proven his worth to them. He’ll come back out when they think it’s safe again or when they think the political tide is turning back their way. Even if it takes ten years, he won’t have aged out, and his conservative record will still be pretty pristine since he won’t have to compromise and work with dems to pass legislation.

        No. He’ll be back. And acting like he’s some great politician that’s stayed true to his principles and done so much for the “country” (aka the conservative right).

      • Christin says:

        He’s laying groundwork for a return by indicating this is merely family time.

    • notasugarhere says:

      No, he’ll keep quiet while making millions in salary from one of the corporations that benefited from him rubber stamping the Destroy America Republican Agenda.

  12. Lightpurple says:

    Good riddance, Traitor Eddie Munster

  13. LP says:

    Can someone please clarify for me- is there any chance at all that democrats will win the house *and the senate? It seems from what I read that only the house is in reach but I’m not sure why!

    • Lightpurple says:

      All House seats are up for re-election so, in theory, all are in play but in reality, most incumbents will hold on but this year, lots of Republicans are leaving, which creates an open seat, and some who aren’t are perceived as weak and susceptible to challenge. The Democrats have a chance to pick up those open or weak seats.

      In the Senate, only a third of the seats are up for re-election and many of those are already held by Democrats so there isn’t as much of an opportunity to add or flip seats but it is possible

      • AnneC says:

        I’ve read that if the dem in Kentucky can win his senate seat (he’s up by 10 pts) we will only need one more seat to flip to get the majority in the senate. Heller in Nevada is a good possibility to lose. That’s assuming all the Democratic senators hold their seats.

  14. Green Is Good says:

    POS. Rich, entitled made his obscene mark on government policy. I despise him. What disgusts me is that he has a golden parachute waiting for him. No hardships for him😡😡😡.

  15. adastraperaspera says:

    So over coffee this morning, we’re trying to decide if he’s retiring because: 1) he helped launder Russian money in his campaign and Mueller knows, so he has to prepare his legal defense or 2) he helped launder Russian money in his campaign and Mueller doesn’t know, so he’s going to live large for life off of all the offshore cash. Either way, we agree that he is VILE, which just happens to spell EVIL if you switch the letters around.

  16. Tania says:

    This potentially could be how we get our first female president. I was playing out the scenario with my husband the other day. We need more people paying attention to Pence and his dirty deeds so when Trump gets ousted, Pence goes too and next in line is the Speaker.

    Republicans hate Pelosi almost as much as they hated Clinton. Please, gods of the universe if you’re out there, make this happen!

    • Lightpurple says:

      Please, no. That is not how this works. For the “Designated Survivor” scenario to come into play, both President and Vice President would have to go simultaneously. Examples being if the double assassination attempt against Lincoln and Johnson had succeeded in killing both of them that night or some catastrophic event takes out both before a nomination for either seat can be placed before the Senate. In a situation like this where there has to be impeachment votes in the House and separate trials in the Senate, they would not do both at once because of the chaos that could ensue. Instead, look to what happened with Nixon/Agnew. Neither Gerald Ford nor Nelson Rockefeller were ever Speaker or Senate President.

  17. Lucky Charm says:

    Aww, we’ll miss you, Lyin’ Ryan. Not. But don’t worry, maybe karma will visit you soon.

  18. kaye says:

    i shall miss my weekly calls to his office asking him to not be such an asshole to poor people/telling him how ayn rand died in public housing and would HATE him so much if she knew him. jk jk–don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya, paul!

    mostly i hate knowing he will get some seven figure salary to be a lobbyist or stuffed shirt on fox news. sigh–some people never get their comeuppance.

  19. Lila says:

    Well Paul Ryan you will not be around next term. But some of policies/programs you tried to get rid of will be.
    — the Affordable Care Act
    — Medicare
    — Medicaid
    — Planned Parenthood
    — hopefully a Democratic majority.
    Let someone else clean up your mess. Is it obvious I am happy he is not running.

  20. Neelyo says:

    Take your Mammy Yokum lookin’ mouth and go to hell, Ryan.

    He’s an invertebrate.

  21. Ms says:

    Oh….. Is he not popular anymore or something? :/

    Good riddance. Hopefully he won’t be employed in Trump’s cabinet in the future. Although he is a total spineless bootlicker so I’m sure he will be. I don’t care what words he says. He did nothing to prevent or control Trump’s tyrrany.

  22. kate says:

    Ha, suffer! I am pretty sure Dan Pfeiffer is going to give him a goodbye drag for the ages on tomorrow’s Pod Save America.

  23. Christin says:

    History will not be kind to the “wonk”.

    • Betsy says:

      I appreciate your accuracy quotes. If that man is a wonk, I am a mathematician.

      • Christin says:

        He’s another example of not believing someone’s self-description. See also “stable genius”. 😂

      • Esmom says:

        I know, right? Ugh, this self-characterization always enraged me while the Tea Partiers bought it hook line and sinker.

  24. Betsy says:

    Bye, itch.

    There’s just nothing lower than someone who benefited from policies, who owes his life to them in some sense, and then turns out and yanks up the ladder. Why are republicans such trash? Spread that money around and everything gets better for everyone. But it’s not solely the money for creeps like the Kochs and Mercers and the dozen other megadonors to the GOP: they have their heinous worldview (slavery wasn’t so bad! Irish girls should work low paid jobs scrubbing the fireplace grate! women should be at home doing what I tell them! depress wages for all!) and they just want to play SimCity with our lives. The money is merely the bonus for them. The real reward, the actual goal, is imposing their world views on the rest of us.

    • Deering24 says:

      Yep. Profit is incidental. It’s all about controlling people’s lives. The movie Chinatown nailed this ages ago.

      Jake Gittes: “I just wanna know what you’re worth. More than 10 million?”
      Noah Cross: “Oh my, yes!”
      Jake Gittes: “Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can’t already afford?”
      Noah Cross: “The future, Mr. Gittes! The future.”

  25. Karen says:

    We all need to thank him for the $1.50 extra per week in America’s paychecks.

    • holly hobby says:

      Yep that’s what I’m thinking too!

      McCarthy will spend his time sorting out Starbursts to the orange baby. He is not qualified to lead. CA vote him out too.

  26. Kelly says:

    I live in Wisconsin and this is excellent news. I don’t live in Ryan’s district but have family that does.

    My father has met him when Ryan came to tour the manufacturing plant where he’s a manager and his reaction from that visit changed his views on Ryan from dislike to loathing. My late mother always loathed him, and he thought she was overreacting. She referred to him as Evil Eddie Munster. He thought Ryan came across as a phony, spending very little time on the floor interacting with workers, and spent most of the time in a conference room with the corporate people who drove in for the day and management, including my poor father. At that time, my mother was going through her first bout with breast cancer and both of them were having a rough time dealing with the insurance and her cancer treatment. I think it took all of my dad’s self control not to confront Ryan about his lack of compassion and indifference towards ordinary people dealing with health crises, even with decent insurance.

    • Christin says:

      It amazes me how people such as Munster (your Mom caught on to him early) are clearly in it for one segment of society — rich/white collar — but somehow* convince enough voters to get them elected.

      * Somehow involves appealing to anti-abortion, evangelical topics. People will vote against their own personal self-interests (such as affordable healthcare) to dictate someone else’s choices.

      • Who ARE These People? says:

        And guns. Don’t forget the guns. The NRA is highly effective at getting out the vote.

      • Christin says:

        @WATP – Exactly! Just forget about social programs that a lot of these voters rely upon. It’s guns and unborn babies.

        Oh, and more coal jobs!

      • insertpunhere says:

        I heard a joke the other day that explained it:

        Three men are sitting at a table, a CEO, a factory worker, and an immigrant. There are 50 cookies on the table. The CEO takes 49, and then he warns the worker, “Watch out, that immigrant is going to steal your cookie.”

        Republicans rely on this divide and conquer tactic to win. They take people who are desperate and convince them that the cause of their problems is . So long as they can get blue collar workers focused on immigrants taking their jobs or welfare queens stealing their money, blue collar workers aren’t paying attention to the CEO making 500x what they make as a floor worker.

        I say this as someone living in the rust belt. My parents were hardcore GOP until Obama because they had bought into this idea that the Republican party was looking out for them. They were never overtly racist, and my parents were pretty committed to social justice in theory, but push came to shove, they’d vote for someone guaranteeing businesses would succeed. It wasn’t until the economic collapse that they realized that the Republicans didn’t give a damn about them or anyone else.

        Neither of my parents were big on firearms or abortion (they were both pretty uncomfortable with guns and didn’t feel they should dictate other people’s reproductive choices.

        Also, for the record, I recognize that this is a simplification as many people who voted for Trump were actually making more money than average. However, I don’t think those people are going to be brought over to the Democrats anyway. Our best bet is blue collar workers (like the guy who had planned to run against Paul Ryan) realizing that the GOP is not their friend. I don’t think we do that by ignoring real social justice issues that need to be dealt with (mass incarceration, comprehensive immigration reform, reproductive rights and access), but I do think it’s important to acknowledge that although racism was not a dealbreaker to Trump supporters (which is reprehensible), most of them don’t hate people of color or immigrants so much as they simply don’t care (also gross, but less terrible in my mind than being a neo nazi).

  27. Mel says:

    This should leave him plenty of time to go spine hunting! Good for him.
    Seldom have I seen a « speaker » so silent. It’s almost deafening at times…

  28. Cranberyy says:

    Boehner didn’t leave while the getting was good he was one of the first major casualties of the Tea Party challenging Republicans in elections, right? Which is a bit different from all these seated republicans announcing they won’t run again after they’ve done all their damage and can cash out to a sweet private corporate position waiting for them at one of their overlord donors they’ve served so well. And plus because they’re very likely to lose or at very least have to spend a sh*t load of $ on a campaign and possibly still lose at that because they’re so unpopular.

  29. flebel says:

    Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson of Fox New continues to report on “sex-crazed killer pandas” – and completely ignores the Mueller-Cohen story. I kid you not!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfCNEkGEbqw

    • Christin says:

      I admit to occasionally flipping channels just to see how disconnected they are when a major, hard to spin story is breaking. Pandas takes it to a new level.

  30. jferber says:

    Ryan and his fellow traitors are castratos (is that a word)? D-ck-less, ball-less, ugly Americanas to OTHER Americans. I correct myself: the plural of castrato is castrati (it’s an Italian word.). The Castrati of Congress.

  31. Kterr says:

    God he was I real danger of losing his election anyway, bye boy

  32. Liz version 700 says:

    Maybe while he is at home, retired, he can find where he misplaced his conscience and his backbone. Good riddance

  33. Cranberyy says:

    Don’t know what to suggest about Pelosi except the Democrats also have a big problem in 2020 if they don’t have a real candidate and platform other than “at least it’s not Donald Trump” campaign. I think independents are posed to clean up republican seats very well maybe more so than dems. It smells like John Kasich will run 2020 and highly possible as an independent! He’s been loudly distancing himself from the republican party claiming that the party is only a vehicle for him not his master and that he’s even open to considering running as independent. He’s testing the waters and positioning himself to jump ship and land in a strategically desirable place among disillusioned conservative voters.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      Democrats do have a platform other than “it’s not Donald”. They did in 2016, too, but sadly the American public doesn’t seem to have patience for details. It isn’t the platform that is the problem, it is the marketing of that platform that needs work.

      • Cranberyy says:

        In 2016 Democrats marketed their selves as the party of diversity, tolerance and “Not Tump” party. All of which are good but where mostly seen as firing back at Trump’s rhetoric instead of answering to the Right’s claims of immigration as a national jobs problem which has been an issue for them long before Trump got in the game.

        The dems let Trump control the dialog, and they were always chasing his lead on the issues as he painted them. Granted, the media help him with all this to the tune of million$ of free coverage, nevertheless the dems never really got ahead of him in messaging, and when they did it was too weak, and what ever policy platform they had never got related in any impactful way.

        Imo the dems are not clear and strong with their platform marketing because they as a party are conflicted with whether they serve the working class or the financial and corporate class. Their legislation track record has fallen very short to try and market their selves as warriors for the working class. They’re much better than the repubs for sure, but the republicans and conservative right elites figured a way around that with fundamentalist, tribal identity block politics.

  34. Chef Grace says:

    Bye.
    I do believe that he and either Ted Cruz or the village idiots idiot, Rick Perry will team up for a presidential run in the next couple years.

  35. Dr Mrs The Monarch says:

    Dear Corporations of the USA: If you hire this spineless creep then your company deserves to go bankrupt. The only skill sets this man has are: spinelessness, self-interest and a passion for working against the welfare of everyone he claims to represent. I can’t wait to boycott the products or services of whatever company takes him on. (Likely the NRA).

  36. Crawford67 says:

    He looks like he’s aged 20 years since Trump got into office.

  37. why? says:

    Ryan needs to be held accountable for how he interfered in the Russian investigation by allowing Nunes to run rampart. Ryan was the one who encouraged Nunes to hold Wray and Rosenstein in contempt if they didn’t hand over the documents about the dossier and then Nunes used those documents to write that ridiculous memo.

    There is a pattern here:

    Spicer resigns a week before it is revealed that he met with someone from Fox to spread that fake story about Seth R.

    Rachel Brand resigns weeks before Mueller indicts those 13 Russians.

    Dowd resigns a week before the FBI raids Cohen.

    What is Ryan running from?

  38. ann says:

    This weasel is going away for a few years, until the stench of Trump wears off. Then he’ll slither out from under his rock again and it’ll be Ryan 2028.

  39. Parigo says:

    Hahahahahaha! I can’t even. Damn.

  40. why? says:

    I don’t understand why Wray and Rosenstein keep giving into Nunes’ demands. Rosenstein and Wray should have just let Nunes hold them in contempt. Did Wray and Rosenstein not learn anything the last time they turned over information to Nunes? The press is reporting that Rosenstein and Wray allowed Nunes and Gowdy to view the documents that kicked off of the Russian investigation today. We all know how this is going to end. The last time that Wray and Rosenstein let Nunes and Gowdy view documents(because Ryan refused to make Nunes back off when Wray and Rosenstein went to him for help), Nunes wrote that ridiculous memo. What is Nunes going to do now? Why hasn’t Mueller started an investigation into Nunes because he has clearly committed many crimes. Why hasn’t Mueller gone after Ryan for allowing Nunes to abuse his position?

    The press praised Gowdy for telling the Dotard to let Mueller do his job, but once again, behind the scenes, Gowdy is working with Nunes to interfere in the investigation.

    It is also being reported that the DOJ hired Ezra CW, the person who helped Nunes construct a fake narrative to support the Dotard’s lie about being wiretapped about Obama.