Paul Ryan Sure Seems to Beg a Lot, But He’s Not Very Good at it
Photo courtesy of Getty Politics News Paul Ryan
Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and prominent Republican Congressman, has decided he won’t run for re-election in 2018, opting instead to return to the private sector. Apparently, making lots of money in relative privacy seems more appealing than getting screamed at by angry constituents at a town hall in Utah while shilling for a failing party. Totally fair.
But then I learned this detail, from CNN’s Manu Raju, and I stopped caring about Chaffetz:
Chaffetz said that Speaker Ryan said “please, please don’t this” when he told him he was going to quit
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 19, 2017
Two reactions here. A, it’s hilarious that Chaffetz would burn Ryan on the way out like that. B, the words “Paul Ryan” and “begging” rang a bell, and then I remembered this juicy tidbit from the recent healthcare debacle:
Ryan got down on a knee to plead with Rep. Don Young, an 83-year-old from Alaska who is the longest-serving Republican in Congress and remains undecided.
That’s two incidents of semi-public begging in the last month, and neither one of them worked out in his favor. There’s only one conclusion to draw: Paul Ryan needs to beg harder.