Paul Ryan Cartoon

Sources: Ryan taking Packers weekend to consider pleas to take the field for speakership race

For about 30 seconds on Thursday afternoon, during which Annie Daines was supposed to be the most-important person in Washington, D.C.
Daines is a press aide for House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and the daughter of Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.
At about 1:45 p.m., Daines was expected to stride before a bouquet of microphones and phalanx of television cameras arranged in the echoic vestibule of the Longworth House Office Building. Daines would come bearing critical news: Who Republicans chose in a nearby conclave as their nominee for House speaker. Perhaps, more importantly, Daines would declare how many votes that candidate received.
Daines’s pronouncement never came.
Just feet away, inside the cavernous House Ways and Means Committee hearing room, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., stunned his colleagues. He was expected to secure the nomination with the lion’s share of votes inside the Republican Conference. He’d probably log roughly 200 of the GOP Conference’s 248 members (including one non-voting delegate to Congress). But McCarthy needed to marshal somewhere around 218 votes on the House floor in an October 29 vote to succeed House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The night before, the Freedom Caucus, the most-conservative bloc of Republicans in the House, declared that most of its 30 to 40 members would back Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., for the speaker’s gavel.
McCarthy faced an onerous path to 218. Between Thursday afternoon and October 29, right-wing radio would sizzle with anti-McCarthy invective. House Republicans would face chafing rhetoric at home from staunch conservatives adamantly opposed to the “establishment.” There was an increasing likelihood that neither McCarthy -- nor any other candidate -- could ever secure 218 backers.
A paralyzed House poses profound implications. The lower chamber is not permitted to conduct any business without a speaker. That’s a dangerous scenario considering that Congress must soon grapple with raising the debt ceiling and deduce a way to avoid a government shutdown.
Just after 8 am Thursday, McCarthy walked confidently into a session of House Republicans in which he would make his closing argument for the speakership.
“It’s going to go great,” McCarthy beamed exuberantly, a skip in his step.
Nearly two hours later, he exited the confab. I asked the majority leader if he “nailed down the votes.” McCarthy snapped his head upwards and roared with a belly laugh. He slapped me on the back -- but didn’t answer the question.
Still, was he getting anywhere? Could McCarthy close the deal on 218?
“It went really well,” McCarthy stated. “We are going to get the votes.”
With that, he bounded up a towering staircase in the center of the Capitol and bolted into his office suite. A cadre of Honor Flight veterans from McCarthy’s district awaited an audience with perhaps the next speaker of the House.
Two hours later, McCarthy was out of the running. Boehner cancelled the election. The acoustically-challenged Longworth corridors of granite and alabaster devolved into bedlam.
McCarthy determined this just wasn’t his time. Multiple sources close to McCarthy indicated it may be a bloodbath to get to 218 -- and he didn’t want colleagues to expend valuable political capital defending and promoting him just to seize the speaker’s gavel.
After all, many observers suggested the House was such a toxic cesspool now that a McCarthy’s speakership would be short-lived. He’d have to immediately wrestle with the debt limit and government spending bills. McCarthy would enjoy no honeymoon. Perhaps it was best to play the long game. Maybe a pathway to the speakership for McCarthy would emerge in a few years once the torrent calmed.
Meantime, members of the Freedom Caucus saw a road to the speakership on Thursday. They immediately questioned why Boehner called off the vote when the favorite quit.
“They probably wouldn’t have delayed it if I was the one dropping out,” Webster groused during an appearance on Fox Business.
A meeting will never be an orphan on Capitol Hill. So after the longer speaker candidate nominating session Thursday and the stunted, nine-minute episode in which McCarthy withdrew, Republicans conducted yet another assemblage Friday morning.
“We must have an orderly transition from one speaker to the next, and stepping down before we elect a new speaker would hurt the institution,” Boehner said. “It is my plan for this House to elect a new speaker before the end of October. But at the end of the day, that’s really up to the people in this room.”
The problem with the GOP leadership race is that Republicans struggle to unite around anything, let alone anyone.
Moreover, the preferred candidates of many wings of the party never stepped onto the field. A movement to draft Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., fizzled. Some conservatives hoped Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, would run. Others on the right favored House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.
“Mr. Chairman,” I called out to Hensarling as he walked into the House chamber Thursday afternoon to vote. “Would you run for speaker?”
“Chairman,” Hensarling answered, musing over the word for a moment, “Chairman is a really good, good title.”
Republicans knew at the Friday morning huddle there was but one House GOPer capable of filling the void: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
But there’s trouble with Ryan. If you look at his history, Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon stand a better chance of going to dinner together than Ryan seeking a congressional leadership post.
Ryan is the same lawmaker who some courted to run against Boehner for minority leader in 2008, after Democrats handed the GOP their heads at the polls that fall.
He’s the same congressman who took a pass at running for president, governor, senator and even majority leader after the unexpected primary loss of then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. -- to say nothing of speaker after Boehner announced his departure a few weeks ago.
“Ryan would be transformational,” predicted Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a South Carolina Republican and a conservative who backed Webster.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, indicated he’d drop his dark horse candidacy for speaker if Ryan entered the contest.
“I do believe that Paul Ryan is the one person who could clear the field,” added Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss.
Not surprisingly, Ryan declined to grab the baton -- at least not publicly or right now. Ryan’s aides published multiple statements declaring that he was -- like Hensarling -- enjoying the title of “chairman.”
But behind the scenes, Republicans deluged Ryan with a cascade of pleas. Boehner called. Mitt Romney phoned. Source say Ryan switched privately from a “no” to a “maybe.” He’d consider it over this weekend.
One source close to Ryan believed he would eventually come around. The source characterized Ryan as a “Boy Scout” who always did the right thing -- including salvaging the U.S. House of Representatives.
Others weren’t so sure.
“He told me ‘Hell no’ three times yesterday,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis. “He's told me ‘no’ enough times that I don't even ask any more.”
A window into Ryan’s thinking lies in the statement he issued when begged by some to challenge Boehner.
“My first priority in life will always be my wife and my three young children,” Ryan said. “As I reflect upon the strains that this position would place on my young family, I have decided not to enter my name as a candidate.”
One could crystallize Ryan’s confliction into the final moments he spent on Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon. The House completed its last vote series of the week. Not long after votes, Ryan sprinted out of the Capitol, down the House steps and into an awaiting, green SUV parked on the plaza. He declined to entertain reporter’s questions as he hustled toward the vehicle.
“Right now I'm going to make my flight so I can make it home for dinner,” Ryan said.
Someone asked what where Ryan’s plans for the weekend.
“The Packers are at home and they’re going to beat the Rams and cover the point spread,” he predicted.
Quintessential Ryan. Rushing home to spend time with his family and watch football. You can’t do that when you’re speaker of the House.
“I think the last thing we could do is pressure a reluctant warrior into service,” said Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo.
“He shouldn't be guilted into it,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
There’s concern that the political cloudburst to coax Ryan to run was too intense.
Some GOP sources worry the full-court press may have overwhelmed Ryan, cementing his inherent reluctance.
That said, Ryan could face a problem similar to McCarthy’s. Granted, there’s more musculature to the Republican support for Ryan. But the chasms are so deep in the GOP Conference now, it’s not certain that Ryan wouldn’t face similar criticisms from the far-right.
As speaker, Ryan could be forced to immediately cut deals on the debt ceiling and government funding with Democrats and the White House.
Conservatives would howl. The conventional wisdom is that he could lock up the speaker’s race quickly. But others question that theory. They point to his legislative and voting history: Support for the controversial fiscal rescue package in 2008 known as TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Plan). There are various votes to raise the debt limit and keep the government operating. He forged a controversial budget agreement nearly two years ago with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
“He's become a mouthpiece of the establishment,” said one Republican lawmaker who asked not to be identified. “He’s the go-to guy for Boehner.”
We haven’t even discussed immigration. Fair or not, several Republican lawmakers characterized Ryan’s view as “amnesty.”
There’s chatter now that Republicans could enlist Ryan to at least serve as speaker for just the remainder of the current Congress.
It’s widely believed that Ryan eventually wants to run for president. The speakership has a way of collecting a lot of political burs.
But serving as interim speaker limits the fallout. Plus, it ushers the House through the current crisis. As a result, Ryan looks like the hero, only bolstering his aura. He was willing to step into the fold when no one else could. Imagine what that looks like when he runs for president in few years or two decades from now? Hard to compete with those bona fides.
In Statuary Hall of the Capitol, a bronze floor plaque denotes the desk location of President James Polk. He is the only House speaker who later served as president.
The House was a raucous place in the mid-1830s. Churlish lawmakers frequently challenged one another to duels. One of Polk’s objectives as speaker was to tame the House and make it less cantankerous.
A comparable goal that faces Paul Ryan or whomever emerges as the next speaker.

Trump reaches out to religious leaders, tries to convince voters he has faith

Article taken from Fox News who is fair and balanced? 

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has faith -- or at least he is trying to convince Republican voters that he does.
Trump made a new effort Saturday to show he has support within the faith community, a key part of the GOP voting bloc he will need to help win the party nomination.
At a press conference before his rally in Norcross, Ga., Trump was joined by several dozen Evangelical and African-American church leaders in a bid to explain why religious officials are behind his candidacy.
“I don’t know what type of legislator he would be,” said the Rev. Dr. Darrell Scott, a minister from Cleveland, Ohio. “But I know one thing, he is a hell of a chief executive. He's a heck of a guy."
Scott, who was sporting a "Make America Great Again" hat, met with Trump in late September and with other religious figures to discuss the billionaire businessman's ties to faith.
Bishop George Bloomer, from Durham, N.C., suggested Saturday that his connection to Trump and his firebrand campaign rhetoric is “a spiritual thing.”
“Scripture about fire, purifying and consuming, Bloomer said, “what determines if it is consuming is what you put in it. It’s time for us to have somebody to bring jobs to this nation and look out for the Christians.”
Trump has said that the Bible is very important to him and even showed it off to a crowd at an event last month hosted by the Family Research Council.
"Some evangelical leaders believe that Christians are abandoning their values if they support Trump,” Robert Jeffress, a pastor with the First Baptist Dallas in Texas, told FoxNews.com. “I think that is much too harsh of a judgment."

Jeffress, who has also met with Trump in the past but hasn't made an endorsement, says religious voters know Trump won't "be leading Bible studies in the Oval Office."
But they are focused on picking a "leader who will solve problems -- and rightly or wrongly they assume Trump is the person to do it,” he said.
Trump perhaps might be visiting African-American churches in the near future. When Scott suggested he needs to see their houses of worship and meet their parishioners, Trump said, "Yeah, I got to do that.”

Declassified CIA report concluded director led 'cover up' of Kennedy assassination investigation

A declassified CIA report concludes former agency Director John McCone withheld information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., according to a recent news story.
The 2013 report, declassified last fall, concludes that McCone, who ran the spy agency when Kennedy was fatally shot in November 1963, kept information from the Warren Commission during its investigation into the assassination.
The report’s author, CIA historian David Robarge, writes that McCone and other top CIA officials were part of a "benign cover-up" to keep the commission focused on what the agency believed at the time was the "best truth … that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone," according to Politico Magazine.
The commission was established by President Johnson days after the assassination to investigate the tragedy and is officially known as the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.
Robarge also writes that McCone and the others were "complicit" in keeping "incendiary" information from the commission.
McCone died in 1991. His testimony before Chief Justice Earl Warren and the rest of the commission was considered vital in the effort to get to the bottom of Kennedy’s death.
The commission's final report concurred with McCone's assessment that Oswald, a former Marine and Marxist, was the “lone gunman” and acted alone.
However, commission members also heard testimony from hundreds of other witnesses, reviewed FBI and Secret Service reports, visited the Dallas crime scene and analyzed Oswald’s personal records, as part of their roughly year-long investigation.
The 888-page report found the 46-year-old Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade below a school book depository building.
However, many people are unconvinced and argue that Oswald was part of a larger plot or conspiracy to kill Kennedy, perhaps in connection with Russia or Cuba.
Within an hour of Kennedy being shot, Oswald, who worked in the book depository building, killed a policeman who questioned him. He was arrested minutes later. However, Oswald was murdered the next day while being taken to a more secure jail, his motives and potentially connections never fully revealed.
Robarge's article also states that McCone was sure that Oswald acted alone and directed the agency to provide only “passive, reactive and selective” assistance to the commission, according to Politico.
The portrayal also suggests that McCone was more involved in commission dealings than previously thought.
The report quotes another senior CIA official, who heard McCone say that he intended to "handle the whole (commission) business myself, directly," the Politico story says.

GOP investigator says Republicans on Benghazi panel fired him over Clinton focus

A former investigator for the Republicans-led House Select Committee on Benghazi is alleging he was unlawfully fired from the panel for not focusing on Hillary Clinton and is vowing to file a federal complaint, according to The New York Times.
The former investigator, Bradley F. Podliska, is an Air Force Reserve officer and also claims Republican leaders on the committee retaliated against him for taking leave to go on active duty, which if true would be a violate of federal law.
Democrats have argued since the committee was formed last year that it is a political tool designed to inflict damage on the presidential campaign of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state during the fatal Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
And Democrats appear to be using the alleged lawsuit as another inroad toward dismantling the committee, sparked by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggesting in late September that Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped as the committee continues to investigate her role in the tragedy and related use of a private server and email to conduct official State Department business.
“These are extremely serious whistleblower charges,” Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat, said Saturday. “Republicans have been abusing millions of taxpayer dollars for the illegitimate purpose of damaging Hillary Clinton’s bid for president.”
U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the 2012 attacks.
In a statement obtained by The Times, the committee suggests Podliska repeatedly used resources for his own “hit piece” on Clinton and other members of the Obama administration and “vigorously denies all of his allegations.”