Paul Ryan begs House Republicans not to resign as his allies drop like flies: report

[applegrove]

NOOR AL-SIBAI at Raw Story

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/paul-ryan-begs-house-republicans-not-to-resign-as-his-allies-drop-like-flies-report/

"SNIP...........


With many of his biggest power players resigning, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) may be losing his grip on the lower Congressional chamber.

According to Politico, the planned resignation of Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) is just the latest in a “flurry” of retirements among House Republicans. Though Tiberi is leaving Congress in January for a private sector job, many others have announced retirements based explicitly or implicitly on President Donald Trump’s role in making their jobs even more difficult.

Take, for example, Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI), whose July fuming about the circus surrounding then-White House Press Secretary Anthony Scaramucci was drawing attention away the party’s attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Six weeks later, Politico notes, Trott announced his retirement after that Obamacare overhaul failed.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) cites a lack of legislative wins as the impetus for his retirement.

“It’s very difficult to achieve big-ticket items, not to mention just accomplish the basic items of governance — keeping the government open or not defaulting on our obligations — so that’s a source of frustration for me,” the moderate Republican leader told Politico.

............SNIP"

[LisaM]

1. Yeah, well look here, Paul Ryan. You and your gerrymandered state...

and all the other gerrymandered states can fiddle around with voter suppression and onerous ID requirements and so forth ad nauseum so you could win elections, but the bottom line is that there are more of us! Maybe you found ways not to let us vote, but we still exist, and all you people that got elected through your stupid gimmicks represent us.

AND WE'RE PISSED AND WE'RE GOING TO LET YOUR CRONIES KNOW IT.

[riversedge]

2. I do not think they are dropping like flies, although I wish that were true.

[Canoe52]

3. Wow, essentially what the article is saying, those repugs are wimps.

[DFW]

4. This is not cause for jubilation on our part

The retiring Republicans can be easily replaced with goggle-eyed, fanatic, low IQ high loyalty Trumpadores, and their minions will vote for them in numbers equal to 2016. The replacement Republicans can advocate zero taxes, home schooling, death for abortion, a thre front nuclear war, defunding contraception, cancer research and the EPA, and be against everything that could possibly improve the lives of their constituents, and they'll get elected anyway--UNLESS we turn out massively to vote. The Republicans and their money masters are hoping we will be too demoralized to even bother. It would be nice to prove them wrong.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. I am heartened. Our Dem. candidate is TIED with Ray Moore here, latest poll says.

For years since Bush, Repubs. have had the political jobs all to themselves with very little opposition.
Till now.
just the fact there is now a tie is gobsmaking.

[DFW]

11. I have been following that, already contributed to Doug's campaign

Even emailed with him a few times. He would be a MAJOR breakthrough. GOTV is EVERYthing in the Alabama election, and you just KNOW they'll pull out all the stops to try to prevent Democrats from voting--and their votes from being counted. If we win despite that, it will send a fresh wind out all over the country.

[Jim Lane]

8. It depends on the district.

In some districts, you're right that a retiring bad Republican will be replaced by an even worse Republican.

But not all. Consider Charlie Dent. His district has a PVI of R+4, meaning that, in 2012 and 2016, the Republican candidate for President averaged 4 percentage points better in that district than in the country as a whole. That's a small Republican lean, the kind of district a Democrat could hope to win, especially if a wave develops.

In those same two years, Dent averaged about 10 percentage points better than the top of the ticket (Romney, then Trump). In between, in 2014, the Democrats didn't even field an opponent. The point is that Dent has a lot of personal popularity in the district. If he were running in 2018, it would be very hard to unseat him. His retirement removes that factor and legitimately puts the seat in play.

Dave Trott's district is also R+4. He's not as well-entrenched as Dent -- he's in only his second term, and was re-elected last year with just 53% of the vote. Still, there's usually an advantage for an incumbent. This district is a better pickup opportunity for the Democrats as an open seat than it would be if Trott were running again.

Pat Tiberi's district is R+7, so it's a heavier lift, but even there it's not out of reach if we have a good candidate.

I'll admit my bias: These days, I'll take any cause for jubilation I can get!

[Awsi Dooger]

10. Overall it's a poor trend

I don't care about short term district by district realities, and whether we can flip some for a cycle or two. When a Democrat is in the White House we have no energy in the midterms and get swamped. That's not going to change. Now that Republicans will be filling every race with extreme nutcases instead of a moderate here and there, the agenda and legislation is going to be one disaster after another. Only those Republican moderates help hold things at bay somewhat in the House.

[Iliyah]

5. Oh well

[Vogon_Glory]

7. And if God has mercy on us and the Holy Spirit moves the voters in Ryan's district

Come January 2019, there will be a good Democrat ready to take his seat in the House of Representatives.

[oasis]

9. Never thought I'd see flies get fed up with too much shit.