Ryan’s clown act: He is a right-wing raver, not the honorable statesman he pretends to be

[DonViejo]

Ryan's response to Clinton's email flap and the gun sit-in reminds us he is far from a sober-minded politician

AMANDA MARCOTTE

House Speaker Paul Ryan has spent the better part of a year playing the part of the honorable statesman, the Republican who supposedly conducts himself with grace and dignity despite the fact that his party is swiftly being taken over by a pack of rabid hyenas.

This pose landed Ryan the position of Speaker of the House in October when John Boehner was pushed out, albeit quite willingly, by the yipping animals who took offense at Boehner’s unwillingness to do stupid stuff to appease the base, like shut down the government for funsies. And it’s been serving Ryan well now that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee and the press looks, with longing eyes, to Ryan to be the lodestar of seriousness in politics. Nothing wipes out the memory of those goofy workout photos quite so much as having to look at the orange man in the weird toupee pursing his lips at the camera all the time.

But this week should be a stern reminder that Ryan is not the sober-minded legislator he likes to play on TV, but just another bad faith operator who is more interested in pandering to a right-wing base than he is in running an effective government.

Exhibit #1: Pretending that there’s some real scandal to be eked out of this Hillary Clinton email story.

For all the hand-wringing and hollering that’s going on, it’s increasingly clear that Clinton’s error in using private email to discuss classified matters while secretary of state is not really a very big or interesting story.

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http://www.salon.com/2016/07/08/ryans_clown_show_he_is_a_right_wing_raver_not_the_honorable_statesman_he_pretends_to_be/

[riversedge]

1. Being from WI, I was never fooled by him. But he is a good actor.

[Iliyah]

2. I think Ryan wants to be president, only member of congress . . .

He wants to rule the world. This guy is scary.