Mr Ryan would rather eat waspsTHE job of Speaker of the House of Representatives is, on the face of it, a pretty good wicket. It is third in line to the presidency and comes with a quarter-million-dollar salary, fat pension and endless other perks. The outgoing Speaker, John Boehner, a chain-smoking Republican from Ohio, will be entitled to a million dollars a year, for five years, to “facilitate the administration, settlement and conclusion of matters pertaining to” his five-year tenure. So it may seem odd that his party, despite having its biggest majority in the House for almost a century, is struggling to find someone to replace him.
Mr Boehner’s anointed and expected successor was Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader. Yet on October 8th, just as he was about to be rubber-stamped as the Republican nominee, he withdrew from the contest. This was dramatic; Mr McCarthy had been lobbying his colleagues only moments earlier and his rivals, Daniel Webster and Jason Chaffetz, respectively of Florida and Utah, had so little support that Mr Boehner postponed the vote.
In a sense, the explanation was prosaic....Continue reading
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