- Gohmert announces his support for Ryan
- Check out the implied promises from Ryan
- House early action – they shoot themselves in the foot
Gohmert on Vote for House Speaker Paul Ryan (bold our emphasis)
WASHINGTON, D.C. –Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement today on his vote for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan:
“House Speaker Paul Ryan and I had two substantive private discussions on the legislative agenda for the 115th Congress and came to an understanding on three specific issues.”
“The Speaker agreed leadership would bring no bills to the House floor without the support of a majority of the Republican conference; that no bills would be brought forth in an attempt to legalize anyone in this country who is here illegally unless and until we achieve complete border security with a wall built to President Trump’s liking; we will only bring up a trade bill that ensures fairness to Great Britain in the wake of the successful Brexit vote to end Britain’s participation in the European Union. This House will not resurrect the Trans-Pacific Partnership disaster.”
“It is my sincerest desire to try to work with leadership to ensure this Congress pursues the agenda we promised to voters, and in the spirit of that cooperation in this new 115th Congress, I cast my vote for Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House today. Everyone here in Congress knows I have no problem standing up to Republicans, no matter what their position, if they are breaking our promises to our constituents and to America.”
Congressman Gohmert is the Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and the Chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Prior to being elected to serve in Congress, he was elected to three terms as District Judge in Smith County, Texas and was appointed by then Texas Governor Rick Perry to complete a term as Chief Justice of the 12th Court of Appeals. He knows well the capabilities of the government.
Not sure this is even mildly comforting. Ryan is capable of subterfuge and we wonder why reward him for funding so much of the Obamanation. As regards to Gohmert’s specifics, for example, the House has an independent obligation to secure the border, no matter what President Trump may wish or decide to compromise on. It is not appropriate to put pursuit of sound policy contingent on how Trump or Ryan feel about it.
Will they ever get their act together?
Among the first actions of the House Republican caucus was to vote to weaken the House ethics process. This in the day of “drain the swamp.” In spite of complaints, the process needed to be strengthened and not provide less scrutiny of results. The existing process allows for public review of the results of complaint investigations, no matter what. The revision, we read, would have only provided public reports of validated complaints. In other words no public scrutiny of the supposed scrutineers.
After much criticism from left and right ,the House Republicans in an emergency vote , took back their action. Trump’s objection in response to the news of the weakening was appropriate andhelpful. We read that Paul Ryan opposed the weakening, which is good, but we wonder where his influence was on something the opprobrium over was so predictable.
House GOP Votes to Gut Independent Ethics Office
After Massive Pressure, House Scraps Plan to Weaken Ethics Watchdog
Leadership: How Trump Saved House Republicans From Themselves on Ethics Blunder
R Mall
It probably would have been futile for Gohmert to oppose Ryan at this point. It’s somewhat heartening that he seemed to extract certain commitments conservatives feel strongly about, even though it may not be “appropriate” in pursuit of strong policy.
My real concern is that “commitments” by Washington politicians have about the same value as the contents of that “bucket” John Nance Garner described as the value of the Vice Presidency.
We can only hope that our “Great Hope”, Mr. Ryan, has not “Stupak’d” Congressman Gohmert.