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Did you know that the Speaker of the House does not need to be an elected Representative?
Esquire pundit, Charles P Pierce has a few words on the subject
Several influential House conservatives are privately plotting ways to use the legislative calendar this fall to push their hard-line agenda — including quiet discussions about possibly mounting a leadership challenge to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. The group has gone so far as to float the idea of recruiting former House speaker Newt Gingrich or former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum as potential replacements for Ryan (R-Wis.) should there be a rebellion. The Constitution does not require that an elected member of the House serve as speaker.
While the chances that a non-House member could mount a credible threat to Ryan are exceedingly slim, the fact that the group has even toyed with the idea underscores their desire to create trouble for GOP leaders if they believe their demands are not being addressed. The closed-door conversations are being led by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, in consultation with his allies on the right, in particular Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist
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. . . the group of more than 30 conservative House lawmakers is unlikely to stage a successful coup to push out Ryan and has so far shown unease about translating their grievances into action. But the mere fact that they are discussing the prospect — and strategizing with Bannon — underscores both their desire and ability to disrupt an already daunting legislative schedule.
Esquire pundit, Charles P Pierce has a few words on the subject
God knows, I’m no fan of the current Speaker, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, and he’s transparently one of the worst legislative leaders in American history. But a small sliver of a smidgen of a piece of a slice of that is the fact that he has a choir of loons for a caucus and a vast asylum of loons for a Republican base.