PAUL RYAN IS A SHAMELESS HYPOCRITE

As Election Day approaches, Paul Ryan plants a story at Politico that shift the blame in the event that Republicans lose the House. According to Ryan, it'll all be President Trump's fault if that happens, because in the final days of the campaign he talked too much about immigration:

House Republicans in panic mode

Worries deepen that Trump's charged immigration rhetoric will cost the GOP more seats.

House Speaker Paul Ryan got President Donald Trump on the phone Sunday for one final plea on behalf of anxious Republicans: Please, please talk up the booming economy in the final hours before Election Day.

But Trump, unsurprisingly, had another issue on his mind. He boasted to Ryan that his focus on immigration has fired up the base, according to a source familiar with the call.

Two days out from an expected Democratic takeover of the House, Republicans focused on the chamber are profoundly worried that Trump’s obsession with all things immigration will exacerbate their losses....

But they now fear Trump went overboard — and that it could cost them dearly in key suburban districts....

Ryan has some nerve. His super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, boasted last week that was running ads like this in key races:

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Playbook
POLITICO
Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and Daniel Lippman
10/26/18

CLF has turned the immigrant caravan into a campaign issue in Minnesota’s First District, the open GOP-leaning seat currently held by Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for governor.

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Iowa Politics Newsletter
Des Moines Register
Robin Opsahl
10/23/18

CLF just released an ad saying Axne would “vote with Nancy Pelosi for open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants.” The ad will run on television in the Des Moines and Omaha media markets and on digital platforms throughout the district.

IA-01

Iowa Politics Newsletter
Des Moines Register
Robin Opsahl
10/24/18

The ad says Finkenauer is “too liberal for Iowa,” citing her stances on healthcare and immigration.

CLF is also responsible for racist ads targeting the brief rap career of Antonio Delgado, a House candidate in New York's 19th District who's a Rhodes scholar and Harvard Law graduate (and who is originally from Schnenectady, not New York City):



I know what Ryan is thinking. In the traditional approach to elections, low-level surrogates and PACs that aren't officially affiliated with the candidate do the down-and-dirty attacking while the candidates themselves, and the president as the figurehead of the party, pretend to be above it all and speak only in high-minded language.

Trump isn't following that script. He's saying all the things that aren't supposed to be directly linked to the party.

I don't understand why Trump supporters think the president is an honest man, but at least he's being honest about what Republicans are running on.

If Democrats win the House, Ryan will insist he doesn't deserve any of the blame. He wanted to go high, not low! The losses weren't his fault!

I can assure you that credulous reporters will believe him.