The extended media honeymoon of Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin and the first runner-up in our most recent vice-presidential pageant, a honeymoon that never has really ended, has reached a new level of intensity now that Ryan graciously has assumed the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is said that Ryan, the biggest fake in the history of recent American politics, was the only Republican capable of reuniting the House majority, which is not a very good idea, because a fractious, disunited GOP majority often was the only thing standing between the country and some truly bad ideas, many of which Paul Ryan has spent a political lifetime supporting. I, for one, was all in favor of an unruly, undisciplined mob as opposed to organized, disciplined chicanery, like we're seeing at the moment with a couple of vital pieces of legislation.

First of all, Ryan is waving his mighty sword at the president over the budget deal, and on funding a federal agency, all of which has to be accomplished in a little over a month. Ryan also refuses to say whether he will allow poison-pill riders to be attached to the bill—a measure of the fact that he's still a fairly weak Speaker in thrall to the extremists whose support he needs to function.

"This is the legislative branch, and the power of the purse rests within the legislative branch. And we fully expect that we are going to exercise that power," Ryan said when pressed over whether he planned to attach so-called "policy riders" to a must-pass spending bill that Congress needs to approve before December 11.

Of more immediate concern are the shenanigans presently going on with the federal highway bill, which has to be passed by Thanksgiving, and which apparently the members of Ryan's caucus are planning to use as a hope chest for some of their fondest wishes, including demolishing bank regulations and neutering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the beloved child of Senator Professor Warren and a target for oligarchish Republicans since its very conception.

The move to weaken the CFPB is deeply unpopular with Democrats. The legislation, authored by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), would eliminate the bureau's single director and replace it with a bipartisan panel of commissioners. Since Republicans are generally hostile to financial regulation, the result would be to hamstring the agency with partisan disputes under Democratic presidents, without empowering Democrats to secure tighter rule-making and enforcement under Republican presidents.

(Did Congressman Neugebauer enjoy the favors of the industries most likely to benefit from defanging the CFPB? Did they contribute heavily to the nearly $1.7 million he raised for his 2014 campaign? Or to the $675,660 his campaign still has on hand after winning him re-election with 77 percent of the vote? What do you think?)

Further, the separate assault on Dodd-Frank that is being bored into the highway bill is something of a bipartisan affair.

Democratic co-sponsors of the bill include Reps. Patrick Murphy (Fla.), Terri Sewell (Ala.),David Scott (Ga.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Cedric Richmond (La.), Filemon Vela (Texas), Alcee Hastings (Fla.), Gwen Graham (Fla.), Grace Meng (N.Y.), Joyce Beatty (Ohio), Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.), Frederica Wilson (Fla.), Scott Peters (Calif.), Lois Frankel (Fla.), Marc Veasey(Texas), Brian Higgins (N.Y.), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Brad Ashford (Neb.), Brad Sherman (Calif.) and Gene Green (Texas).

Patrick Murphy, by the way, is the Democratic "establishment" choice to run for Marco Rubio's entirely vacant Senate seat in Florida. He will be opposed in the primary by Congressman Alan Grayson, who is partisan and loud and, therefore, not a fit candidate for a serious governing political party. Murphy, on the other hand, is pretty much a sublet of the financial services and banking industries. Buy him and he'll stay bought.

Update (3:36 PM): This post has been edited for clarity.



Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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