U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan Out On Long Limb, Making Demands

Left to right. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater

[From article]
Forty-eight hours after Donald Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination with a smashing victory in the Indiana primary, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he could not yet support Trump.
In millennial teen-talk, Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now.”
“[T]he bulk of the burden of unifying the party” falls on Trump, added Ryan. Trump must unify “all wings of the Republican Party, and the conservative movement.” Trump must run a campaign that we can “be proud to support and proud to be a part of.”
Then, maybe, our Hamlet of the House can be persuaded to support the elected nominee of his own party.
Excuse me, but upon what meat has this our Caesar fed?
Ryan is a congressman from Wisconsin. He has never won a statewide election. As number two on Mitt Romney’s ticket, he got waxed by Joe Biden. He was compromise choice as speaker, only after John Boehner went into in his Brer Rabbit “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” routine.
Who made Ryan the conscience of conservatism?
Who made Ryan keeper of the keys of true Republicanism?
Trump “inherits something … that’s very special to a lot of us,” said Ryan, “the party of Lincoln and Reagan and Jack Kemp.”
But Trump did not “inherit” anything. He won the nomination of the Republican Party in an epic battle in the most wide-open race ever, in which Trump generated the largest turnout and greatest vote totals in the history of Republican primaries.
[. . .]
The hubris here astonishes. A Republican establishment that has been beaten as badly as Carthage in the Third Punic War is now making demands on Scipio Africanus and the victorious Romans.
[. . .]
Someone should instruct Paul Ryan that losers do not make demands. They make requests. They make pleas.
[. . .]
Ryan is saying he is ambivalent over whether he will accept the verdict of the Cleveland convention — of which he is the chairman.
If Ryan holds to his refusal to accept the decision of the Republican majority in the primaries, he should be removed from that role. And if Ryan does not come out of Thursday’s meeting with the Donald, endorsing him, the presumptive nominee should turn to Paul Ryan, and, in two words, tell him, “You’re fired!”
Trump cannot allow the establishment to claw back in the cloakrooms of Capitol Hill what he won on a political battlefield. He cannot allow a discredited establishment to dictate the issues he may run on.
That would be a betrayal of the troops who brought Trump victory after victory in the primaries.
[. . .]


Nelson A. Rockefeller

Paul Ryan is the Nelson Rockefeller of his generation.
In 1960, Gov. Rockefeller refused to challenge Vice President Nixon in the primaries. When Nixon went to Rockefeller’s New York apartment to persuade him to join the ticket, Rocky refused, but demanded concessions in the platform, to which Nixon acceded.
[. . .]

Only the appearance of Sen. Barry Goldwater at the podium to tell conservatives to “grow up. We can take this party back,” halted a suicidal drive to take the nomination away from Nixon.
After Goldwater won the nomination in the 1964 California primary by defeating Rockefeller, Rocky arrived at the San Francisco convention to demand that a plank equating the John Birch Society with the Communist Party and Ku Klux Klan be written into Goldwater’s platform. Hooted and rejected, Rocky went home and refused to endorse the nominee, who went down to a crushing defeat by LBJ.
Nixon, a party loyalist, campaigned across the country for Barry and his doomed party.
In 1968, Nixon got his reward, the nomination, with Goldwater’s support. And Govs. Rockefeller and George Romney, who had done the Paul Ryan thing, never came close.
[. . .]
This is one Private Ryan we cannot save.

http://buchanan.org/blog/promoted-private-ryan-125221

Who Promoted Private Ryan?
Monday - May 9, 2016 at 7:37 pm
Patrick J. Buchanan

Funeral For Nancy Davis Reagan, A Story of Love

Nancy Reagan holding the Reagans’ pet Rex, a King Charles spaniel, as she and Ronald Reagan walk on the White House South Lawn in 1986.

Photo: AP

http://www.c-span.org/video/?406302-1/funeral-service-nancy-reagan

[Complete broadcast. Service actually begins about one hour into this video]
[4 hours 23 minutes]
MARCH 11, 2016
Nancy Reagan Funeral Service A funeral service for former first lady Nancy Reagan was held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. She died Sunday, March 6, 2016, at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 94.

* * *

[From article]
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney read an adoring letter Ronald Reagan wrote Nancy on their first Christmas in the White House in 1981.
Reagan wrote her about “several much beloved women in his life,” including my “First Lady.”
“She brings so much grace and charm to whatever she does that even stuffy, formal functions sparkle and turn into fun times. Everything is done with class. All I have to do is wash up and show up,” the former president wrote.
“Fortunately, all these women in my life are you – fortunately for me that is, for there could be no life for me without you,” he wrote, lovingly.He then described “the girl” who went to the ranch with him, a “sentimental lady” whose laughter is like “tinkling bells” and a “gal who is a nest builder.”
TV host Melissa Rivers recalled the many conversations her mother, Joan Rivers, had with Nancy.
“One of the last great grand dames,” Rivers said, the Washington Post reported. “She was an elegant, wonderful woman.”

[. . .]

A stickler for detail, the former first lady planned much of the memorial service before her death, including the roses and white peonies on her mahogany coffin, which was made by Marsellus Casket Co. in Syracuse, the paper reported.
The service, which reflected her sense of elegance from a bygone era, featured a photo of her dressed in one of her signature red gowns.
The pair had two children, Patti Davis and Ron, both of whom smiled at reminiscences during the funeral.
Davis told mourners her folks were “two halves of a circle,” recalling a distant memory of seeing them sitting on a Southern California beach at sunset in what she called an impenetrable “island for two.”

http://nypost.com/2016/03/11/political-dignitaries-celebrities-say-goodbye-to-nancy-reagan/

Political dignitaries, celebrities say goodbye to Nancy Reagan
By Yaron Steinbuch
New York Post
March 11, 2016 | 4:08pm | Updated

http://nyp.st/1TTfvIc

* * *

Peggy Noonan remembers Nancy Reagan

https://youtu.be/4X559oBwpKU



* * *

[From article]

Former first lady Nancy Reagan was celebrated in a stately funeral Friday that evoked the majestic splendor of her eight years in the White House and a Washington era that she and her husband defined.
Political, business and Hollywood potentates, a thousand in all, came to pay their respects. Her eulogists spoke of her signature elegance, political influence and withering contempt for those who dared cross her. Most of all, they spoke of the Reagans’ marriage as both an abiding love affair and a partnership in power, with Mrs. Reagan serving as her husband’s chief protector and a leading architect of his legacy.
“My life began when I met my husband,” Nancy Davis Reagan once said, and several mourners noted that the same may have been said of him.
The Reagans were “defined by their love for each other,” said former secretary of state James A. Baker III, speaking in a tent erected on the south lawn of the Reagan Presidential Library high on a hill facing the Topatopa Mountains. “Without her, he wouldn’t have been president.”
Their son agreed. “There likely wouldn’t have been a President Ronald Reagan without a Nancy Reagan,” said Ronald Prescott Reagan of his mother, who died Sunday at 94 of congestive heart failure.
While her husband was alive, Mrs. Reagan kept watch over every aspect of his life. Willing to play the heavy and often acknowledged by her husband and his key aides as a the sharper assessor of loyalty and character, she became a polarizing figure in national politics.
“Her determination was ferocious,” said their daughter Patti Davis, remembering a conversation they had when her mother was personally lobbying members of Congress to approve stem-cell research into Alzheimer’s disease, against the Republican Party position. “Even God might not have the guts to argue with Nancy Reagan.”
[. . .]
Much of the guest list harkened back to the ’80s, the Reagan decade, including Wayne Newton, Anjelica Huston, Tina Sinatra, Bo Derek (“we shared horse stories”) and Ralph Lauren. Mr. T — a stalwart ally in Mrs. Reagan’s “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign (she famously sat on his lap at a Christmas event) arrived through a side entrance dressed in full camouflage attire, combat boots and an American flag wrapped around his head.
[. . .]
Mrs. Reagan’s funeral brought together under one immense tent notable Democrats and Republicans at a deeply divisive time — from Newt Gingrich and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Television producer Norman Lear, a major funder of liberal causes, recalled that “she had a civility and appreciation for other people’s points of view.” Also, that Mrs. Reagan “danced well.”
[. . .]
The service reflected her sense of unapologetically old-world elegance but also revealed the more playful side of Mrs. Reagan, a woman known for her steely reserve. She enjoyed the company of dashing men — like Selleck, Warren Beatty, her husband — and a delight for gossip. “She told wicked stories of old Hollywood,” Diane Sawyer observed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/03/11/nancy-reagan-funeral-draws-political-heavyweights-stars-from-bygone-era/

Nancy Reagan funeral draws political heavyweights, stars from bygone era
Washington Post
Karen Heller and William Wan March 11, 2016 at 5:21 PM

Ronald Reagan Remembered, GE Moves To Boston

Ronald Reagan Spokesman For GE

1-8-07
The GE Years: What Made Reagan Reagan
by Thomas W. Evans
The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of his Conversion to Conservatism,

Ronald Reagan :"served as host of the General Electric Theater on television. His contract also called for him to spend a quarter of his eight years (1954-1962) with the company touring the forty states and 139 plants of GE’s far-flung decentralized corporate domain, addressing 250,000 employees and their neighbors.

[From article]
General Electric Co. announced on Wednesday that it will be moving its headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., to Boston, starting this summer.
[. . .]
GE has been based on a 68-acre suburban campus in Fairfield since 1974. Its new home will be built in Boston's Seaport District, with the full move to be completed by 2018.
The $130 billion global industrial giant said it has been weighing a headquarters move for more than three years. That search may have become more urgent after a 2015 state budget raised taxes on corporations.
[. . .]
Although the tax breaks are generous, they were not the key reasons for GE's choice of Boston.
GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said the company was looking for "an ecosystem that shares our aspirations. Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities. Massachusetts spends more on research & development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically fluent workforce."
GE also said Boston offered "connections with the world." That can be read as: Logan International Airport. Unlike Fairfield, Boston offers nonstop flights to London, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tokyo, Santiago and many other global destinations.
New York officials had hoped to attract GE, but the company said it not only is pulling out of Connecticut but will be selling its offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
[. . .]
Boston's advantages showed up in another way on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve gave it a pat on the back in its Beige Book, an eight-times-a-year report on growth.
The Beige Book described Boston's economic activity as "upbeat."
Fed researchers concluded that while the New York and Kansas City regions were essentially flat, other parts of the country were reporting growth and Boston was particularly healthy.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/13/462960233/ge-brings-things-to-life-in-boston-lights-out-in-connecticut

GE Brings Things To Life In Boston; Lights Out In Connecticut
Updated January 13, 20167:00 PM ET
Published January 13, 20165:34 PM ET






MARILYN GEEWAX

A White House Different From Churchill and Reagan

[From article]
what if it had been Barack Revere! Prepare to be dazzled.
If Obama had been able to apply his intricate, coruscating mind to the situation, he might have cried out, as he galloped through the streets that fateful night:
Good evening, everybody! I want to say a few words on a number of topics and take a few questions! First, beginning with the No. 1 thing most Americans care about — the British are — well, it would tempting to say they’re “coming,” but that would be painting with too broad a brush. Is the entire British Empire coming? Is Bombay coming? Bengal? The Turks & Caicos? This is something I just recently heard about on the evening news! The truth is, “We found out that certain forces are marshaling.” We are not at war with the British Empire. We are at war with people who have perverted the British Empire! Our military action has to be part of a broader, comprehensive strategy to protect America’s working families and strengthen the middle class! And that starts with the Minutemen building on the progress that they’ve made so far and forming an inclusive force that will unite their towns and strengthen their security forces! And I’ve asked Secretary Kerry to continue to build the coalition that’s needed to meet this threat. Which, by the way, is COMING!
[. . .] Churchill’s much-slobbered-over [. . .] “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
How would Prime Minister Obama rally the nation?
I put forward in the past an all-of-the-above war strategy, but our war strategy must be about more than just winning one war. And, by the way, it’s certainly got to be about more than just taking one beach. Now, I know there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding the proposal to fight on the beaches because any number of natural habitats would be disturbed and permanently endangered if beaches are to be used as a venue for armed conflict. There are, for example, 19 different nesting birds on South Coast beach alone. And the EPA, at my direction, is going through the final stages of evaluating the proposal. That’s how it’s always been done.

http://humanevents.com/2015/03/11/barack-obama-a-man-for-the-ages/?utm_source=coulterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Barack Obama: A man for the ages!

Ann Coulter Wednesday Mar 11, 2015 10:44 PM

Ronald Reagan, Hollywood Ladies Man, New Book

Ronald Reagan (below) charmed more than 50 of Hollywood's leading ladies at his luxury LA villa, according to a new biography. During his time as an actor he became involved with the young Marilyn Monroe (above).




The claims are made in a biography to be published on Valentine's Day titled Love Triangle: Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman & Nancy Davis. Below: Joan Blondell and above, Lana Turner - the book claims Reagan slept with both of the actresses


[From article]
Ronald Reagan bedded more than 50 of Hollywood's leading ladies at a luxury LA hotel bungalow, according to a sensational new biography.
During his time as a young 'B-movie' Hollywood actor, Reagan courted screen sirens including Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, Joan Blondell and Lana Turner at the three-bedroom bungalow in the grounds of the Garden of Allah hotel in Hollywood, the book claims.
The revelations are made in a biography to be published on Valentine's Day titled Love Triangle: Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman & Nancy Davis, reports The Sunday Times.
According to the book's author Darwin Porter, Reagan was involved with around 50 women in Hollywood.
'Nearly all of them spoke fondly of Reagan - even if they did not share his right-wing politics, they felt he was a nice guy,' said Porter, a journalist.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2935230/The-Playboy-President-young-Ronald-Reagan-charmed-50-Hollywood-s-leading-ladies-including-Marilyn-Monroe-luxury-LA-bungalow.html

Ronald Reagan and the 'luxury love shack': LA home where he bedded more than 50 of Hollywood's leading ladies including Marilyn Monroe
Alleged liaisons took place at the Garden of Allah hotel in Los Angeles
Reagan courted famous faces including Marilyn Monroe and Doris Day, Joan Blondell and Lana Turner
Dates facilitated by Warner Bros which set him with actresses to promote both their respective careers
Claims made in a biography titled Love Triangle: Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman & Nancy Davis
By DAILY MAIL ONLINE REPORTER

Intolerant Liberal Haters Destroy Conservative Icons; Reagan Statue, Ten Commandments Tablet

Torched Can-Do Monument at Ronald Reagan Sports Park, Temecula, Calif.


Vandalized Ten Commandments monument outside Faith and Action, Washington, D.C.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/political-vandals-commit-monumental-crimes/

POLITICAL VANDALS COMMIT 'MONUMENTAL' CRIMES
Launch 2 attacks on tributes to conservative values over same weekend

Drew Zahn

September 23, 2013

Reagan: Don't Give Up Your Ideals

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/11/09/reagan_don_t_give_up_your_ideals_in_the_face_of_losing

Reagan: Don't Give Up Your Ideals in the Face of Losing
November 09, 2012

Chicago Pol Forced to Apologize For Insulting Reagan

Outspoken: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle blasted the deceased former president for 'politicizing drug use'

[From article]
A Chicago politician who has crusaded to legalize marijuana in the city shocked a crowd this week when she said former President Ronald Reagan 'deserves a special place in hell' for waging the War on Drugs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2192293/Toni-Preckwinkle-says-Ronald-Reagan-deserves-special-place-hell-War-Drugs.html

Chicago politician forced to apologize after saying Ronald Reagan deserves a 'special place in hell' for the waging War on Drugs
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 18:23 EST, 22 August 2012 | UPDATED: 18:25 EST, 22 August 2012

In Praise of Newt Gingrich

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/24/reagans-young-lieutenant/

Reagan's Young Lieutenant
By Jeffrey Lord
1.24.12 @ 6:09AM
American Spectator
Gingrich a star on Reagan team: Romney "work product" as conservative at issue.

Reagan Statue

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/international/news/20111124p2g00m0in070000c.html

A monument to U.S. President Ronald Reagan is unveiled in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/ShakhAivazov)

Georgian president unveils monument to Reagan
AP
November 25, 2011
Mainichi News Tokyo Japan

Coulter on Goldwater, Liberal Nonsense

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39118

How Many Times Did Goldwater Run For President Again?
by Ann Coulter
09/22/2010
Human Events

Ronald Reagan on Freedom

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." -Ronald Reagan

Feds and Tenth Amendment

[From article]
"Ronald Reagan, said [. . .] the federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government.”
[. . .]
Polls in recent years show local government consistently getting the thumbs-up from 60% or more of voters. Approval ratings for state government fall in the 50% to 70% range.
[. . .]
(New York state, where disapproval of Albany is running at 78%, is at the moment an exception).
[. . .]
“The American people don’t want to be governed from the left, the right or the center,” pollster Scott Rasmussen said last winter. “The American people want to govern themselves.”
[. . .]
“Real neighborhood government would not be merely advisory as is the case with Washington, DC’s neighborhood commissions,” he has written. “It would include the power to sue the city government, to incorporate, to run its own programs, to contract to provide those of city hall, and to have some measure of budgetary authority over city expenditures within its boundaries.
[. . .]
the law, like anything else, is a plaything of fashion.
[. . .]
The Tenth Amendment — the one that says powers not delegated to the US are reserved to the states or the people — is fully rested and ready for action. Maybe it’s time to dust it off and see if it still works."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/states_of_denial_hZSNAff4sDUaTAgvAYyhBJ

States of denial
This election year, local governments are gearing up for battles against the feds
Kyle Smith
New York Post
Last Updated: 8:46 AM, September 5, 2010
Posted: 12:29 AM, September 5, 2010

Ronald Ray-Gun

Ronald Ray-Gun

Best Wishes?

Best Wishes?

Gratefully Richard Griffin omitted tolerance for diversity of ideas from his wish list. Wouldn't want to go like totally negative, you know what I'm talking about Paul Tillich? Blessed is he who continues to bash Bush with only three weeks left in his term. How many more years will Bush and Romney get the blame for the incompetent and corrupt state and US legislatures? [From Thomas Sowell] 'People who are impressed by how many of Barack Obama's advisers have Ivy League degrees seem not to remember how many people with Ivy League degrees mismanaged the Vietnam War and how many people with Ivy League degrees mismanaged economic policy during the depression.' Gov. Palin scares limousine liberals more than Reagan did. She is a reformer, the most hated politician among corrupt liberals. 'Ronald Reagan had a vision of America. Barack Obama has a vision of Barack Obama.' Happy New Year!

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1369589205/Griffin-Wishes-for-2009

Griffin: Wishes for 2009
By Richard Griffin/Growing Older
Cambridge Chronicle
Sun Dec 28, 2008, 03:42 PM EST

Ten Most Awkward Political Gaffes.

Ten Most Awkward Political Gaffes.