POLITICS/PAUL RYAN: “Paul D. Ryan rode to power two years ago like a hero on a white horse, a reluctant candidate for House speaker elected to heal wounds left by his predecessor, who could not tame the incessant infighting between hard-line conservatives and establishment Republicans.
In one of his first real tests, Mr. Ryan discovered last week that those old wounds can reopen fast. But in President Trump, his mercurial partner in the White House, the speaker deftly found a foil to deflect some of the anger that had felled the man he succeeded, John A. Boehner.
President Trump’s fiscal deal with Democratic leaders in Congress — which passed the House with more than a third of Republicans voting against it — infuriated House conservatives, who struck first at Mr. Ryan, but ultimately turned their ire on the Trump White House. By week’s end, the men feeling the lash were Mr. Trump’s Treasury secretary and budget director. If anything, Mr. Ryan may have emerged stronger…
Mr. Ryan is certainly not out of the woods. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, is publicly sniping at him, openly declaring war on Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.”
-Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Why Ryan, Undercut by Trump, May Actually Emerge Stronger,” The New York Times online, Sept. 10, 2017