The Times' Take...

on Paul Ryan's speech today to House interns:

WASHINGTON — In an address billed as an examination of the future of politics, Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin on Wednesday admonished politicians in both parties for debasing political discourse, urging candidates to lift their gaze toward matters of serious policy and to strive for civility.

It was a familiar role for the speaker: He has become something of a Washington scold, deploring desultory campaigns and ill manners.

“Looking around at what’s taking place in politics today, it is so easy to get disheartened,” Mr. Ryan told an audience of House interns assembled for the speech. “How many of you find yourself just shaking your head at what you see from both sides of the aisle these days?”
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Mr. Ryan has a reputation as a conservative intellectual who has worked hard to develop an agenda for Republicans. “Politics,” he said, “can be a battle of ideas, not insults.”

But what Mr. Ryan did not address in his speech has been the inability of Congress to turn those ideas into laws, even with Republican majorities in both houses, or to maintain much decorum in its own chambers.

When Republicans seized control of the Senate last year, they promised they had finally achieved the latitude they needed to act big: to rewrite and simplify the tax code to unleash economic growth, replace the health care law with “patient-centered” care, overhaul the criminal justice system, expand free trade and put the government on a path to a balanced budget.

Instead, after years of badgering Democrats about it, Republicans find themselves unable to even cobble together a budget, rewrite the tax code or move forward on changes to the criminal justice system.

A vast trade deal spanning the Pacific Ocean has had the life span of a Washington cherry blossom — it bloomed in bipartisan fashion, then faded away — and a Senate trade enforcement bill was watered down when it reached the House. While the Senate passed a bill to combat the opioid abuse crisis, a measure that would greatly help Senate Republicans running for re-election, it has yet to be considered in the House.

In lieu of a robust legislative schedule, Mr. Ryan has largely turned the House into a conservative think tank, where members meet to discuss ideas they hope the Republican nominee for the White House can turn into a platform. He also gives passionate speeches in which he begs for a more policy-focused and civilized campaign.

Speaking Wednesday in the House Ways and Means hearing room, Mr. Ryan spoke broadly against divisiveness but once again stopped short of specifics. He did implore his young audience to be thoughtful and civil, a clear swipe at Donald J. Trump, the front-runner for his party’s presidential nomination.

“All of us as leaders can hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity and decency,” Mr. Ryan said.

Of course, if you define a leader as a person with people who imitate or copy his words and actions, Mr. Ryan is no real leader. He's just another speaker.... here, with a captive youth audience.

Meh.