They've already dug through the top and middle. They have no one left.

is because they require them to be from the bottom of the barrel. A different face won't change that.

Ryan's "honeymoon is over" for now. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-paul-ryan-challenge-20160331-story.html

I thought this part below was interesting. Given how very conservative-libertarian Ryan is, I'm wondering what problems for a presidential candidacy might lie in these "ideas," even if he must have toned them down to be able to sell them at the GOP convention.

Didn't he rewrite his economic plan something like 5 or 6 times in Congress, each less and less extreme, before a last toned-down version was disastrously greeted on rollout during the Romney campaign as still very extreme with numbers that didn't even begin to add up?

Here is a disjointed collection of out-loud thoughts. Some are not as insane as they sound. Some are.

Rove sees the writing on the wall: no candidate can beat either Democrat; all of them have savagely ruined each others' chances for a credible run in the general, and they probably haven't dished all the dirt on each other yet, either. With Trump I know that for sure.

I think the idea now is to run a third party spoiler. They can either steal it from Trump and he'll run as a third party for sure, or run a well placed "fresh face" as a pure spoiler if they can't steal it from Trump.

The spoiler has to be someone really well known, because there won't be time to sell the person. It has to be someone capable of getting close enough to steal states from the Democrat and Trump. Big states, too, like PA, VA, NC, OH, TX, FL.

If they can steal states from both candidates, the election gets kicked into the Republican House, and they can do what they do best--nothing--and Speaker Paul Ryan inherits the office without a single vote.

It probably must be a person more widely known on television than in political circles. Maybe a television journalist? Maybe Sean Hannity? Maybe someone just as criminal, but less insane. Colin Powell? No. Too competent, too black. Jesse Ventura might have legs in the midwest, but can he take Pennsylvania? Christie would have been a good choice, a gangster's gangster, but Trump already got to him. Who's that psycho from The View?

Money isn't a problem. They have infinite money and infinite ability to channel it to the spoiler and to Trump and to the Democrat, in case one of the other two is doing too well.

If they're going to steal it from Trump, they can't wait until the week before the convention. They have to make their move at the rules meeting in mid-April, otherwise Trump won't get on the ballot as a third party in the states they want him to win.

Similarly, the spoiler has to launch before the convention, to be on the ballot in states they need to steal.

It can't be Mitt Romney, as much as Romney is angling for it. Romney can't take the states they need to make it a toss-up. He's proven that already.

It can be a criminal, because they'll have time to stall the press with the honeymoon phase and the access gambit. Sarah Palin's criminal behavior didn't fully come to light until the year after she ran. Look how long it took to bust Cruz, and there must have been hundreds of people who knew about his philandering for years.

It can't be Paul Ryan, because he's the one they've already positioned to win it all. It also means they have to win the House (a safe bet), and they have to make sure there is no dissent against Ryan's reelection as Speaker in January (a very unsafe bet, because by then every weasel in the House will see their shortcut to the White House).

One way to throw a wrench in the oligarchs' plans would be to front a powerful opposition candidate against Ryan in his home Congressional district. Do we have that person?

Another way to fuck up the contested election-theft is to run a candidate in every House district, no matter how much of a lost cause. Republican money is infinite but staff talent in the GOP is exceedingly rare. A lot of talent is placed on loan from safe districts, but if those districts suddenly face a challenge, the talent gets pulled back. The ultimate hilarity would be for the GOP to kick the election into the House, delay the vote, and then accidentally elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker with the help of pissed-off Republican moderates.

a nominee and Ryan will reluctantly accept.

The party picks the nominee, not the voters

win the general. "You have to lose the primary to win the election". The only way, then to win the general election is to not win the primary....to not even run in the primary.

They found a way to win the general without winning the primary.

And they won't this cycle, either, and there's nothing they can do about it AND THEY KNOW IT.

Best long-term strategy for them now is to help Trump or Cruz win the nomination, get absolutely DESTROYED in the General, and then go back and scold the base like the stupid selfish hateful children they are by saying 'we gave you what you wanted.We let you have the nominee you thought was a Really Really Real-enough Conservative. Look what happened. YOU'LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN AND YOU'LL LIKE IT.

The only way the REPUBLICAN party will be viable after this election is if the Party heads are smart enough to let the TEA PARTY go ahead and prove their own National political irrelevance, and in so doing let it destroy itself.

They'll sacrifice the Senate to do it, and maybe the House if things go our way. But they will have saved their party from its own worst idiocy.

the Democrats would force big changes in the GOP. Leaders would be ejected for failure, same as when Gingrich was ousted, and ideology and policies adjusted to make them palatable to an electorate. Not all conservatives are extreme anti-government, pro-privilege, xenophobe nutcases by a long shot.

Rove says "battle-hardened." He has someone in mind. Ryan doesn't seem "battle-hardened," does he? Kasich is losing this battle, but could seem battered and hardened. Romney?

... the president and if they do this they will NOT get the votes. Trump is a protest vote as it is, take him out and there won't even be a protest vote there will be crickets on the Rep side.

2001-2008 in its investment banking division.

This man has so many horrible negatives in his government record alone that could ruin his chances with moderates once brought out in the GE.

I also ran into a story that Kasich's inner circle is well known to contain a peculiarly large number of homosexual men and has for many years, etc, etc, etc. Have no idea if it's true, but it also looks like something Cruz would spread.

On the funny side, apparently Kasich loathes the movie Fargo and ran on for 3 chapters or something in his book about it. I have a chipper I've made enormous amounts of wonderful compost with, and when that scene came up, I laughed. Surprised and horrified, but funny. Kasich did not think so.

another human, 100% Republican built. I don't think Republicans have anyone they can run with a real. honest resume.

are all 3 absolutely dreadful and inimical to democracy. But it'll come out in the GE, if not before. The Detroit Free Pres just revealed that Kasich eats pizza with a fork! And they have a picture to prove it,so it isn't just another slimy Cruz smear.

about democracy

They want Ryan. It's not a secret. I heard a Trump supporter threatening "days of rage" if the Donald isn't given the nomination. If only the Secret Service had allowed guns . . .