December 14, 2017 02:12 PM UTC

REPORTS: Paul Ryan to Hang Up His Gavel

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• by: Colorado Pols

House Speaker Paul Ryan has apparently had enough of this shit.

As Tim Alberta and Rachael Bade report for Politico today, it appears that Ryan is not going to run for re-election in 2018:

Despite several landmark legislative wins this year, and a better-than-expected relationship with President Donald Trump, Ryan has made it known to some of his closest confidants that this will be his final term as speaker. He consults a small crew of family, friends and staff for career advice, and is always cautious not to telegraph his political maneuvers. But the expectation of his impending departure has escaped the hushed confines of Ryan’s inner circle and permeated the upper-most echelons of the GOP. In recent interviews with three dozen people who know the speaker—fellow lawmakers, congressional and administration aides, conservative intellectuals and Republican lobbyists—not a single person believed Ryan will stay in Congress past 2018. [Pols emphasis]

The Politico story makes it sound like Ryan is pretty close to definitive on his Congressional future…but he doesn’t want to say it out loud just yet:

The speaker can’t afford to admit he’s a lame duck—his fundraising capacity and deal-making leverage would be vastly diminished, making the House all the more difficult to govern. When asked at the end of a Thursday morning press conference if he was leaving soon, Ryan shot a quick “no” over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

Ryan still wants to push forward with his big entitlement reform plan, which is a big reason why he is being so quiet about his political future, but it sounds like he’s just plain sick of Washington D.C. and the current state of the Republican Party. As Alex Shepard writes for New Republic:

He’s unsurprisingly tired of dealing with all of the crap that being speaker entails, including the never-ending power struggles and infighting. According to the report, Ryan would use his final year as speaker attempting to fulfill the dream he’s had since he was going to keg parties in college: entitlement reform.

There is an element of “you can’t fire me, I quit!” to all of this. Ryan is on the verge of passing sweeping tax reform, but he is also heading into the toughest stretch of his speakership. He’s facing a tougher than expected challenge from Randy Bryce, who has become a darling of the left over the past several months. And, perhaps most importantly, he’s about to oversee an expected bloodbath in the 2018 midterms.

It’s only going to get worse from there, which Ryan’s friends and associates acknowledge: “The best part of this scenario, people close to the speaker emphasize: He wouldn’t have to share the ballot with Trump again in 2020,” Politico writes. [Pols emphasis]

Well, yeah, there’s that. Nobody wants to play with President Trump anymore — particularly when there is a massive Democratic wave on the horizon.