Hes like Elsa in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, trying to grip too many things at the same time.
He's like Elsa in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, trying to hold onto too many things at the same time. Seth C Fisher / Shutterstock.com

Yesterday's news was that House Speaker Paul Ryan was distancing himself from Trump, no longer campaigning for him, and no longer defending him. Then last night, in what Talking Points Memo called a "fiery Monday night rally," Trump said as many horrible things about Clinton as he could think of and then began "publicly swatting at Ryan."

Donald Trump again goaded Republican leadership, making an unsubtle reference to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) as unable to “fix a budget.”

“You have people that can’t fix the budget and then they start talking about their nominee, but they can’t fix the budget,” the GOP nominee told a worked-up crowd in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

“Isn’t it really sad that we don’t have stronger leadership on both sides?” Trump went on. “But that’s changing if we win November 8th. Believe me, it’s going to change fast.”

Obviously, the fix that Ryan is in is that he wants to hold onto the Republican voters who are energized by Trump while also holding onto Republican voters who are disgusted by Trump.

For months, we've been hearing that there's no way the House of Representatives could go Democratic, because Democrats would need to flip 30 seats currently held by Republicans. As Vox explained it a few days ago:

The House has long looked like impossible to flip because gerrymandering has given Republicans a fortress of extraordinarily safe seats... Democrats need to win 30 Republican-held seats to flip the House, and are widely expected to nab closer to 15.

But... an epic Trump collapse might be enough to overcome that built-in advantage. Geoffrey Skelley, of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, argues that a Clinton victory of 6 points or more might be enough to put the House back in play.

Right now, the polling averages suggest Clinton is running around 5 points ahead of Trump. If she can use this Trump implosion to further increase her national lead, at least according to Skelley’s projections, she may give down-ballot Democratic allies a real chance at reclaiming Congress. And that would have huge consequences for the next two years of American government.

Pity Paul Ryan, who wants to make sure that doesn't happen—but that not happening is clearly contingent on not alienating Trump voters or inspiring them to ignore down-ballot races.

He's like Elsa in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, trying to hold onto too many things at the same time. You remember:

In real life, the ground doesn't break apart like that. In real life, the metaphorical ground beneath your feet breaks apart by way of the Republican nominee for president going on a 6 a.m. Twitter rampage about what a loser you are. This was just a few hours ago:






Here's how Paul Ryan actually attempted to hold onto both strands of Republican voters the other day, in the wake of Grab-Them-By-the-Pussy-Gate:

Will that work to save the House? Who knows.