"Getting rolled"-- this is when the majority party's leadership takes a position on a bill, and then loses. It rarely happens, for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that the Speaker can usually, you know, count.
The irony here is that Ryan got his public accolades as a budget guy. It was all bullshit, but that was supposed to be his thing. Budgets, if you actually do them, involve counting.
Winning votes means counting. Hi, Steve Scalise! You had one job! Anyway, the party has to ask itself one question (punk): Do I have a majority? If I am trying to pass something and I don't have the votes, pull the bill from the floor, and wait until I do. If I am trying to block something from passing, as the saying went, "just say no." Majority party leaders have the ability to do either. If they support the bill, just reschedule the vote. If they oppose it, just bottle it up in committee, refuse to schedule action, etc. The House of Representatives is majoritarian in the sense of being a majority party institution.
Of course, this requires the ability to...
Paul Ryan's side of the aisle doesn't like public television, so he never learned to count. And, perhaps that explains yesterday.
The House Republican leadership cut a deal with the Freedom Caucus to let them have a doomed vote on their hardline immigration bill, in exchange for them not killing the farm bill. So, Ryan thought that meant he could pass the farm bill yesterday.
Oopsies! Maybe if Ryan had spent more time watching Sesame Street and less time reading Ayn Rand's bullshit rants on the gold standard, he would have known that he didn't have the votes.
He didn't have the votes. The majority party rarely gets rolled. On bills they oppose, they block consideration in the first place. Bills they support, they cut deals and don't bring the bills to the floor until the votes are counted.
Paul Ryan is... no Nancy Pelosi, and no John Boehner.
John Boehner took a lot of guff for the number of times he pulled bills from the floor before the vote. But, you see, that was the right move. That was a Speaker not getting rolled. That was a Speaker counting votes, accurately, responding accordingly and making sure that the outcome was the outcome he wanted. John Boehner was a legislative badass. He was working with a, um... batty caucus,* but he knew what he was doing.
Paul Ryan... well, one of the best bits from that Boehner Politico interview was about Dubya and Boehner. Dubya asked if Boehner ever gave Ryan advice. Boehner responded, yes, when Ryan called. Dubya's response: "He needs to call you more."
Remember when "the president is stupid" was just a joke? You know, when he actually knew what HIV is? Good times, good times.
*I wish I could have solved a basic problem in the construction of this recurring joke-- "moonbat" is the term for a wacko liberal extremist rather than a wacko conservative extremist. That latter term would be "wingnut." Sometimes, the joke just doesn't come together completely, but hey, this is free for you, and nobody is paying me for this, so don't complain when a joke doesn't land quite right.