From Rep. Paul Ryan, about a “secret beer” he had last month with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough:
It was the first time I have had a candid conversation or a substantial conversation with a member of the Obama administration since they came into power.
This time I’ll make exactly the opposite point that I made in the previous post. If this is true,1 it really is a little unsettling. Sure, we all know how Ryan feels, and I doubt that this meeting had even the slightest effect on anything. Still, these guys ought to get together and chat at least a little bit. It’s just part of the job.
1I’m being cautious because “candid” and “substantial” seem to be doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Is this really the first real conversation Ryan has had with the White House? Or merely the first conversation of a particular kind that he’s had? Hard to say.
