The Republican House of ridiculousness.

• Author: Hightower, Jim
• Position: VOX POPULIST - Column

If it were under the big top, it would be a hilarious clown show--with pratfalls, wild posturing, tumbling, juggling, and a cacophony of comic chaos.

But, alas, this show has played out under the Capitol dome. The bedlam on The Hill drove House Speaker John Boehner to Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah out of office, having finally given up on corralling his caucus of clowns.

Sadly, his withdrawal only intensified the buffoonery, generating a slapstick intramural contest over which group of far-out right-wingers would replace him. Boehner's contingent of anti-government, corporate-hugging extremists wanted one of their own, while assorted groupings of even fringier, farther-out packs of mad-dog Tea Party Republicans wanted someone who would howl at the moon and literally shut down the government.

Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin appeared as the Republicans' best solution. He won enough support to overcome the opposition within his own party, but getting the job is only the beginning. The spectacle will continue.

The amusing irony is that Ryan helped create his own mess. He was chief architect of the 2010 Republican scheme to take over Congress by recruiting and electing the mad dogs who are now biting him on the butt--and turning the U.S. House of Representatives into the House of Ridiculousness. As Representative Peter King put it: "We look absolutely crazy."

King is right. What's at work here is the Crazy Caucus. At one level or another, nearly all Republican House members belong, but the caucus is driven by about forty hyper-crazies who believe that the greatest problems facing our country are Hillary Clinton's emails, Planned Parenthood, the existence of public services, and the "hordes" of Mexicans who sneak into our country so they can vote for Democrats. It's now Ryan's job as House Speaker to try "leading" these mad-dogs to an occasional bit of sanity. Who even thinks that's possible?

Ryan earned his mantle as messiah in part...