Why Would Paul Ryan Want to Be Speaker?

But wait, that's not all, and Erickson is far from alone. The conservative website Breitbart.com featured an interview with NumbersUSA president Roy Beck, who described the prospect of Speaker Ryan as "terrifying," adding, "There's nobody in the Republican Party who could be worse than Paul Ryan. He has spent his entire adulthood ideologically connected to the open borders crowd."

Not only has Ryan endorsed the concept of "earned legalization," he backed fast-track trade negotiating authority for President Obama and now supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- derided by conservative bloggers as Obamatrade, as if any deal engineered by this president is inherently unacceptable.

This would all be simply depressing noise were it not for the unfortunate reality that the conservative blogosphere tail wags the congressional dog -- or at least enough of it to make the animal incapable of walking.

It's not simply the House Freedom Caucus of 40 or so radical conservatives. It's other members -- what one lawmaker described to me as the "vote no, hope yes" caucus -- cowed into taking crazy positions for fear of primary election challenges.

The Freedom Caucus' demands from the next speaker, outlined in a questionnaire, include commitments to provide for the filibuster-proof repeal of Obamacare; require that any increase in the debt ceiling be coupled with entitlement reform; and refuse to fund the government through temporary spending bills.

Most alarming, they call on any prospective speaker to abide by the so-called Hastert rule against bringing legislation to the floor without support from a majority of the GOP caucus. This is a recipe for disaster in the form of government shutdowns and debt defaults.

If I were Ryan, I would tell the Freedom Caucus to take their demands -- and the speakership, for that matter -- and shove them.

Because the position is only worth having if those for whom you would speak are willing to be led. And this requires an even more fundamental recognition: that politics remains the art of the possible, not the crayoned scrawl of tantruming preschoolers unable to have it entirely their way.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.