House Freedom Caucus Is On the Warpath Again

Members of the House Freedom Caucus are at it again. As the Huffington Post's Matt Fuller reports, this time they're more or less threatening a coup against Speaker Paul Ryan unless he sticks to their script on immigration: They want a vote on the restrictionist bill offered by Bob Goodlatte, and they certainly don't want votes on any compromise measure that might emerge from the Senate.

They're already upset with Ryan because of the recently passed agreement on spending for the remainder of the fiscal year, along with raising the debt limit and various other measures. The truth, however, is that the conservative radicals are the ones responsible for that bill. Democrats only have leverage to negotiate a fairly good deal because Ryan's Republican conference was split, with Ryan knowing he would never have the radicals' votes on anything that could even get a simple majority in the Senate. That meant Ryan would eventually need Democratic votes, which meant everyone knew from the start that some Democratic priorities would wind up being fulfilled despite the large Republican majority in the House.