What Ryan, Biden and Webb have in common

Aside from being near-milestones in politicians’ careers, these three events don’t seem to have much in common. But Ryan, Biden and Webb are each in their own way grappling with changes in the political parties they have sought to lead.

As recently as 2012, Ryan was one of the main conservative movement favorites in Congress. He acquired two of his dream jobs, chairman of the House Budget Committee and then chairman of Ways and Means. He was prevailed upon to accept the Republican nomination for vice president and now he may reluctantly accept his party nomination for speaker.

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But Ryan now faces pockets of conservative resistance in the Tea Party GOP. Some have disagreed with him on tactics, others on substantive issues like the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the TARP bailout or immigration. That last issue has become a litmus test for populist conservatives outside Congress. Process reforms that may or may not mesh well with Ryan’s conditions for seeking the speakership seem to be the litmus test for activist conservatives inside Congress.

To add further confusion, some of the same radio talk show hosts and commentators who once praised Ryan when he was Mitt Romney’s running mate three years ago now denounce him as a RINO.

Biden isn’t facing changes in the Democratic Party that are quite so ideological, even if he is trailing a socialist in many polls. The vice president said Tuesday that while he has occasionally disagreed with President Obama on tactics, they’ve never had an ideological disagreement.

Biden’s problems have more to do with time and demographics. Not long ago, there was no better place to be if you wanted your political party’s presidential nomination than two-term vice president under a president still beloved by that party’s members. But that doesn’t seem to be the formula for winning in 2016. After the tight fight between Obama and Hillary Clinton eight years ago, it now feels like her turn — what a Republican way of thinking about the party’s presidential ticket! — rather than his.

The diverse Democratic Party elected the first black president of the United States. Democrats have an opportunity to have his successor be the first female president. Do they really want to pass it up to add to the list of aging white male presidents? Maybe Biden has bad timing when it comes to presidential campaigns or perhaps he should check his privilege. But it’s an open question whether Democrats will want a septuagenarian white dude who doesn’t call himself a socialist.

Webb is the least important of these three figures and, while accomplished in many other areas, the least talented politician (the failure of his 2016 campaign was only secondarily about issues and policy positions). But in some ways he’s the most interesting. Here’s someone who has never comfortably fit in either party, having left both of them in disgust at various points. His discomfort has only grown as the parties have sorted ideologically and he continues to hold a grab-bag of liberal and conservative positions.

A decorated Vietnam veteran, Webb like millions of others, left the Democratic Party after George McGovern made it seem weak on national security and weird on culture. He quit the Reagan administration over second-term defense cuts. And he left the GOP when he thought it too ideological on foreign policy and economics, winning election to the Senate as a Democrat the same year Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in over a decade.

There was a time when Ryan might have been the favorite of conservative House backbenchers, when Biden would have been the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination and when Webb would have been welcome among the Democrats without suppressing his conservatism as much as he did in the Senate.

“Those were the days,” sang Archie and Edith.