paul ryan to be involved in a negotiation when he has seemed to dig his heels in a fairly ideological way for the last several years? >> well, it's something that speaker boehner has done to exert his influence over the house republican conference. the idea from my conversations with boehner aides is that look, paul ryan is a very popular figure within the house republican conference. any possible deal or compromise must have his fingerprints on it. but make no mistake, alex, this is not going to be paul ryan as the chief negotiator of this deal. it's still going to be john boehner, john boehner's people, they are battle tested when it comes to these deficit deals and having paul ryan in the room is simply a way for john boehner to try to avoid and watch out -- avoid any consternation within his conference and watch out for his flank which as we know from 2011 he's had a mighty difficult time getting things through his group of fellow republicans who are not too keen on any