The argument is that the GOP pretty much lost control of the situation several months ago and are now attempting to staunch the bleeding. Whereas before it was a "maybe we'll lose the Senate but the House is secure for a decade or more" it's now "Oh fuck protect the Senate and divert resources so that we don't lose a lot of the House". So yeah - "any Republican nominee" but the Republicans wanted Bush, Rubio, Fiorina or one of the other safe choices and what they ended up with "a suicide bomber for their nominee". Whatever policies and party planks the GOP wanted to run this year, they didn't really get a say. In order to keep the tail from wagging the dog in 2020 they're going to have to exercise some soul-searching followed by some fresh thinking followed by some discipline.
Party discipline against the Democrats' scrambling to hold a coalition together was the Republicans' advantage for a long time, but they've been loosing it since the Tea Party kicked off and it doesn't seem likely they'll get it back that quickly if at all.
How much you wanna bet that Paul Ryan comes out on top of the pile of bodies, dusting rubble off his shoulders, and looking suspiciously like John Boehner? Paul Ryan is, sadly, the moderate voice of the Republican Party, and his loyalty to the party, and repudiation of Trump will teflon-coat him for the next 20 years, I bet. And that sucks. Because he's an asshole.
I'm sure he wants that to happen. However, I think anyone who thinks they can predict which way the hurricane blows is as likely to be blown over twice as hard as they are to bend with the wind. I firmly believe that if anyone had any control or precognition over this cataclysm, it wouldn't be a cataclysm. I suspect that the reason all the adults are staying mum and ducking and covering is they know that the best place to be in a tornado is in the basement.
I wrote #boehnerdodgedabullet the other day as a community tag for another thread. It got overwritten. Some people are humorless.
Make no mistake, the blame for the totally non-functional relationship between the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch lays solidly at the feet of Boehner, and history will not be nice to him. But yeah... he dodged a Trump-shaped bullet! And I think John Boehner Jr (aka - Paul Ryan) is made out of pure Teflon. Or maybe we should call it "Clintonium" after Bill Clinton's stint in the White House...