This Huffington Post headline isn't quite borne out by the story attached to it, but I believe the headline as well as the story:

Charles Koch Is Privately Committed To Getting Paul Ryan Nominated In Cleveland: Source

The story merely says that if Ryan were the nominee, the Kochs would be very, very pleased:

Charles Koch is confident House Speaker Paul Ryan could emerge from the Republican National Convention as the party’s nominee if Donald Trump comes up at least 100 delegates shy, he has told friends privately.

Koch believes Ryan would be a “shoo-in” at a contested convention, should the campaign get to that point.... he and his brother David are fond of Ryan. As a source close to the brothers told the Huffington Post, they appreciate the agenda he has pursued as speaker, including opposition to tax extenders and heightened warnings against corporate welfare -- positions that contrast with the admittedly vague portfolio pushed by Donald Trump.

If Ryan does get the nomination at the convention with the backroom assistance of the Kochs, there'd be something Faustian about that. The Tea Party, which was the precursor of Trumpism, might have had grassroots elements in its early days, but from the start it sold its soul to the Kochs, whose octopus of organizations gave the movement money, tactical know-how, and a much higher profile. This just seems like Charles and David Faust visiting the teabaggers-turned-Trumpites and quietly but firmly calling in the debt.

I've been wondering for a while why the Kochs haven't tried harder to thwart Trump in the primaries -- but maybe they read the polls correctly and concluded that, while Trump might finish with the most delegates, he was unlikely to get enough to win on the first ballot (or to be savvy enough to hold on to all the delegates he'd won, even on the first ballot), at which point the Kochs and other powers that be could put pretty much anyone they wanted at the top of the ticket. Possibly everything won't work out quite so neatly for them, but if it does, then they were smart not to panic. If so, it's still their party -- and the latest right-wing populist movement got owned by them, after they literally took ownership of the last one. Slick work, boys.

Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog