Conservatives Want Ryan Unleashed

Mushy Romneyites seen as hobbling the would-be veep

Representative Paul D. Ryan's selection as the Republican vice-presidential nominee is now yielding something Mitt Romney's campaign can do without: second-guessing about how Mr. Ryan is being put to use.

Through the halls of Congress and well beyond, a whisper campaign is bursting into the open: Rather than burden him with the usual constraints on a ticket's No. 2 not to upstage or get ahead of the presidential nominee, let Ryan be Ryan and take a detailed, policy-heavy fight to President Obama and the Democrats.