GOP leaders to House Republicans — Don't make us call dad!

Barely a year ago House Republicans begged Wisconsin's Paul Ryan to lead them after their most conservative wing compelled Ohio's John Boehner to throw up his hands and walk away from the speakership.

Now it looks as if the man from Janesville needs his one-time nemesis — President-elect Trump — to step in and stop his unruly conference from squandering voters' goodwill.

Over objections from Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Republicans privately voted Monday night to bring an independent ethics watchdog in-house — an office created in the wake of a torrent of ethical and corruption scandals that rocked Capitol Hill from 2006-2008.

By Tuesday morning they had a public relations disaster on their hands and a leadership that looked incapable of preventing the rank-and-file from making House Republicans look like petulant children lashing out at the hall monitor. Worse, they seemed completely out of sync with Trump's winning "drain the swamp" mantra.