He is flanked by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., right, with Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, at left.
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The hard-liners’ votes are necessary for anyone to become speaker, and they aren’t willing to get behind Ryan, or any other candidate, without promises not to short-circuit normal procedures to keep the government functioning, as John Boehner often did. “Charlie here wants us to follow, like, a caucus or whatever”, Brat said. But the fragile, theoretical consensus falls apart over just how the speaker should wield power. And while we are confident Conaway could do the job, the best person to lead not only House Republicans but America’s Grand Old Party is obvious. “I don’t know”, he said.
The debate tangles the Constitution with obscure House rules and palace intrigue. The path forward seemed to rest on Ryan’s answer, which on Sunday remained “no thanks”.
“I would strongly encourage those who don’t want to be part of a caucus structure in our own party-they should go form their own party”, Nunes told Breitbart.
While a few Republicans see Rep. Paul Ryan as the “last hope” to become House speaker and restore order to the fractured GOP congressional delegation, an influential faction of hard-liners is not convinced that he is conservative enough. Freedom Caucus members had presented McCarthy with a list of demands he and top aides concluded could be next to impossible to meet, including a seat at the leadership table, a role in selecting committee chairs and members, and more votes on their legislative proposals.
The only thing that will likely end the thuggish tactics is public anger – and punishment at the polls – when the conservative hard-liners are blamed for shutdowns, the defaults or whatever else results from their coup.
And of course, Wasserman Schultz’s statement implies that conservative Republican policies alone brought about a massive loss of jobs. That included the group’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who called Ryan “a great communicator” and said the organization “would look favorably on him”. Those same representatives are credited – or blamed – for convincing John Boehner to step down as speaker. They realized that with Democrats in lockstep defense of the White House, even a relatively small group of Republican members – 30 or 40 – could stop Boehner from passing spending bills or other critical legislation.
“What they want is a Congress who is actually going to do something”, Christie told CNN. “What are we going to do so we can get 247 Republicans together on the same page?” Louie Gohmert and Mick Mulvaney. If that happens, we really do get chaos. “I think he would have had a tough time regardless”, Hannity said, because of his close ties to Boehner, who lost the confidence of the conservative wing of the party. Lance agrees, saying, “I agree with Congressman Webster on that and I think Paul Ryan would be of that opinion because he comes out the committee structure himself. It suggests how wide open the race is in the Republican conference of the House”, Jillson said.
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Nevertheless, a lot of newly elected GOP members were driven by opposition to Obama.
