Rep. Justin Amash of Cascade Township said he is among the Republican conservative hard-liners who have chose to back Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s bid to become the next speaker of the House.
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The Glenbeulah Republican, on WHBL’S Sheboygan’s Morning News Thursday, said he has supported Ryan for speaker both on the floor of the House and privately among his congressional colleagues.
Some, citing Ryan’s demand to jettison the House rule allowing a simple majority to oust a speaker at virtually any time, said it would be almost impossible for him to earn their support.
Ryan tweaked his “unity” criteria, accepting the HFC’s strong blessing as sufficient, and awaited the formal endorsements of two other important coalitions – the moderate Tuesday Group and the conservative Republican Study Committee.
This is how it’s been going for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has emerged as the member most likely to be elevated to Speaker of the House.
“Paul has always been a thoughtful leader and reformer in Washington, a unifier in the House Republican caucus, and someone who is willing and able to work across the aisle to achieve results for the American people”. He has he will run for Speaker if the Republican caucus is there to support him.
“The bottom line is if he (Ryan) wants to be speaker, he’s got the votes as of tonight”, said Representative Mick Mulvaney, a member of the Freedom Caucus who voted for Ryan.
The pair of endorsements came a day after Ryan cleared his toughest hurdle in his bid for Speaker.
Ryan has made clear that he does not want to be the latest victim of Republican dysfunction and will run only if it becomes clear he can unify the House GOP. “We can make the House a more open and inclusive body – one where every member can contribute to the legislative process”. I’m telling you the House Leadership thinks it’s going to be Jeb or Rubio. Another group member, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, said the lawmakers didn’t need to take a vote because none of them opposed Ryan.
Whoever is elected speaker will succeed Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) in that role.
Under Boehner’s leadership, conservatives have been blamed for threatening to “shut down government” by stopping taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama questioned Ryan’s plans to cut down on fundraising travel that’s associated with the speaker’s job in order to spend more time in Janesville, Wis., with his wife and their three school-aged children.
Ryan’s announcement offers the fratricidal House GOP a chance to chart a new course after years of chaos, and may allow Republicans to refocus away from fighting each other and onto the race for the White House.
My best guess is that Ryan included this demand just to humiliate the radicals, though political scientist Dave Hopkins suspects Ryan really doesn’t want the job and is trying to taunt the Freedom Caucus into opposing him (see Sean Trende’s alternate view).
The 45-year-old House Ways and Means Committee chairman pledges to change that dynamic if selected speaker in elections next week.
A few tea party groups and conservative commentators have pilloried his past support for easing immigration curbs and the bailout of financial institutions as the Great Recession took hold. To put those scores in perspective, Ryan is in the 36th percentile for conservatism among the Republican caucus, while Boehner is in the 46th percentile and McCarthy is in the 56th percentile.
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Republican bickering over the direction of the party, which many consider the catalyst for Boehner’s surprise retirement, has intensified as Congress faces a stark deadline to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling.
