Attention immediately turned to Ways and Means Chairman Ryan.
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Being speaker also calls for multiple days on the road raising money for the GOP, a challenge for a lawmaker like Ryan with a young family back home. AP correspondent Jerry Bodlander reports.
Paul Ryan is still resisting pleas from his fellow congressmen to run for House Speaker.
While many hard-liners spoke admiringly of Ryan, they were also adamant that they would not simply jump to support handing him the speaker’s gavel. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told reporters that Ryan expressed to him privately that he’s more open to it than before.
It’s all about Paul Ryan right now. Following Kevin McCarthy’s withdrawal from the race to become the next Speaker of the House, though, Mr. Luntz experienced a meltdown of epic proportions. He said Jordan was “swamped” with meetings “with colleagues” and would comment further on Friday.
Boehner, who said last month that he would leave at the end of October after four years of endless badgering from the right flank of his conference, may need to decide whether to remain in the job until a new speaker is named or appoint an interim person to fill the job. McCarthy was considered the leading candidate to replace Speaker John Boehner, who is retiring.
Despite the opposition, McCarthy clearly had been expected to emerge the victor Thursday over Webster and a third rival, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“The first reaction was ‘Wow!’ or ‘What did he say?'” Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., said.
In several closed-door meetings this week, McCarthy told Republican lawmakers he would run the House in a more inclusive manner than Boehner had. He explained his intention was to only serve as speaker until late 2013 but stayed on to “provide continuity” for the Republican caucus in the House.
“Ya know smart goes with tough, I know tough people that aren’t smart that’s the worst”, Trump said Thursday at a campaign stop.
Republican Walter Jones had sent a letter on Tuesday asking that any leadership candidate withdraw from the election “if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress that will embarrass himself”.
His principled, calm and reasoned voice could bring a few needed sanity to the House, and even though we disagree on a few issues with Ryan, he’s always struck us as someone more interested in the workings of good government than in party ideology.
“Some folks feel like they don’t have a voice at the table”, said Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, which before the Freedom Caucus was created was the organization of conservative lawmakers.
The group of 30 to 40 conservatives, called the House Freedom Caucus, considered McCarthy too close to Boehner, whose leadership team had punished a few conservatives by removing them from committees.
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Neither of McCarthy’s two rivals for the post, Chaffetz and Daniel Webster of Florida, had broad backing among the House’s 247 Republicans.
