House Freedom Caucus Will Support Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House
Paul Ryan’s candidacy for the soon-to-be-vacant House Speaker position just got a major boost towards realization: the House Freedom Caucus now says they will support Ryan for the position, “all but guaranteeing he’ll get the job,” according to the Associated Press.
The Freedom Caucus is the most conservative, most cantankerous faction within the House Republican conference, and Ryan’s insistence that he’d only take the job with their support (among others) was seen as the biggest hurdle among his stated conditions.
The Associated Press says the support comes up shy of an official endorsement, but any movement in his direction demonstrates the sense of urgency among House Republicans to get anyone remotely credible into that position.
Interestingly, this compromise comes on the same day as the publication of an Associated Press-GfK poll that says Republicans—and especially conservative Republicans—“prefer congressional leadership that will stand on conservative principles, not compromise — even if it leads to a government shutdown.”
While 70 percent of self-described conservative Republicans want a Speaker who puts conservative principles ahead of even the operational funding of the federal government, the Freedom Caucus has already abandoned their trench and moved rapidly away from their rhetoric from as recently as yesterday, when Raul Labrador of Idaho talked tough about their skepticism of a candidate’s national profile:
“If anybody thinks we are just going to get behind somebody just because they have a national name, they are sadly mistaken.”
There are other sticking points—that changes to House rules be made as a team, for instance—but the public support of the Freedom Caucus presumably comes after the remaining particulars have already been negotiated.
The era of Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, is nearly upon us. Repent!
