{"id":33635,"date":"2015-10-14T08:04:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T15:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/ryan-weighs-job-of-house-speaker\/"},"modified":"2015-10-14T08:04:30","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T15:04:30","slug":"ryan-weighs-job-of-house-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/ryan-weighs-job-of-house-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan weighs job of House speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 Maybe Rep. Paul Ryan doesn\u2019t feel like a character in the classic film \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d weighing an offer he can\u2019t refuse. But with Republican Party elders practically begging him to become the next House speaker, the pressure on him to seek the post is immense.<\/p>\n

Yet with the House tumbling through a chaotic period as hard-right conservatives make the chamber nearly unmanageable, there are plenty of compelling reasons to decline the job, too.<\/p>\n

\n

A GRATEFUL PARTY OR A SPURNED ONE?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facing conservative opposition, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has resigned and hopes to leave Congress by October\u2019s end. In a second, equally startling blow, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the favorite to succeed him, dropped his bid last week.<\/p>\n

Senior Republicans quickly settled on Ryan, the party\u2019s 2012 vice presidential candidate, as their strongest option to unify the divided House GOP and steer it away from possible political catastrophes like a government shutdown or federal default. He\u2019s been lobbied to take the job by 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, a fellow Wisconsinite.<\/p>\n

Accept the GOP nomination to be speaker \u2014 he\u2019d still have to be elected by the whole House \u2014 and he\u2019d immediately earn the gratitude of his now-tattered party. That would increase his clout in the House and give him chits he could bank should he run for president someday.<\/p>\n

Reject the offer and many Republicans could feel he\u2019d abandoned them at a critical moment. Politicians have long memories, and whether Ryan remains in the House or seeks higher office, that could bite him later.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have defined him as the only possible hope,\u201d said former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., a Ryan friend. \u201cIf you\u2019re defined as an only hope and you say \u2018No,\u2019 that\u2019s a negative thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

HIGH PROFILE JOB<\/strong><\/p>\n

As speaker, Ryan would immediately become the most powerful, highest profile Republican in Washington. He\u2019d decide which bills the House considers and would be a leading voice in the national and internal GOP debate over what a conservative vision of government looks like.<\/p>\n

Yet Ryan already has a post that lets him display his views on taxes, health and trade, perhaps more clearly than he could as speaker. He\u2019s chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and can push bills through that panel spotlighting how he\u2019d address those major issues.<\/p>\n

Ryan as speaker would be responsible for muscling measures all the way through the House. But they might crash or be changed. Even with the biggest GOP majority in decades, Boehner has seen embarrassing setbacks on education, farm and transportation bills, thanks to Democrats and rebellious GOP conservatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do it right, I think you can write your ticket\u201d to your next political goal, said former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. \u201cBut there are no guarantees here because you can\u2019t control all the variables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boehner could help Ryan by clearing some of the messiest issues before departing, which he\u2019s expressed a willingness to do. That could include raising the federal debt limit, which must be done by early November, and approving spending legislation to avert a partial government shutdown in mid-December.<\/p>\n

Even so, history shows that being speaker is a rickety launch pad to the White House. Only four speakers or ex-speakers have received their parties\u2019 presidential nominations with just one elected \u2014 former Speaker James K. Polk.<\/p>\n

That was in 1844.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

CONSERVATIVES\u2019 MUSCLE<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not going anywhere. And while some leaders like Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, seem supportive of Ryan, there are no guarantees conservatives wouldn\u2019t make his life miserable down the road.<\/p>\n

Already, some conservative grassroots groups want to stop Ryan. They cite votes during his 17-year House career to revamp education, expand Medicare and buttress financial institutions during the Great Recession, plus his supportive views on trade pacts and an immigration overhaul.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need someone who\u2019s going to disrupt the system,\u201d said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots.<\/p>\n

As speaker, Ryan could find himself striking compromises with President Barack Obama. Just ask Boehner how that plays out.<\/p>\n

Boehner has conservative views and a pragmatist\u2019s approach to legislating. Lawmakers and outside groups who consider him insufficiently conservative and not confrontational enough with Obama and congressional Democrats turned on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone making deals, who wants to move things forward is considered an enemy collaborator,\u201d said former Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio. \u201cWe used to consider that an effective member.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

LIFESTYLE, OR LACK THEREOF<\/p>\n

Ryan, 45, savors returning on weekends to his young family in Janesville, Wisconsin. As speaker, he might have to kiss some of that goodbye.<\/p>\n

Boehner has been one of the GOP\u2019s most prolific money raisers, with political aides saying he\u2019s raised nearly $300 million since 2009. But that means frequent weekend travel and evening fundraising events in Washington. That\u2019s not the best schedule for Ryan to see his wife and three children, who range in age from 10 to 13 years.<\/p>\n

In fact, when he emerged from the Sept. 25 closed-door House GOP meeting when Boehner shocked his colleagues by resigning, Ryan told a reporter, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be speaker. It\u2019s a good job for an empty-nester.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Steve Peoples contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Maybe Rep. Paul Ryan doesn\u2019t feel like a character in the classic film \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d weighing an offer he can\u2019t refuse. But with Republican Party elders practically begging him to become the next House speaker, the pressure on him to seek the post<\/a> is immense. Yet with the House tumbling through a chaotic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33635"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}