Almost every GOP member voted for them, both were duly nominated as the GOP Speaker nominee, Boehner was not challenged for the nomination at all and opposition to Ryan melted away (I don’t recall if they had a formal vote between him and Webster). “Didn’t cast a meaningless protest vote during the Speaker election”? Really? That’s not a reason, not for me at least.
For a lot of the base, it IS important. BTW, have you noticed the ACU still hasn’t released its 2015 vote ratings for Congress ? We’re already in April, and these should’ve been released at the start of the year (or after Congress adjourned for the holidays).