Free Republic

A strong majority of anti-establishment conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus voted on Wednesday night to support Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin for House speaker, assuring that he will have the votes to secure the post next week and averting a leadership crisis for Republicans. Mr. Ryan indicated that he was prepared to seize the gavel and try to bring unity to his party, which has been riven over how House leaders exert authority over members. That fight had become so bitter that it forced the resignation of Speaker John A. Boehner and derailed the candidacy of the majority...

And they're completely reasonable. I know there’s no getting through to those of you who think Paul Ryan is a RINO!!!!! because he’s made deals with Democrats in a divided Congress. Anyone with a governing record is going to have things like that in his or her history, and if you don’t understand that then I don’t know what to tell you - except that you’re going to spend your entire life shrieking that no one is acceptable to you and everyone who’s ever done anything but talk is a sellout. So I’ll just let you shriek and try to...

Discharge petitions could be the answer to the impasse in the matter of a new House Speaker. I don’t much care for the current Speaker of the House John Boehner. If you are reading this, chances are you feel the same way. This said, we should acknowledge that our dislike for Boehner, while currently personal, has its origins in his lies and disregard for our wishes regarding illegal alien control, Obamacare and the passage of a federal budget. A layman’s review of whether or not the House can actually function without a Speaker reveals that doing so is pretty much...

House Speaker John Boehner is signaling that he’ll move must-do legislation to increase the government’s borrowing cap before he leaves Capitol Hill. The statutory cap on the government’s so-called debt limit needs to be raised by early November, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday, confirming a recent warning from the administration. Boehner himself has said that he doesn’t want to leave a “dirty barn” for his successor, comments that have been widely interpreted as a promise that he would try to at least clear away the debt limit issue rather than saddle the next speaker with the task. …

It strikes me all of a sudden that a word spoken on behalf of the Republican Party's "crazies" might not come amiss. Ah, those half-wits, those yo-yos, those howlers at the moon -- just look at 'em! Overthrowing House speakers, threatening to shut down Congress over funding for Planned Parenthood, allowing no end to trouble for responsible GOP leaders! And all of this to the vast entertainment of the liberal media. So, what kind of word might be appropriate to speak on behalf of the House's Freedom Caucus and their allies in the Senate, such as Ted Cruz? Let's steer...

The honor of it all aside, Rep. Paul Ryan would do well to decline the speakership of the House. For it is a poisoned chalice that is being offered to him. The Republican Party is not, as some commentators wail, in "chaos" today. It is in rebellion, in revolt, as it was in the early 1960s when Barry Goldwater's true believers rejected Eisenhower Republicanism and Nelson Rockefeller to nominate the Arizona Senator for president. A similar and bristling hostility to today's establishment has arisen, in the GOP Congress, the country, and the presidential race. The acrimony attendant to this militants...

When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) walked into a Capitol Hill conference room to meet with his Republican colleagues last Thursday, he seemed a certain bet to be elected the next speaker of the House of Representatives. Subsequent reports revealed McCarthy already knew he didn't have enough votes to win, or if he did, it was barely enough, but an insufficient majority to rule the contentious GOP caucus. And so he shocked everyone when he emerged and announced his withdrawal as a candidate. The website The Hill reported that Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) confronted Speaker John...

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Sunday slammed Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) and the House Freedom Caucus for "holding the House hostage" and blocking Republicans from electing a successor to outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who wants to resign at the end of the month. Hewitt said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that he hopes Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — who has said he doesn't want to be Speaker — will change his mind. Hewitt then criticized Brat, who was on the roundtable, and the conservative House Freedom Caucus for giving Ryan a tepid response. "There's like 15 of you...

While official - and unofficial - Washington, DC is barely able to breathe given the turmoil in the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, it is useful to remember that we have been here before. Let me relay the story. It was December 19, 1998. I was in Bangkok, Thailand (which is part of the story) but more importantly the House was voting on the Articles of Impeachment against President Bill Clinton. November 1998 had marked the second midterm election of Bill Clinton's Presidency. It was widely expected that the GOP - already in the majority - would pick up...

Last week, the House Republicans were plunged into disarray when House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the presumptive favorite, withdrew from the speakership race. It seemed he was already facing a troubled road to succeed out-going Speaker John Boehner, given that the House Freedom Caucus–a 40-member block–was going to vote for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) for the top spot; McCarthy had reportedly refused to give in to their demands. That, coupled with the possibility of relying on Democrats for his victory, along with his comments about the House Select Committee on Benghazi–he said it was sinking Hillary’s poll numbers–crippled...

The news alert about Kevin McCarthy’s abandonment of his pursuit to become John Boehner’s successor hit my phone just as I was about to go for a run. Rather than read the whole story, I just smiled and hit the pavement. Within the first few steps I wondered how long it would take before the hyperbole-laden garment rending would begin in the left media about conservatives being the death of the Republican Party, congressional compromise, and the frolicsome joy we so love to see in puppies and kittens. It was a short run, but they were on it by the...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The political careers of several members of Congress — including a Republican seeking to become the next U.S. House speaker — could come to an abrupt halt under a sweeping overhaul of Florida's electoral map. Florida Circuit Judge Terry Lewis on Friday recommended new boundaries for the state's 27 congressional districts, some of which would make it nearly impossible for U.S. Rep. Dan Webster — one of the hard-line conservatives who pushed John Boehner to resign as speaker and then turned on Boehner's No. 2, Kevin McCarthy — to win re-election from his current central Florida...

Via Breitbart. We’re at a delicate moment right now within the commentariat where sounding any critical note about Ryan is proof that you’re a wingnut who wants the House to burn rather than govern. So here’s proof that my RINO credentials are still in good order: I’ve always liked Ryan personally (who doesn’t?) and I admire him for having tried — and seemingly failed, alas — to raise public alarm about the crisis in federal entitlements. It’s no small thing either that the guy’s managed to earn the goodwill of people on both sides of the centrist/tea party divide within...

Washington is a roaring dumpster fire—or, at least saying so on the stump whips up the type of thunderous applause that’s capable of putting a reality T.V. star within striking distance of the White House. Yes, I agree with most Americans that something’s definitely rotten in the state of Denmark, but sometimes our best saviors are not the ones yelling the loudest from the outside, but the ones quietly working the hardest on the inside. Enter Paul Ryan…or not, unfortunately. When Speaker John Boehner announced his impending resignation last month, the name “Paul Ryan” inevitably entered the race with neither...

The sudden implosion of the supposedly inevitable ascension of establishment Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to the office of Speaker of the House, now occupied by his mentor John Boehner, has shown the Capitol Hill Republican establishment to be a fragile edifice ready to collapse. Paul Ryan. Conservatives should not be suckered into propping it up any longer by abandoning their battle to elect principled conservatives to run the House of Representatives. But that is exactly what is going on in Washington right now as those establishment politicians who stand to lose out if new leadership is elected and...

Since House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., shocked his congressional colleagues early Thursday by withdrawing his name from consideration to replace John Boehner, R-Ohio, as Speaker of the House, Republicans have launched a relentless press aimed at convincing House Ways and Means Committee chair Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to put himself forward for the job. Fox News has learned that Boehner himself is imploring Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate on the 2012 Republican presidential ticket, to put himself forward for the top job in the House, largely because Ryan is one of the few unifying figures in the House Republican Conference.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is making a promise to conservative Republican lawmakers—“I’m not John Boehner”—as he seeks their support to replace Boehner as speaker. […] “I think McCarthy’s pitch was ‘I’m not John Boehner, I’m going to run things differently, I’m my own man,’” said Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas. “And I think that’s a case that he does have to make. One of the things I hear all the time from my constituents back in Texas is we don’t want John Boehner 2.0.” …

Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) decision to resign from Congress at the end of October is “a victory for the crazies,” Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said Friday. “I’m disappointed. This is a victory for the crazies,” King told Newsday. “You can’t appease these people.” King said Boehner was resigning “to avoid putting the party through tumult” amid challenges to his leadership and an impending government shutdown. The Long Island Republican also told Reuters that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is the leading contender to replace Boehner as Speaker. …

House Speaker Rep. John Boehner still won’t be able to win reelection without Democratic votes, Breitbart News has learned, and he has abandoned yet another plan to try to embarrass conservatives seeking his ouster, which he was going to move forward with on Friday. The day after Pope Francis addressed the Congress for the first time—in front of a teary-eyed Boehner—the Speaker had planned to move forward by bringing forth a resolution to vacate the chair, then holding a vote for his reelection intended to prove he had widespread support in the GOP conference. But just as when Rep. Mark...

Would he make a difference as an ousted Boehner's replacement? The Hill reports today that House conservatives who’ve had it with John Boehner’s weakness as Speaker might be willing to get behind Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy as a replacement - provided more conservatives are added to the Speaker’s leadership team, which under Boehner is pretty much a squish brigade that sees its job as defending Boehner’s reluctance to fight Obama on just about anything difficult. The prospect of McCarthy as Speaker is a curious one for several reasons. For one, he is at present part of Boehner’s leadership team, and...