Paul Ryan is going as Mitt for Halloween

With the abrupt withdrawal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the race to succeed outgoing House speaker John Boehner, the apparent lack of a alternative candidate with broad support who is eager to run, and deep divisions between moderates and hard-line conservatives, the Congressional Republican caucus appears to be in disarray.

Following McCarthy’s withdrawal, conservative Republicans are rallying around Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida, while others in the party are pushing former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan to run.

“Well, I think he’s somebody that probably could get good support”, Trump replied. “Now he would say he hasn’t been but they certainly played that up hard and it was a disastrous campaign for a lot of reasons”.

Rep. John Fleming (R-Louisiana) insisted that Ryan is more of a speaker contender in the minds of the media than in the legislative chamber itself. Others might jump in.

“It’s kind of like a teenage girl that needed to be told she’s pretty 20 times before she finally says ‘ok I’m pretty enough, ‘” Wanless said.

King is the longest-tenured Siouxland House member and was one of the most vocal critics of Boehner.

But he said Ryan, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman who has said he doesn’t want to be Speaker but is said to be considering a move for the job after being pressured by national Republican leaders, could also earn his group’s backing.

And Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), another founding member of the Freedom Caucus, suggested changes in how the majority elects committee chairs. Stewart added that he urged Ryan to run, with the Wisconsin Republican replying that he was “thinking and praying on it”. Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck said on Friday that Ryan had repeatedly said he is not seeking the speaker’s job. Ryan is assigned as Love’s mentor in Congress.

Ryan has said he did not want to be Speaker of the House, but he agreed by the end of the day Friday to think about it after being pressured by GOP leadership. But first, Labrador said, any candidate needs to talk to the caucus and address the concern that the speaker should more effectively push the Republicans’ agenda before making deals. “I wouldn’t presume to tell Paul what to do, but I do know that he is a man of ideas who is driven to see them applied for the public good”, Romney said. He is someone who could appeal to all portions of the party. “But he’s got to decide”.

Ryan initially refused to even consider the possibility but is now apparently mulling it over. Congress is in recess next week.

Other Republicans floating their names for speaker mostly said they would stand down if Ryan entered the race, giving the 45-year-old lawmaker an nearly unfettered path to claim the speaker’s gavel.

Ironically, McCarthy saying that the Benghazi hearings were created to hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid – a few rare honesty in Washington – was part of his undoing.