House hardliners prepare to vet candidates for speaker

During Boehner’s five-year tenure as speaker, a small but vociferous Tea Party-inspired group of representatives has increasingly stymied his leadership. And a few have questioned his leadership and communication skills after he suggested last week that the objective of a special House committee investigating the deadly attacks in 2012 of the USA mission in Benghazi, Libya, was to drive down Hillary Rodham Clinton’s poll numbers.

“I’m impressed with the way he would like to structure the House”, Jones said of Webster.

The picture has been muddled by Boehner’s surprise announcement Monday that while the election for speaker will go forward on Thursday as planned, he’s postponing the election for majority leader and whip. Why?

We are entrusted with the largest majority the Republicans have ever had since Babe Ruth was swinging a baseball bat. At the meeting scheduled for Thursday, the candidates themselves won’t make speeches but will be nominated by other members of the caucus.

CHAFFETZ: I think the American public wants to see a change. Republicans are not bound to vote for the caucus nominee, though, so there is potential for the party to be split during the floor vote.

“I think I’ve earned a reputation over the course of time as being someone who will be a fair arbiter, that will be somebody that all sides of the political spectrum can work with and listen to”, said Chaffetz.

He said, however, that he was better than McCarthy at “going on-camera and going before the media”. Dent and other Republicans have also grown exhausted of the group’s antics. “I mean, they’ve all been a party to the misdeeds that Boehner has committed – like rushing legislation to the floor without giving us time to read the bills, kicking people off their committees, taking away their subcommittee chairmanships”. (How we do that is) part of the discussion tonight. “He’s also got to articulate how he’s going to put the party back together”.

“He made a compelling case”, said North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said of McCarthy.

Who might be a compromise Speaker?

By comparison, Democratic voters in September were more divided, with 50% preferring a candidate with experience and a proven record, and 42% preferring one with a new approach. None of the rising conservative stars ended up mounting a bid for speaker, and they’ve so far have been unable to coalesce around any of the announced candidates, despite an effort to learn from the past and avoid internal divisions.

Already in the race with McCarthy are Reps.

The other contender for the House speaker’s post, Rep. Daniel Webster, is a former speaker of the Florida Legislature. “He’s not throwing a Hail Mary pass. He likely believes that there is a pathway, either within the (Republican) conference or when it comes to the vote within the entire House of Representatives, and he likely has a block of votes that he can either deliver on his behalf, or if things don’t propel him to victory, that he can deliver on behalf of whomever will be the newly elected speaker”.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) circulated a letter to House colleagues requesting a stay on the second- and third-ranking elections, Politico reported, which would make the Speaker election the only vote on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting.

Even the speaker’s race shows the break in the House GOP as Chaffetz, a four-term congressman, challenges the heir apparent, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who Boehner noted would be an “excellent” replacement.