The Hill: Kevin McCarthy for Speaker? Conservatives May Back Him over Boehner

Calls by McCarthy and Ryan to stop the drama over Boehner likely won’t halt the jockeying for position in the House leadership chain, Politico reports.

With Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) job in doubt, House conservatives have been holding internal talks about a new leadership coalition that could include Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker and more conservative members occupying lower rungs on the leadership ladder.

McCarthy and Ryan are seen as natural successors to Boehner, R-Ohio, if he were to be removed as speaker.

It’s worth remembering that there is no real substantive disagreement among Republicans: they’re united in opposition to Planned Parenthood, which had enjoyed bipartisan backing for decades.

Hard-line conservative Republicans want Boehner to do whatever it takes to shut off funding for [Planned Parenthood], even if it means a shutdown.

One Republican, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a member of the Freedom Caucus, has introduced a resolution that would seek to oust Boehner from the job.

That move would, he wrote in a letter, “alienate the public from the pro-life cause at precisely the time when undercover videos of Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices are turning public opinion in our favor”. Separately, they would aim to pass a measure to defund Planned Parenthood through a process known as “budget reconciliation” that would bypass a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.

Boehner remains personally popular inside the GOP conference, and his supporters say he is the only person who could command enough support to be speaker. It’s not as if Boehner is going to persuade the right-wing Kansan and his allies to keep the government’s lights on and leave this fight for another day.

“I just think he is trying to figure out where everyone is”.

Asked Thursday if he was confident that he would have the support to win a vote on the House floor, Boehner offered a one-word response: “Very”. In January, 25 House Republicans refused to back the speaker.

Lawmakers did not vote on the motion at the time. Should they vote present, Boehner would need to earn the simple majority of Republicans voting.

Despite the outward displays of confidence, leadership has been consumed by the issue since returning last week from a 40-day recess.

By Thursday morning, there was still no clear path to keep the government open, Boehner said.

“I cannot and will not fund a vile, racist organization who specializes in convincing mothers to kill their children and then selling their baby parts to the highest bidder”, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) said in a written statement to TPM Tuesday.

McCarthy noted that Congress approved a bipartisan plan to permanently fix the method for paying doctors that provide services to Medicare patients, a troublesome issue that for years had required annual patches, and in exchange received a modest reform to the entitlement program.

Still, the intensifying chatter suggests a vote to oust Boehner could happen as early as this fall.