PAUL RYAN IN THE HOUSE
Boehner doffs hat, warns of challenges ahead
Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner, right, hugs his successor, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Thursday in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans rallied behind Ryan to elect him the House’s 54th speaker on Thursday as a splintered GOP turned to the youthful but battle-tested lawmaker to mend its wounds and craft a conservative message to woo voters for next year’s elections.
Washington — Rep. Paul D. Ryan was overwhelmingly elected House speaker by fellow Republicans Thursday, closing a bitter and protracted leadership battle but not fully resolving the internal divisions that have upended the GOP majority.
After the vote, the Wisconsin congressman and 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee offered a tough-love outlook for the road ahead.
“Let’s be frank: the House is broken,” Ryan told his colleagues. “We are not solving problems. We are adding to them. And I am not interested in laying blame. We are not settling scores. We are wiping the slate clean.”
The vote came more than a month after Speaker John A. Boehner abruptly announced he would resign rather than continue fighting his conservative flank.
That same hard- right faction doomed the candidacy of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who dropped out of the race for the post.
Ryan is the 54th House speaker and, at 45, the youngest since 1869, in the aftermath of the Civil War. He won the gavel with a convincing 236 votes from his GOP colleagues. Nine Republicans cast votes for a rival. In a nod to his detractors, Ryan promised to allow rank-and-file lawmakers a greater role in shaping legislation, a key demand of the conservative wing.
“If there were ever a time for us to step up, this would be that time,” Ryan said. “The cynics will scoff and say it’s not possible. But you better believe we are going to try. We will not duck the tough issues.”
As lawmakers voted, Ryan’s wife, Janna, and three small children watched from the Speaker’s Box in the chamber. His former running mate, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, also looked on.
In many ways, Ryan represents a new generation of Republicans, who came of political age during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and adhere to more conservative social and economic ideals than their mainstream colleagues.
Ryan is known for the “Ryan budget,” an austerity blueprint that has guided GOP thinking, as well as for his grueling P90X workouts and preference for hard rock music and Miller
“If there were ever a time for us to step up, this would be that time. The cynics will scoff and say it’s not possible. But you better believe we are going to try. We will not duck the tough issues.”
HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN
beer.
Before passing the gavel, Boehner advised his successor of the challenges he will likely face leading the largest Republican majority in decades.
“This is the loneliest place in the world, almost as lonely as the presidency,” Boehner said during an exit interview with reporters, seated in a leather wingback chair in his second-floor office overlooking the National Mall.
“What makes it even lonelier is, you realize at the end of the day, you got to make decisions, and those decisions have consequences, and those consequences fall back on one person,” he said between cigarettes. “So it’s something that takes a little getting used to.”
Boehner started his own career 25 years ago as a renegade who challenged the party’s then-leaders, particularly on pork spending from “ear- marks.” But now the target of outsider ire as a face of the Washington establishment, he chose to resign rather than allow a divisive GOP floor battle with conservatives were planning to oust him.
“Around here,” Boehner said, “members run around and do all kinds of things. But someone has to be responsible for the institution. And I understood very quickly when I got this job, it was my No. 1 responsibility.
“Paul has an opportunity to start fresh,” he said, “to build more confidence amongst those members.”
Top of the agenda for Ryan will be passage by Dec. 11 of a bill to fund the government at the new budget levels and avert a shutdown.