The Patriot Post® · House Elects Ryan as Next Speaker

By 10:35 this morning, enough House members voted for Rep. Paul Ryan in a roll call vote that his rise to speakership was sure. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers made Ryan’s nomination to the chamber, calling him, in the words of the Washington Times a “budget whiz.” The day before, 200 House Republicans nominated Ryan to lead their fractured caucus. Ryan needs 218 votes in the House to become the chamber’s 54th speaker. “This begins a new day in the House of Representatives,” Ryan said after his nomination. “Tomorrow, we are turning the page. We are not going to have a House that looked like it looked the last few years.” Criticisms of Ryan began to fly even before he was nominated. In his last moves as speaker, John Boehner negotiated with the Obama administration a budget that will keep the government running until March 2017. And while Ryan criticized Boehner’s methodology — it’s “not the way to do the people’s business,” he said — he ultimately supported Boehner’s budget. We just hope this isn’t a sign that the ‘clean slate’ Ryan is inheriting will soon have ‘Boehner Jr.’ written all over it. For the present, we can give Ryan time to unpack his desk and figure out his leadership style. Let’s not label him the enemy of Liberty before he’s even taken up the gavel.