WASHINGTON — (CNN) Paul Ryan returned to Capitol Hill Tuesday and signaled very clearly he is open to running to be House speaker, engaging in a flurry of back-channel conversations with GOP lawmakers as an anxious Republican Party eagerly awaits his decision.
Ryan spent the recess in Wisconsin, where he avoided the spotlight and went on a hunting trip. On Tuesday, he is discussing the possibility on the phone with fellow lawmakers and planning to meet with conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus and the Southern Caucus. Ryan may also address his deliberations with the full GOP conference during a closed-door dinner.
“Right now, I’ve got nothing to add,” Ryan told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Anybody who wants to meet with me, I’m going to do that.”
It is all part of a strategic effort to show that he is not running for speaker — but is open to being drafted, his allies said.
The GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee is unlikely to make a decision Tuesday evening, his spokesman said. If he passes on the job, Republicans are growing nervous that there is no one else who could unite a fractured party.
“It worries me a lot,” Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, told CNN. “Because a leaderless House of Representatives is not something that is conducive to legislative successes — and it diminishes us even more in the esteem of the American people.”
But conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus are signaling that Ryan will need to work to get its support, something the Wisconsin Republican has shown little interest in doing.
“I have concerns with anybody who is not going to give us a reform agenda,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. “If anybody thinks we are just going to get behind somebody just because they have a national name, they are sadly mistaken.”
Returning to his office from the airport, Ryan was mum on what he would do.
“Good to see you,” he told reporters waiting outside his office. But on both sides of the Capitol, the prospects of a Ryan speakership began to dominate the conversation — particularly as congressional leaders struggle to reach a fiscal deal by a critical November 3 deadline.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said, “I hope” Ryan “gets to be the next speaker,” saying it would improve prospects over raising the debt ceiling.
“Well he appears to me to be one of the people over there that would be reasonable,” Reid said. “I mean, look at some of the other people. I’m a Paul Ryan fan.”
Senate GOP leaders said that Ryan’s deliberations had put their decisions on how to move forward on debt limit talks on hold — and that the House GOP needed to figure out its leadership dilemma within the next 24 hours in order to help come to some kind of consensus on debt talks.
“It will probably become more clear when the House determines who the leader is going to be over there,” said Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, when asked about the next steps on the fiscal matters.
If Ryan passes on a bid, upwards of a dozen potential candidates could run for the speakership, something that could take weeks to sort out and presumably leave current Speaker John Boehner in the speaker’s chair past his plans to resign on October 30.
To right their ship after a rocky few weeks following Boehner’s resignation announcement, Republicans have scheduled three meetings in two days where they will talk about the way forward — including one to discuss imposing new party rules to give more power to junior lawmakers.
Ryan doesn’t plan to address the conference but may do so if asked, his spokesman said.
“I don’t expect a final decision tonight,” Brendan Buck said. “If asked to, I imagine he’d share his thoughts.”
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