Fresh off a week of intrigue that saw him emerge all-but-assured of succeeding Speaker John Boehner, Paul Ryan met with the House Tea Party Caucus on Friday morning.
His message, according to the caucus’s chairman, Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp?
“The culture of intimidation is over.”
Ryan’s comments to the Tea Party caucus built on remarks he made during a private meeting with the House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday. In the aftermath of that meeting, discussion of changes to a motion that lets rank-and file members attempt to depose the speaker — a key, unresolved sticking point between Ryan and the HFC — got most of the ink. But part of the closed-door session also revolved around HFC members’ complaints about the Boehner leadership team’s harsh treatment of dissenters. Though it was a potentially combustible conversation, given Ryan’s history with some of the caucus members, it turned out to be a moment of strength for him.
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HFC members gave Ryan several examples of retaliation in the meeting. He expressed surprise at some of the stories, such as word that the National Republican Congressional Committee has been denying campaign funding to Representative Rod Blum (R., Iowa) in response to his votes against leadership. “He seemed flabbergasted by that,” one HFC member says. Ryan assured the HFC that he hadn’t been privy to most of the outgoing regime’s decisions to punish members, and expressed a desire to do things differently going forward. “He kept saying ‘I want to start with a clean slate for everybody,’” says a second HFC member. “And I think that really is what he wants to do and put all this nitpicking behind us.”
#share#The discussion of retribution had the potential to damage Ryan. As Budget Committee chairman in 2012, he was responsible for having Huelskamp and Representative Justin Amash (R., Mich.) — both members of the Freedom Caucus — kicked off the panel. In the meeting Wednesday, a “very animated” Huelskamp accused Ryan of punishing him for casting a principled vote against Ryan’s budget. Ryan, who signaled a willingness to have Huelskamp restored to the Agriculture Committee from which he’d also been removed, argued successfully that there were extraordinary reasons for his ouster from the budget panel. “You don’t really want to go into it in front of everybody,” Ryan warned, according to the first HFC member.
As the conversation unfolded, according to several HFC members, Ryan persuaded the caucus that Huelskamp had earned his punishment. “Ryan said, ‘Listen, you were sending letters to your district that were criticizing me about the budget and how “the chairman had broken his promise” and things like that,’” a third HFC member recalls. “‘If you want to talk about something within the committee, that’s great, but if you’re going to go out to your district and say those things, I think that’s wrong.’”
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That was an apparent allusion to Huelskamp’s rumored refusal to cooperate with Ryan during the drafting of the budget. “Ryan went to Huelskamp and said, ‘Ok, you don’t like this budget, fine, what can I do to get you [involved in the process]?’ And Huelskamp replied, ‘That’s not my job,’” says a former House GOP aide familiar with that year’s budget process.
#related#For Freedom Caucus members who had previously confronted a defensive House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) for punishing one of their colleagues, Ryan’s demeanor was impressive. “He had the sound of a man that was wrongly accused,” says a fourth HFC source.
Huelskamp won’t discuss his encounter with Ryan, and says he informed the Wisconsin Republican Friday morning of his plan to back Florida representative Daniel Webster’s bid for speaker. But even he expressed optimism about the future of the House. “Paul Ryan does not believe in management by intimidation,” he says. “It’s management by innovation, which is exciting for those of us who actually want to change something.”
— Joel Gehrke is a political reporter for National Review.