“What’s Peter Roskam Up To?” asked Politico on Monday. A few weeks ago he forced the House leadership to change tacks on the Iran deal. Over the weekend he called for a meeting of House Republicans to discuss the party’s future. The meeting took place yesterday. But he says he’s not running for a leadership post. He’s not challenging Steve Scalise, who beat him in the race for majority whip–handing Roskam a loss that took him out of the leadership. “I’m not making any calls, I’m not doing anything,” he told Roll Call yesterday.

My guess is that Roskam is positioning himself to make a run for the leadership at some future time. There would be a recent precedent for a congressman falling out of the leadership and then later coming back to it at a higher rank. It’s what happened to John Boehner.