The latest conservative revolt is throwing the House Republican conference into even more chaos
Conservatives began to revolt Wednesday at the prospect of Ryan as speaker, a position he said Tuesday night he was willing to serve if certain conditions were met.
Among those conditions: Ryan said he believed there needed to be a change to the process to remove a speaker form his post, which House conservatives used as a weapon against outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). A spokesman for Ryan said he thinks that whoever is speaker, they "cannot be successful with this weapon pointed at them all the time."
The conditions also included a healthy work-family balance - a must for Ryan, a father of three young children - and the endorsement of every major caucus in the Republican conference.
Those demands came under intense scrutiny Wednesday, and it threw into doubt whether Ryan would, in the end, run for speaker.
Some conservatives brushed aside the notion of the work-family balance. Others, especially the influential hard-line House Freedom Caucus, indicated they weren't ready to back his bid quite yet.
The most prescient concern for the House Freedom Caucus members: The proposed change to the "motion to vacate the chair," which allows any member to offer a resolution to oust the speaker. That resolution would only require majority support from the conference to succeed. Conservatives had threatened Boehner with it, and it likely helped expedite his decision to resign from his post.
"I thought if it was good enough for Thomas Jefferson, it was probably good enough for the US House today," Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas), a House Freedom Caucus member, told Roll Call's Matt Fuller.
Some influential conservative groups and talk-show hosts, meanwhile, signaled they weren't yet behind Ryan's potential candidacy. FreedomWorks, one of the groups that claimed victory when heir-apparent House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) unexpectedly pulled his name out of the running for the speaker post.
Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham took jabs at Ryan's positions on everything from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to immigration reform, dinging him at "possibly the worst speaker choice":
"KING PAUL: PLEDGE YOUR ALLEGIANCE," its splash banner blared. "OBAMA'S NEW PARTNER."