If Rep. Paul Ryan is going to have any success as the next House speaker, it will depend a lot on whether factions often at odds within the House GOP can see eye to eye.
Friday morning, the leaders of two main House Republican groups — the conservative House Freedom Caucus and centrist so-called “Tuesday Group” — went behind closed doors to start to air out their differences.
Sources in the meeting tell CNN it was quite positive, one moderate Republican saying at first they had reached a cease-fire, but then amended it to say it is probably more of a détente.
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, a Freedom Caucus leader, also told CNN it was a good meeting, but joked that he didn’t realize they were ever at war.
“We need to get together and talk to all the factions,” said Labrador, who said his group proposed the meeting.
Assuming Ryan wins next Thursday’s election to be House speaker, he will immediately have to tackle divisive issues within the House Republican conference, like the debt ceiling.
Labrador said it is critical to have a dialogue early about these issues to avoid reaching crisis point as has happened often in the last few years.
The House Freedom Caucus is a small group of 40 or so members that has wielded a lot of power in the last year. Their discussions about moving to push John Boehner out is a key reason he decided to resign, and the fact that they refused to back Kevin McCarthy to succeed Boehner made it hard for him to secure ample votes to become House apeaker.
On Wednesday night, a supermajority of the Freedom Caucus voted to back Ryan for speaker, which effectively sealed the deal for him to officially jump into the race.