An outgoing member of the House known for antagonizing the Tea Party is discussing a possible run for House speaker with Republican leaders, sources said Friday.
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., announced in September that he would retire at the end of his current term. Kline, a close ally of outgoing Speaker John Boehner, has gained a reputation as a moderate in Congress. He has also served for four years as chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, a post Boehner previously filled for five years, from 2001-2006.
Speaking to the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Friday, a spokesman for Kline said he would only seek the post if Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declined to run.
“Mr. Kline has been and continues to urge Paul Ryan to be the next speaker,” spokesman Troy Young said. Kline declined to comment further.
Ryan has repeatedly insisted that he does not want the speakership.
Kline’s moderate record — he has a 55 percent rating with Heritage Action — has earned him a difficult relationship with conservatives in his district, which covers the suburbs south of Minneapolis, and earned him a conservative primary challenger even before he announced that he would retire.
As the Washington Examiner previously reported, Kline’s retirement announcement was met with fanfare from conservatives in the state. “Kline was most well known for his arrogance and disinterest in responding to people’s concerns,” said Jack Rogers, president of the Minnesota Tea Party Alliance. “Elitism and arrogance were his mantra. He felt he was beyond the touch of the people. He said, ‘I have money, I have connections, I don’t need you.”
As a result, Kline would almost certainly need Democratic votes in order to reach the 218-member threshold necessary to win the top leadership post in the House, a prospect that leaders had been hoping to avoid.
Republicans floated the idea of a “caretaker speaker,” someone who takes on the duties of speaker for the next 15 months and promises to not run for the job, Thursday after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy abruptly withdrew from the race. Kline may be eyeing that role since he will retire soon.
The conservative contingent in Congress that opposed much of Speaker John Boehner’s agenda remains wary of the “caretaker speaker” idea, however.
“What concerns me about that [idea] is that [if the] person’s heart is not in it, or if they are not fulfilling the full job of speaker, the temptation to use parliamentary procedures like a discharge petition to pass legislation like the Ex-Im bank or amnesty will be too tempting to a small, liberal portion of the GOP conference and they would combine with Democrats to [pass] that,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, a member of the Liberty Caucus, in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
The House is due to hold the election on Oct. 29.
