If all goes as planned, Rep. Paul Ryan will be elected speaker this week. The Republican congressman from the state of Wisconsin would be the 62nd House speaker. The speaker is the leader of the 435-member House of Representatives. He is also second in line to the presidency behind just the vice president should the president die or be unable to continue in office.
How tough a job has he accepted? What kind of speaker will he be? And how could he stay home on weekends instead of raising funds for fellow Republicans?
Former Congressman Bob Livingston said Paul Ryan “is a very capable guy, a policy wonk, who was reluctant to take the job because he liked being a committee chairman and valued his time with his family.”
Bob Livingston, who briefly led the House Republicans in 1998, said “House Republicans said they needed him and he didn’t want to let them down. And to get him, members were willing to agree to his conditions.”
