Former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, after speaking with Representative Paul Ryan about the race for speaker of the House, said on Friday that Ryan was a "man of ideas."
"I wouldn't presume to tell Paul what to do, but I do know that he is a man of ideas who is driven to see them applied for the public good," Romney said in a statement provided to Reuters after he spoke by telephone with Ryan, who is being urged to run for the top House post.
"Every politician tries to convince people that they are that kind of leader; almost none are - Paul is. Paul has a driving passion to get America back on a path of growth and opportunity," he added. "With Paul, it's not just words, it's in his heart and soul."
With Congress embarking on a week-long recess, there was no sign of any move from Ryan, who was Romney's running mate in 2012 general election.
Conservatives and moderate Republicans said they would like to see Ryan, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who negotiated a bipartisan budget deal in 2013, stand for election for speaker after the front-runner, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abruptly dropped out on Thursday.
"Although he's ruled himself out, it's very clear he's reconsidering," Representative Darrell Issa of California said of Ryan as he left a closed-door meeting of House Republicans. "The fact is, his time is now."
Ryan's spokesman Brendan Buck noted, however, that Ryan had repeatedly said he is not seeking the speaker's job. "Chairman Ryan appreciates the support he's getting from his colleagues but is still not running for speaker," Buck said.
Finding a replacement for Boehner has consumed Republicans as Congress faces a series of pressing decisions, from raising the government's borrowing authority to funding federal agencies through September. Boehner announced Sept. 25 that he would leave the post on Oct. 30.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, who wants Ryan to run, said after speaking to Ryan as Ryan was preparing to catch a plane home: "He needs to talk with his family first. But I'm optimistic."
Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent told Newsmax TV's Ed Berliner the new speaker will need to bring the party together and "restore functionality" to the House.
"It's not about who the next speaker will be," Dent's said on Newsmax TV's "The Hard Line. "The question is can we change the underline political dynamic or the governing dynamic that got us in this situation."
Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay told Newsmax TV's Steve Malzberg that Ryan is concern about the impact the speaker's job will have on his family life. But he may be called to the position by a sense of duty.
"He has small children and he really likes going home," DeLay said. "He knows that if you take on the speaker's job it's really, really tough on your family. Your family has to sacrifice and he's going to have to really think about this. Maybe the responsibility and duty were overwhelming and it looks like most members will rally around him because they trust him."
Boehner made a plea for unity at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, urging members to "truly listen to each other and have an open mind about how we can come together," according to a source in the room.
"It's not helpful for one group of members to say they will only vote for this candidate on the floor," Boehner said, in apparent reference to the conservative Freedom Caucus, which has about 40 members and is aligned with the small-government Tea Party movement.
Earlier this week, the Freedom Caucus endorsed Representative Daniel Webster of Florida for speaker, raising doubts Californian McCarthy could get enough votes to win on the House floor.
Admitting he was shocked by McCarthy's sudden pullout, Boehner told Republicans he intended the speaker's election to happen before the end of October.
Appearing on Newsmax TV's "Newsmax Prime," North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones said McCarthy's move was "a shock to everyone."
But, Jones, who supports Webster, was "very resentful" when the vote for a new speaker was postponed by Boehner.
"We had three candidates running to replace John Boehner: Kevin McCarthy, Dan Webster and Jason Chaffetz from Utah," Jones told host J.D. Hayworth. "We should've gone ahead and had the election. This is John Boehner trying to pick his replacement and many of us who are basically the conservatives of the House, we resent that. We had two good candidates that we could've chosen yesterday, one of the two."
Among items immediately facing Congress is something Republicans generally are reluctant to do: raise the debt ceiling. The Treasury Department says the government will need to increase its borrowing limit by Nov. 5.
"The most recent development in the speaker's race plus the compressed time frame to come to a resolution increases the chances of a policy mistake around the debt ceiling," said Libby Cantrill, a policy analyst for Pacific Investment Management Co.
There is the likelihood, however, that Boehner this month could advance a debt limit increase measure, whether the fight over his replacement is settled or not.
McCarthy's departure left Webster and Oversight committee chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah in the race. But Chaffetz said on Friday that he, too, backed Ryan and would drop out if Ryan changed his mind.
Material from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.
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