Supermajority Of House Tea Party Caucus Will Support But Not Endorse Paul Ryan As Speaker

Here’s some Tea Party double-speak for you:

Hard-line conservatives cleared a path Wednesday for Rep. Paul Ryan to become House speaker when some of his most disgruntled fellow Republicans signaled that they would support his bid for the top job. The decision to back Ryan by the House Freedom Caucus, a group of nearly 40 lawmakers that has risen in power and stature since its founding this year, came after the Ways and Means Committee chairman spent much of his day courting its support. The group stopped short of an official endorsement, which would have required 80 percent support, but members said a “supermajority” of the caucus would back a Ryan bid for speaker. Ryan set out a series of conditions Tuesday under which he would consider seeking the speakership; the most challenging of those was unity among all of the House Republican Conference’s warring factions. The support of the Freedom Caucus was regarded as one of the huge obstacles to meeting that condition.

The chair of the Freedom Caucus is wingnut Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. See the full list of members here. The GOP vote for Speaker is scheduled for October 28th with the full House voting the next day.