Is Boehner’s departure a win for conservatives?

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  We return now to the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner and how it's seen by the most conservative members of the House.

  A short time ago, I spoke with Republican Congressman Reid Ribble of Wisconsin.

  Representative Ribble, welcome to the NewsHour.

  You were part of a small group of conservative House members who met with Speaker Boehner yesterday. Was his resignation a result of that meeting?

  REP. REID RIBBLE (R), Wisconsin: Oh, not at all.

  In fact, that whole idea didn't even come up in the meeting. All of us were quite surprised this morning. Even Kevin McCarthy mentioned that he was told only moments before. And so, it caught us all off-guard. The resignation or the speaker's position wasn't part of our discussion with the speaker yesterday.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Do you think this is a good thing for the House of Representatives?

• REP. REID RIBBLE:

  Certainly, there has been a lot of concern about maintaining the status quo here.

  I personally thought the speaker was doing a pretty good job trying to manage the very diverse opinions within this conference. There's 247 Republicans, and they span the political breadth of Republicanism in this country. And it's difficult to get them all to agree on a particular tactic or strategy.

  And so I felt pretty good about how the speaker was trying to advance our principles, but, clearly, there was some dissatisfaction.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, there has been rejoicing among many conservatives. We know there was a standing ovation at the Values Voters Summit gathering. We know a number of the conservative House members have said they think this is a good thing.

  I guess my question is, you're still dealing with a Democratic president. The Senate is a different place from the House. How do conservatives in the Republican Caucus get what they want now? How is it going to be any different or any better?

• REP. REID RIBBLE:

  You know, I think the one thing that conservatives are going to ask for is a more strict adherence to regular order.

  I think we often accept not getting our perfect solution when we feel we have been part of the process, that the process itself has been followed correctly, that members have a chance to offer amendments to bills that come to the floor. I think those were some of the things that were creating some anxiety.

  But the reality is, as you just mentioned, we do have a Democratic president, we don't have a supermajority in the Senate, and so we're going to try to advance a conservative agenda forward through the House, and we will just see what Mitch McConnell can do over in the Senate.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Is this a win, though, right now for House conservatives?

• REP. REID RIBBLE:

  Well, I don't know that — I don't know that any of us — I suppose there are some that would say it's a win. I'm not necessarily looking at it as a win.

  But I do know this, that every single time that you change somebody in leadership — I know this happened in my company before I came to Congress and now — when you have a chance to change some people, you shake up the status quo, you force us to look at things through maybe a little different lens and different prism. And so we might end up with a different result.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  It is our understanding, though, that, right now, the thing that conservatives wanted most, and that is for Planned Parenthood not to be funded, is not going to happen, that there apparently is going to be an agreement that it will be funded for the time being.

  So how is that a positive in the mind of conservatives?

• REP. REID RIBBLE:

  Yes.

  Well, I think there's a couple things — I think there's a couple of very fluid dynamics going on. First of all, a couple of the major national right-to-life organizations have asked members of Congress like myself not to shut down the government over the funding of Planned Parenthood, but to continue to try to make the case for the American people, so that you can win the hearts and minds of the American people.

  I thought the pope spoke out forcibly yesterday and forcefully on the issue of pro-life, where he said that we should respect life at every stage of development. And so I think there's still some seizing that goes on. We have another bite at this apple in December, when we do the full funding for the year.

  We have some opportunity to — again to expose the practices of Planned Parenthood in the next 60 days. So, we will see what happens from there.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Representative Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, we thank you.

• REP. REID RIBBLE:

  You're very welcome. It's good to be with you.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And, for more, let's turn to our political director, Lisa Desjardins, whom we have heard from just a moment ago. She is now on Capitol Hill.

  So, Lisa, is there anything more we need to understand about why Boehner did this right now?

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Well, I think that one major factor, Judy, was the meeting that Representative Ribble was in yesterday with some of the most conservative members of the House.

  My understanding is that they let the speaker know that they were going to make their move against him, they were going to call a vote basically questioning his speakership on the floor of the House, and that that essentially sparked Boehner's decision to resign, rather than force that vote. He mentioned that today, and I think that's exactly why this is happening now.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  You gave us a sense in your report of what the reaction is. I mean, overall, shock, surprise, disappointment, a mixture? What?

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Very surprised from all corners, even from those conservatives who were trying to push back at Boehner.

  But I think there is certainly a very stark difference in reaction between Boehner supporters, which may even be the majority of his conference. Some of them are frankly outraged, Judy. You could hear even just asking questions about other things on the phone to some of their supporters today how mad and bitter they are.

  They're worried that a minority of their conference is using these hard tactics to push out, they think, strong leadership. But then, from conservatives, there is more of a sense of relief and a sense of hope. But what there is not, I don't think, from anyone, Judy — and it's notable — is a sense of exactly what the long-term plan is here, how this caucus that remains divided governs, especially, as you asked Representative Ribble, with a Democratic president and a Senate that doesn't have enough votes to pass controversial legislation.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, do you — what's your understanding that conservatives think is going to change, is going to be better? You heard Representative Ribble say, well, there's going to be more following regular order.

  I think most people don't understand what that means.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Right.

  What that means is that most — that they're hoping that conservatives will be able to put more amendments on the floor and at least get up-or-down votes on their ideas. They think that there perhaps weren't enough votes recently on different versions of defunding Obamacare. Obviously, we know, in years past, there were many votes on defunding Obamacare.

  But conservatives want to put more issues on the floor. They want more amendments. They don't seem to believe that they're going to win out in the end, but they seem to just want at least a chance to vent.

  Now, as to the endgame, I asked Speaker Boehner today how he thought his stepping down would lead away from turmoil, would lead to a more stable House Republican Party, and his answer at the end was, hope springs eternal.

  I think that speaks again, Judy, to the fact that this is just a place that is frustrated and these are House Republicans trying something different.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And, just quickly, it looks like Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader, front-runner for the speakership, but the rest of it is up in the air.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  That's right.

  I think Kevin McCarthy is clearly the man to beat right now. There is — there was an announcement I just got in the past few minutes from Florida Representative Daniel Webster. He's thrown his hat in the ring.

  But I don't think he is right now going to beat out Kevin McCarthy. The other races are going to be rather close, and especially to see this conservative vs. more moderate wing. And I think, Judy, it's interesting that, in the past four years, all three of the top three positions in the top Republican Party will have had new faces. That's a big deal.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, a wild day at the Capitol.

  Lisa Desjardins, thanks.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Thank you.