WASHINGTON -- Republicans rallied behind Rep. Paul Ryan to elect him to the powerful post of House speaker on Thursday as the splintered party turned to the youthful but battle-tested lawmaker to mend its self-inflicted wounds and craft a conservative message to woo voters in next year's elections.
Ryan -- a former Republican vice-presidential candidate -- became the 54th speaker of the House with 236 Republicans calling out Ryan in a roll call vote, putting him second in line to the presidency and atop a chamber that has been awash in tumult ever since defiant conservatives hounded Rep. John Boehner, into announcing his resignation from that post last month.
Just nine hard-line conservatives voted against Ryan, instead backing a little known Florida lawmaker. Most of them, including members of the rebellious House Freedom Caucus, backed Ryan, though it was clear that future tensions between them and Ryan could not be discounted.
The House is broken," Ryan said in his first remarks to the chamber, seemingly referring as much to a Republican civil war between hard-liners and pragmatists as to the House's usual partisan divisions. "We are not settling scores. We are wiping the slate clean."
As Ryan spoke, senators across the Capitol were preparing to cast votes on a broad two-year budget and debt deal that passed the House on Wednesday, engineered largely by Boehner to allow Ryan a fresh start with the toughest issues resolved.
The measure was expected to clear an initial legislative hurdle well after midnight in a dead-of-night vote resulting from the Senate's convoluted legislative timetables and delaying tactics by opponents. Many in the Republican majority planned to vote "no," including presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, who cancelled campaign events to rush back to Washington to oppose it.
The budget vote underscored Ryan's challenge in leading Republicans who often have scant interest in compromise, especially with a Republican presidential contest dominated by candidates who vilify Washington insiders. Republicans opposed the budget deal by 167-79, but Democrats supported it unanimously.
Conservatives complain that Boehner has been excessively powerful, forcing bills to the House floor without rank-and-filed input, dictating committee chairs and punishing rebels. One leader of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, Rep. Raul Labrador, said conservatives expect Ryan to alter that.
"We're going to have his back for the next few months and make sure that we give him the opportunity to show that he can be the leader that we hope he can be," Labrador said.
Amiable and just 45, Ryan has been in Congress 17 years and has strong ties with all wings of the Republican Party. Past chairman of the House Budget Committee and current head of the Ways and Means panel, he's put his imprint on deficit reduction, tax, health and trade legislation -- prime subjects that have raised his stature and put him at the centre of many of Congress' highest profile debates.
Many Democrats like Ryan but none hesitate to attack him as a symbol of Republican policies they consider harsh. These include efforts to pare taxes for the rich, reshape Medicare -- the government health care system for the elderly -- into a voucher-like program and squeeze savings from Medicaid -- the health care program for the poor.
- AP Congressional correspondent Erica Werner and AP writer Matt Daly contributed to this report.
