“People at the time said, ‘Oh, the Republicans can’t govern.’ We settled on Paul Ryan, he took the reins of leadership, and everything was fine,” Lummis said. “The Washington-centric kerfuffle that’s going on is going to be short-lived. The Republicans will get their act together, and they’ll settle on someone, and we’ll go forward, and this is not going to be a big deal.”
Senator John Kennedy said that the struggle in the House was representative of the politics of a deeply divided country. “Anger can be a positive emotion, so long as you don’t allow it to cloud your judgment,” Kennedy said. “What the House needs to do now is select a new leader, and get back to the business of government … And I think the House has already taken that step.”
Still, many Republicans in the upper chamber worry about how this situation reflects on the ability of a GOP-led House to be an effective majority. “We need to demonstrate that we can govern. And this is demonstrative of the current Republican majority’s shortcomings,” said Senator Todd Young.