Paul Ryan won't budge after Republican speaker race is thrown into chaos

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With Kevin McCarthy OUT, Republicans are looking to former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to lead
Ryan originally said he wasn't interested, but now is 'thinking and praying on it'
McCarthy bowed out of the Speaker's race yesterday and the internet quickly jumped to the conclusion it was because of a long-rumored affair
Both McCarthy and the married congresswoman involved deny that they're seeing each other

By Nikki Schwab, U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com and David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: 08:39 EST, 9 October 2015 | Updated: 13:27 EST, 9 October 2015

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Republicans are lining up and trying to push Paul Ryan, who was on the ticket in 2012 to be Mitt Romney's veep, closer to the speaker's seat, and it appears to be working.

CNN is reporting that Ryan is privately telling House Republicans that he's thinking about it.

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, told the network that Ryan is 'thinking and praying on it,' as House GOP members try to fill a leadership vacuum caused by House Speaker John Boehner's retirement and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's exit from the speaker's race.

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MAN OF THE HOUR: Republicans are lining up behind former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to be the next Speaker of the House, but so far the Wisconsin congressman is playing coy

Rumors have swirled for months that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (left) has engaged in an affiar with Rep. Renee Ellmers (right)

Meanwhile exiting House Speaker John Boehner said he will stay on until a new speaker is elected, according to Fox News.

Kevin McCarty, who was supposed to be the next speaker of the House, sent shockwaves around Capitol Hill and the country yesterday when he pulled his name from the speaker's race.

During a closed-door meeting with Republicans, McCarthy said he was out, forcing Boehner to postpone leadership elections, giving no immediate alternate date.

'If we are going to unite and be strong, we need a new face to help do that,' McCarthy told reporters after the news broke. 'I feel good about the decision.'

McCarthy was John Boehner's No. 2 and thus was similarly haunted by the far right-wing of the House GOP caucus.

The day after Pope Francis visited Capitol Hill, Boehner said he's had enough. Announcing that he would be leaving his leadership position and Congress at the end of October.

McCarthy stepped into the spotlight and almost immediately got in political trouble, after pointing out on Fox News, that the GOP-controlled Benghazi committee had done its part in tanking Hillary Clinton's poll numbers.

He received a swift spanking for those comments from his party, Democrats and the Clinton campaign alike, the latter of which is now using McCarthy's words as proof that the Benghazi committee is using taxpayer dollars to play politics with the presidential election.

Kevin McCarthy announced yesterday he was withdrawing from the Speaker's race denying that his move had anything to do with a letter addressed to a top House Republican that asked that candidates for Speaker withdraw 'if there are any misdeeds' on their record that might 'embarrass' Republicans

Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who announced last Sunday he was running for Speaker, said he's staying in the race, though many of his peers said they'd like to see Paul Ryan in the post instead

But the internet would say that the real reason McCarthy dropped out of the speaker's race was that the married congressman was fooling around with one of his married peers.

Rumors swirled yesterday that McCarthy had engaged in a longtime affair with Congresswoman Renee Ellmers, a North Carolina Republican, who most recently ran against American Idol singer Clay Aiken.

'The allegations in question are unequivocally and indisputably false,' Ellmers' spokeswoman Blair Ellis told DailyMail.com.

McCarthy said Thursday during a press conference that his decision to pull out of the race for Speaker was unrelated to a fellow Republican's written warning a day earlier that potential Speakers should disclose any skeletons in their closets before a vote was taken.

'I am asking that any candidate for Speaker of the House ... withdraw himself from the leadership election if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress that will embarrass himself, the Republican Conference and the House of Representatives if they become public,' North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones wrote in a letter to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the House Republican Conference.

Charles Johnson, a renegade right-wing writer who in January was the first to put his name on a story alleging the two legislators were romantically involved, told DailyMail.com that he received inside information late last year from someone close to then-House majority leader Eric Cantor.

'I've got nothing to add, nothing to say,' was the most recent line uttered by Paul Ryan, who many Republicans would like to see replace exiting House Speaker John Boehner

While Republicans are in chaos, Democrats are having a ball, as evidenced by this tweet sent out by New York Democrat Charles Rangel

The alleged relationship 'was well known among lobbyists,' Johnson charged on Thursday.

He characterized his principal source as someone 'in the Republican leadership from the Cantor team.'

'According to this source,' Johnson said, 'there was a conversation with McCarthy as he was quickly elevated to Majority Leader, that he needed to cut out all the travel with Renee Ellmers and that the affair allegations were starting. It's my understanding that the affair stopped at that point.'

The mention of travel, he has written on his website, GotNews.com, refers to the time McCarthy spent campaigning for Ellmers' last year re-election in 2014.

The pair's closeness is well-enough known to attract the attention of The New York Times.

In a 2011 profile of McCarthy, who was then the House majority whip, the paper noted that '[s]ometimes when Ellmers is talking to the whip and doesn’t think she’s getting through to him, she claps her hands loudly in front of his face.'

'Sometimes McCarthy giggles and claps back.'

Ellmers' attorney Thomas Farr hit Johnson, the 'GotNews' proprietor, with a cease-and-desist letter this week, writing: 'Each and every allegation and insinuation of improper conduct between Mrs. Ellmers and Majority Leader McCarthy is unequivocally and indisputably false. There is absolutely no basis for your suggestions.'

Johnson said Thursday that he would be 'happy to have it out in court' if necessary, and that he was pleased 'to have my first denial in 10 months of trying for one.'

Ellmers told The Hill on Wednesday that she wasn't planning to vote for McCarthy in what would have been a Thursday afternoon secret-ballot election among Republicans.

'He has not spoken to me personally for my vote,' she said, 'and [Utah Rep.] Jason Chaffetz has, so that’s where I am right now. At this point I will be casting a vote for Jason Chaffetz.'

'I can’t vote for someone who doesn’t ask for my vote. I’m apparently not high on his priority list.'

Today the Speaker's race continues to be in flux. Democrats are having a fun time watching from the sidelines.

Chaffetz is still running, along with Daniel Webster, a Florida Republican. Retiring Reps. John Kline, R-Minn. and Candice Miller, R-Mich., had been mentioned too, but having a 'caretaker' Speaker looks less and less likely.

California Congressman Darrell Issa, who chaired the powerful House Oversight Committee before Chaffetz, also said he's a potential candidate for speaker, this morning on Morning Joe.

And so the party seems to be waiting for Ryan to make up his mind.

'I've got nothing to add, nothing to say,' he told CNN this morning.