House GOP nominates Paul Ryan for speaker

The House Republican conference on Wednesday nominated Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for House speaker in a closed-door meeting. The vote brings an end to weeks of party chaos after John Boehner announced in late September that he was retiring.

Ryan reluctantly decided to run for speaker after various quarreling party factions unified behind him. The full House will elect a new speaker on Thursday, and Boehner plans to retire on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill shortly after the vote, Ryan promised to restore "vision" to his party.

"John Boehner served with humility and distinction, and we owe him a debt of gratitude. But tomorrow we are turning the page," said Ryan. "We are not going to have a House that looks like it looked the past few years."

A bipartisan budget deal, announced on Tuesday and criticized by right-wing Republicans for increasing spending, was Boehner's attempt to clear the deck for the new speaker and relieve market worries over a possible government default next week.

Ryan, who has criticized the backroom process through which the deal was struck — among congressional leaders and the White House, with no input from rank-and-file lawmakers — said in a statement that he would still vote for it. "What has been produced will go a long way toward relieving the uncertainty hanging over us, and that’s why I intend to support it," said Ryan, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

It cleared the House in a 265-166 vote on Wednesday afternoon. It is expected to pass in the Senate.

But he also said he wanted a more bottom-up approach if he is elected speaker and hoped to tackle fiscal issues long before running into deadlines.

"I don’t plan to be Caesar, calling all the shots around here," he told a closed-door meeting of Republicans, according to Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz.

Ryan defeated his main announced rival for the speaker post, Daniel Webster of Florida. Ryan received 200 votes, and Webster got 43. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee received one vote, and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who abandoned his bid for speaker, also received one.

Al Jazeera and wire services