Rep. Van Hollen: Sen. Cruz usurped Boehner's job as House speaker
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has essentially taken the House speakership from John Boehner during the fight over federal spending, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) charged Monday.
"It's pretty clear that this whole episode is being driven by the hard-right, extreme, Tea Party elements of the Republican Party, and we're seeing that play out in the House, where Sen. Cruz is essentially running the show," Van Hollen said during a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor in Washington.
"If Speaker Boehner doesn't want to assert his leadership," he added, "then he should go ahead and turn the gavel over to Speaker Cruz, because that's what we're seeing in the House."
Cruz has been the public face of the campaign to scale back President Obama's healthcare law as part of stopgap legislation to fund the government beyond Monday. The Tea Party favorite spoke for more than 21 hours on the Senate floor last week, urging Republicans to stand firm against ObamaCare funding.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/325499-van-hollen-speaker-cruz-running-the-show?utm_content=bufferced44&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer
= new reply since forum marked as read
there is nothing in the Constitution that requires the Speaker to be a member of the House, or even of Congress. They could elect Rush Limbaugh Speaker if they wanted to. Third in line of succession and all. 