The House Freedom Caucus, which endorsed Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida for House Speaker, needs to come up with another name, former House majority leader Tom DeLay tells
Newsmax TV.
"I just wish the caucus would come forward," DeLay said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"They came forward with Daniel Webster but I don't think he's going anywhere."
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DeLay said that Rep. Paul Ryan, who doesn't want the job but is being pressured to change his mind, would "make a pretty good speaker" — if he is able to effectively fight for the conservative ideology.
"But I want to hear from him how he's going to change the management style within the House. If you keep doing what [outgoing House Speaker John] Boehner and [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell are doing, you're not going to get anywhere. You can't surrender before you even fight," DeLay said.
"But now if he comes in and he wants to fight and lays out an agenda and works with the members and they buy into the agenda and have a little ownership of an agenda and then you stand and fight and execute that agenda, then he could do it…. Whether he will or not it remains to be seen."
DeLay, a Texas Republican, said the current disarray within the House following Rep. Kevin McCarthy's decision not to seek the speaker's job is not necessarily damaging the GOP with voters.
"It's probably damaging the Republican Party with the national media, but this is what happens when the American people start demanding that you do what you promised you were going to do and start rising up," he said.
"Sometimes it looks ugly but the [Republican] conference will work it out. There's plenty of members in the conference that could be speaker of the House."