Paul Ryan considers House Speaker role as ideological divisions leave Republicans in state of chaos and devoid of leadership
The challenge is on to find a consensus candidate who can soothe wounds and unite a fractious caucus.
US Republicans have feuded since 2011. Now with the latest Washington chaos over who rises to House speaker, the GOP competes for the presidency struggling to show it can govern without compromising conservative doctrine.
Both principles are currently at risk, and Republican lawmakers and analysts alike stress it will be a delicate high wire act for the party to project backbone and statecraft as it seeks to end Democratic rule after eight years of Barack Obama.
But while this week's images of hardcore conservatives battling with establishment leadership in Congress may produce dreadful short-term optics, the political pandemonium might well be propelling the very wave that anti-Washington Republicans seek to ride all the way to the Oval Office.
Number two House Republican Kevin McCarthy quit the speaker's race on Thursday, sabotaged by a conservative revolt, and the challenge is on to find a consensus candidate who can soothe wounds and unite a fractious caucus.
With crunch votes in the coming weeks on extending US borrowing authority and finalising a budget deal, the Republicans who control both chambers of Congress will be under intense pressure to demonstrate their leadership skills in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
