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Being Speaker of the House is a really tough spot.

If elected Speaker, I promise you that we will have the courage to lead the fight for our conservative principles and make our case to the American people. But we will also have the wisdom to listen to our constituents and each other so that we always move forward together.

I intend to be a strong Speaker. I hope to make some imaginative changes around here.

Speaker Boehner is doing a great job.

I'm probably one of the only people who has voted for the speaker of the House but didn't serve in Congress.

We will face the challenges head on. We will work with both parties, across the aisle, to make our state better.

I've been a speaker. I've been a majority leader. I've been a minority leader. Those are the sort of things I don't need any more.

I'm never running for office. I love being able to speak to members of Congress or members of the Senate and floating on either side, because it takes all of us. It's going to take both of them.

I think the speaker of the House in Congress should be like the Massachusetts speaker: all-powerful. He should appoint committee chairmen and remove them if they stray from the party line. He should be answerable only to the caucus, which can remove him at any time. I'd throw the seniority system out on its ear in Congress.

Now that we have the Senate and the House fully controlled by Republicans, we need to be working together.