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Monday, November 15, 2010

Top Republican: Hoyer is 'the only one we really talk to'

By Michael O'Brien - 11/15/10 11:01 AM ET

Outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is the GOP's primary source of contact within the Democratic leadership, a top Republican said Monday.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee, suggested Republicans get along best with Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat who will stay in the No. 2 position in the next Congress.

"I get along pretty well with Steny. He's the only one we really talk to," Ryan said Monday morning on CNBC. "I don't know Nancy Pelosi. I had a 30-second conversation with her about six years ago, and that's about it."

Hoyer appears set to serve as minority whip in the next Congress, thanks to a deal brokered late on Friday between Hoyer and outgoing Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.). Clyburn will serve in a newly created, third-ranking position.

The Maryland Democrat is seen as an emissary to centrist Democrats in the House. And the incoming Republican majority, Ryan suggested, might see Hoyer as a better option for outreach compared to Pelosi, who will stay on as Democratic leader.

"She just doesn't talk; I've never talked to her," Ryan said of Pelosi. "I'm not casting aspersions — just, Steny talks to us."



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