WASHINGTON - The pressure is on Congressman Paul Ryan to run for House speaker.

The process of finding a successor to John Boehner was thrown into chaos yesterday, when the front-runner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, announced he was abandoning his campaign for the post.

Entering a closed-door Republican meeting this morning, McCarthy said he's spoken with Ryan about it and thinks the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee would make a "great speaker." But McCarthy calls it a "big decision" and says Ryan needs to discuss it with "his wife and everybody else." 

Ryan has insisted he's not interested in being speaker, preferring to focus on his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. In addition, any presidential aspirations the 45-year-old Wisconsin lawmaker might have could be undercut by holding the chamber's top job and managing an unruly GOP caucus.

Being speaker also calls for frequent travel to raise money for the GOP, a challenge for a lawmaker like Ryan with a young family back home.