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He spent eight hours working to solidify support through small-group meetings in his office before he walked into a May 13 closed caucus where he apologized for the scandal. His Republican House colleagues applauded. A number of legislators — including several GOP women — gave speeches strongly supporting him.

Then two Republicans made pivotal remarks. According to several sources, Reps. Jay Barnes of Jefferson City and Paul Curtman of Pacific changed the tone of the discussion.

Legislators say Barnes suggested that Diehl wasn’t taking full responsibility. Barnes “wanted to have a vote� on whether Diehl should remain as speaker, recalled Rep. Mark Parkinson, R-St. Charles.

Curtman, who has served in the Marines, offered a military analogy. He said that if a commanding officer had faced a similar situation, “it’s appropriate for the leader to consider putting the mission and the unit first.�

Some legislators who had supported Diehl found Barnes’ and Curtman’s comments “really eye-opening,� said Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webb City. “After everybody heard that, I think people thought, ‘Yeah, they’re probably right,’� Davis said.

The caucus adjourned without a vote. But Diehl, R-Town and Country, went from saying that he would not step down to announcing his resignation the next afternoon. He waited until Republicans had picked his successor, then turned in his resignation letter on May 15, hours before the Legislature’s 6 p.m. mandatory adjournment.

If Diehl had hung onto his post until the final gavel fell, no one could have forced him out until at least September. The full House elects the speaker. The annual veto session in September is the next time legislators are scheduled to meet.

Instead, the House has a new leader — Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff — and legislators have left town, with Republicans hoping they have put the controversy to rest.

“John took responsibility, and you can’t ask more than that,� said Rep. Sheila Solon, R-Blue Springs and one of those who is said to have spoken on Diehl’s behalf at the caucus meeting.

The texts, disclosed on the Kansas City Star’s website May 13, suggested Diehl and the college freshman had an intimate relationship. For example, he sent her a photo of himself in Munich, Germany, when he was on a trade mission with Gov. Jay Nixon in March. She responded that “the suit and tie combo is sexy and you look great. I see a lot of work is happening.�

In another exchange, she sent a picture of herself in a bikini and he responded: “I want to see more.� They talked about meeting, with Diehl saying: “We need a lot of time and a quiet room.�

Diehl, an attorney, is married and has three sons. The intern, Katie Graham of Joplin, was not named by the Star but issued a statement identifying herself after Diehl announced he would resign. Graham thanked her supporters and said she hoped the intern program would continue.

Some legislators and staffers were surprised to receive handwritten thank you notes from Graham in the mail last Friday. While the timing looked odd, Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Kirkwood, said the note she received appeared to have been written before the scandal broke.

The texting disclosures capped weeks of speculation in the Capitol about why four interns from Missouri Southern State University in Joplin had been abruptly pulled from the Capitol.

“Simple texts are not uncommon,� Davis said. “When the Kansas City Star (report) came out, that’s when we realized, ‘Oh, crud. There was a lot more.’ It was totally inappropriate for him to send any texts like that.�

Even so, Davis said many in the caucus struggled to come to terms with the situation.

“The natural reaction was to defend an individual because they’re a friend. You can get too close and don’t see the full picture. Fortunately, there were some people who did,� Davis said.

Barnes declined to comment. Curtman said that Diehl “needed time to identify and do the right thing. I think John exercised great wisdom, under the circumstances.�

A GOP caucus vote could have been divisive.

“There’s people on both sides that were pretty passionate and a vast silent majority that were trying to sort through all the facts and figure out what the next step should be,� said Speaker Pro Tem Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg.

Freshman Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, was in the latter camp: “I was just trying to process it, and really felt sorry for everyone involved.�

Parkinson, by contrast, said he wrote Diehl a letter urging him to resign and delivered it to the speaker’s office shortly before Diehl announced his decision.

“I didn’t see how, after those allegations came to light, how he could be an effective leader,� Parkinson said.

Others said political implications couldn’t be ignored.

Had Diehl stayed, Republicans could have faced questions about the intern issue in the 2016 elections. Some shuddered, remembering how the U.S. Senate candidacy of Todd Akin imploded in 2012, after he suggested that victims of “legitimate rape� usually can’t get pregnant.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who faces re-election next year, had the most to lose if Republicans were associated with Diehl’s troubles. Blunt issued a statement after Diehl stepped down, saying the speaker had been an effective leader but made the right decision by leaving.

Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday that the Capitol should be a place “where young women and men can learn how their government works without fear of harassment, intimidation or other inappropriate conduct.�

Richardson, the new speaker, took the first step toward that goal Wednesday, appointing senior Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, to review House intern policies.

In an interview, Engler said: “Sexual activity is inappropriate for any business setting, any professional setting, and we just need to make sure we put up some safeguards. We can’t stop stupidity but we can sure put some codes of conduct in there.�

He said he expects to draft a policy limiting electronic communications, for starters.

Engler added that overall, the internship program has been a big success.

“Most of them come up there, have a great experience, further their education and go home,� Engler said.

What happened with Diehl was “the exception, not the rule,� Engler said. “We need to make those exceptions more and more rare.�

The four Joplin interns — two men and two women — were housed in a Jefferson City apartment that the university supplied. Legislators said the co-ed living situation apparently led to problems.

“Maybe the temptation is there to do some inappropriate things,� Davis said. “To have them all in one living space, I think that’s probably not a great choice.�

Davis suggested that the House could find young adults to mentor the interns and might even consider seeing if older legislative staffers would want to rent out bedrooms in their homes to the interns.