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Front and center in Roll Call today is a story (subscription required) headlined, “Boehner: New Ideas Wanted.” New ideas are great, but how about taking some action on a good old idea like, say, fiscal discipline. Actually, Boehner already has made a couple moves on that front, and so far he seems to be have opted for rejection.
Last week Boehner removed Jeff Flake from the Judiciary Committee, claiming he needed to downsize Republican membership on committees to reflect the GOP’s minority status and Flake just didn’t luck out. Flake believes he was tossed because of his stance on immigration, but in an editorial (subscription required) last week, the Wall Street Journal argued that porkbusting is what got Flake booted. Indeed, the Journal pointed out that Flake had more seniority than 6 other Republicans on the committee who nevertheless retained their seats on the committee, which certainly calls into question Boehner’s rationale. Most likely, Flake’s outspokenness on the need for earmark reform was at least part of the reason for his “bad luck.”
Also last week, Boehner asked Rep. Jerry Lewis to remain the ranking member on the Approprations Committee. The Journal editors noted that as Chairman of that committee, Lewis allowed 13,997 earmarks in the 2005 budget, which means that he was nearly 14,000 earmarks off the fiscal prudence mark. They concluded that, “If Republicans truly believed in limited government, Mr. Flake would be running Appropriatons and Mr. Lewis would be a back-bencher.”
Limited government. Apparently, it’s an idea that is considered so tired and old by some Republicans that discussion of it seems fresh and new…and radical. If those Republicans persist in thinking that way, then all Republicans better get used to their minority status. It may last for another 40 years.
Boehner Claims To Want New Ideas, But Seems To Reject One Of The Best
Posted by John Santoliquido - January 17, 2007Thoughts? Add Comment -
HistoryGuy said on Jan 17 2007 at 6:45pm
Considering what they have done for the past six years, why would we be surprised by the Republicans punishing a true conservative.
Rob Siegmund said on Jan 17 2007 at 8:17pm
That, in a nutshell, is -exactly- why I voted Democrat in our last election for the first time in my life.
Fritz said on Jan 18 2007 at 6:40am
How frustrating. I recently left the Republican Party to become an independent (because of the past six years), but I may need to go back if only to vote for Ron Paul in the primary.
Kristina said on Jan 18 2007 at 8:20am
Rob, Here's a relevant exerpt from the GQ Coburn article:
So now there’s all this hullabaloo about the Democrats taking over—Tom Coburn is supposed to care? He’s supposed to get excited now that the peanut butter is on top and the jelly is on the bottom instead of the other way around? This is a revolution? It’s a revolution that Ted Stevens has been pushed aside as chairman of the defense-appropriations subcommittee and that in his place the Democrats have installed…Daniel Inouye of Hawaii? A man who inserted $900 million of his own personal projects into the budget last year—and who happens to be one of Ted Stevens’s best friends in the Senate? It’s a revolution that the Democrats have cleaned out the subcommittee behind the Bridge to Nowhere and replaced the chairman with…Patty Murray of Washington? A woman who personally led a campaign for the bridge and who threatened revenge against any Democrat who opposed it? It’s a revolution that Thad Cochran has been deposed as the most powerful budgetary overlord in the Senate and is being replaced with…Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia? A man who has single-handedly converted his state into a federally funded monument to himself, with no less than thirty projects named in his own honor, including the Robert C. Byrd Expressway and the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer and the two Robert C. Byrd federal buildings and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Hospitality and Tourism—not to mention the actual statue of Robert C. Byrd that stands in the rotunda of the state capitol?
Robert C. Byrd is going to clean up the government? This is a revolution?