Posted by: McQ on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 Jon has already mentioned this in the post below, but I wanted to add my 2 cents (apparently he and I were thinking the same thing at the same time). We'll see tommorrow as they pick their new majority leader in the House how serious the Republicans really are. Tim Chapman, at Townhall.com, tells us about a meeting of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative group of Republican lawmakers. This was their annual retreat and they were there to consider the three candidates for Majority Leader. Roy Blunt, John Boehner and John Shadegg each addressed the group. Two of the three candidates filled out extensive questionaires answering questions posed by the group (apparently Roy Blunt didn't find it worth his while to do so). You can see the questions here. As we've mentioned any number of times, the Majority Leader's race is usually an 'inside baseball" matter. But in the wake of the Abramoff scandal, the explosive increase in earmarked pork and other discretionary spending, its visiblity has been raised and it is now seen as an indicator of the seriousness of Republicans in the House to clean up the corruption and return to their fiscally conservative roots. In reality, tomorrow is "put up or shut up time" for the House Republicans. If they pick Roy Blunt, most will consider the House Republicans to have chosen business as usual over reform and fiscal responsibility. If they choose John Shadegg, most will consider House Republicans to be serious about both fiscal responsbility and lobbying reform. They'll also pick a natural ally to Senators Coburn and McCain's effort to reign in the porkbarrel spending through earmarks. Jon and I think John Shadegg is the man for the Majority Leaders job. Rep. Boehner, while better than Rep. Blunt, still won't send proper message. The symbolism of tomorrow's vote won't be lost on many of us out here in flyover land. And, depending on how it goes, it may have repercussions in November. |
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