Did You Vote Republican For Nothing?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | December 8th, 2010 at 07:40 AM |

RESIZE: AAA

Did you show up at the polls on November 2nd for nothing? It seems that way. The House Republican Leadership has decided to put Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on the Appropriations Committee and that’s pretty much it. They are sending a signal to the tea party movement that this is all they’ll get.

John Boehner and Eric Cantor want Hal Rogers of Kentucky to serve as Appropriations Chairman. Hal Rogers is a big spending porker who has been a champion of earmarks. So brazen in his lust for your money, Rogers wants to put a Lockheed Martin lobbyist in as staff director for the Appropriations Committee — a lobbyist in charge of doling out the dollars.

But the fight is not over. Today the House GOP must ratify the leadership’s decisions and we can still get Jack Kingston into the Chairman’s chair. Go to our action center and fight to stop this. Call your Republican Congressman this morning. Tell him to support Jack Kingston as Appropriations Chairman.

Stand up to John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Fight for your principles.

CALL YOUR REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN THIS MORNING.

THE VOTE WILL BE TODAY.

If you believe the GOP must change their ways, you must then fight against Hal Rogers’s appointment and support Jack Kingston instead. This fight is too important. We must rebuke House Republican Leaders and compel them to do the right thing.

I’m going to make it easy for you.

Go to our action center here. Call your Republican Representative and tell him to support Jack Kingston for Appropriations Chairman. Kingston, like Rogers, was an Appropriations Sub-Committee Chairman. Only Kingston turned in a budget on time and under budget.

Between Rogers and Kingston, Kingston is a stronger fiscal conservative who will work to cut spending.

Tell your Congressman that putting a huge porker in charge of Appropriations with a lobbyist as staff director is an insult to all the work you did to get the GOP back into the majority.

Call this morning. Stand up to John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Fight for your principles.

Tags: Appropriations, Hal Rogers, Jack Kingston

COMMENTS

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america1st

Instead of giving me contact info for incoming Frank Guinta,(R), it provides this data for the unlamented parting carol shea-porter (D).

Not that this is a big hurdle for anyone, but it suggests the database is not current or lacking sophistication.
bigredone

Is my Congressman. I doubt if he will buck up against his fellow Kentuckian, but I will ask anyway.

I have been after this from the first day. Rogers is a snake. I know this from sad personal experience.

Best wishes.
nativeconservative

was highly upset that Upton was put in for the energy chair. Apparently they didn’t get the message. It’s a bit sureal to me. Do they really not understand?
nativeconservative

was highly upset that Upton was put in for the energy chair. Apparently they didn’t get the message. It’s a bit sureal to me. Do they really not understand?
GreyCloak

I voted against John Cornyn the last time around, and for all sorts of Libertarians this time and last (at least it keeps them on the ballot). But I voted FOR my Republican Rep because my cousin works for him, even tho the winning Candidate is a Party Hack from our Texas Lege.

No Tea Party candidates available … in some parts of Texas, Republicans are going to win, regardless.

I’ll look up Kingston. If he’s less of a “tool” than Rogers, I’ll send a note. Sadly, our Republicans are no strangers to bacon.

Lockheed Martin is a big employer here in the DFW area … do you really want to oppose Jeb Hensarling and other Republicans that might put local interests above those national?
southernpatriots

What will it take? We have emailed our Congressman and will now telephone. We think he will listen since he voted against all the Porkulus, Wall Street bailout, government take over of auto industry, and held numerous town hall meetings after which he voted against Obamacare. We have a good Congressman, our Rep. Senators are suspect but our Congressman is sound. How do we wake up other Rs? Are they tone deaf? Are they that stupid?

Reminds me of so many who want to run a social liberal, fiscal conservative against Obama. If we want an alternative to Obama why do we want someone who will be like Obama socially? That is suicide.
romeg

and others who are similarly situated in districts with Lame Duck Donks occupying the seat there is little we can do other than rail at Boehner et al for their reckless behavior.

Did they take NOTHING from the ’06 and ’08 elections? Do they NOT get the fact that the November election was a message to ALL incumbents and not merely the ones who got fired?

So since my Representative has no say in this matter I’ll take this opportunity to address the leadership directly:

Messrs. Boehner and Cantor:

SHAME ON YOU!

Get professional help for your craniocolitis or find another line of work. Continue on this path and you, too, will have the opportunity to find more interesting challenges and spend more time with your families.

I have friends and family in VA and OH and I will do everything in my power to persuade them to take action to replace you both.
fpete13527

The Appropriations Committee is going to be 75% of what will turn the tide to take back the U.S.

Rogers hates fiscal conservatives, he loves earmarked pork, and he is NOT the kind of guy that will use that position to make the CRITICAL cuts needed….on BOTH sides.

NO ROGERS!!!

The GOP needs to wake up. The “Deal” that just happened was NO big win. There will need to be ten times the fight agasint the DemocRATS after New Year.

Boehner and Cantor are not getting the message. I will be doing everything possible today to make sure they get it.

Kingston is the person for this job.
Michael Dugas

Vern Buchanan is a poll oriented Republican. I’ve NEVER met a Rep who sends out more polls to see what his constituents think. I hope he gets the picture quickly.
http://redmeatconservative.blogspot.com/ dhorowitz3

Don’t forget about the race between Ed Royce and Freddie Mac Spencer Bachus for Finance. Boehner already picked Bachus.
cam1

I know that he is a true conservative. And, I will be calling my Rep. Tom Price as soon as his office opens this morning. I’ll also call Gringrey’s office. We have to stand up for the Tea Party that turned this around.
dwscho

I was certainly willing to give the Republicans some slack until I started to see them doing some of the same old things of the past. I am more annoyed by the appointment of Upton to Energy. The Republicans had a chance to introduce some new blood into these positions and once again they resort to the same “good ole boy” actions of the past and appoint individuals based on standards other than best qualified.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

transgressions since the media spotlight has been on him, I don;t think the choice is as stark as many of my fellow tea partiers fear.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

the Food Bill (and that 15 voted for it) and that they will allow the Senate other non-essential votes on major policy changes after the continuing resolution and Bush tax cut compromise. For them to all a Lame Duck body to even vote on such matters as DREAM, DADT etc after that Wave election message is criminal.

see here

http://www.redstate.com/gamecock/2010/12/02/mcconnell-ultimatum-letter-issued-only-after-betrayal-of-conservatives/
fpete13527

….I don’t agree that the earmark ban will de-fang Rogers. It might lessen it.

Mainly though, I believe 75% of the horsepower of our fight will be waged through GOP House Appropriations willingness to CUT.

Rogers won’t push cuts!! Kingston will.
cam1

thank you for what you are doing for our country. I just emailed Dr. Tom Price and will call his office when it opens this morning. God bless you.
Jim Tomasik

And I also sent this out to my list.

(I’m pleading ignorance here but I am left wondering why Flake could not be the chair. Some sort of rule or something? Was he not interested?)
ihateliberals

for all of this. The campaign cry was to throw out all the incumbents and we didn’t. we allowed the Boehners and the Cantor’s to return. We have to get the message to the leadership again that We the people are in control. We have to remind them on a daily basis the November 2012 election is not that far away and we have to drive this home. it is time of the Tea Party to rear it’s head again and set these people straight.

We have to get rid of Karl Rove, Michael Steele and the likes of these RINO’s. Now that we do have control of the house we need to clean house again and put not only true conservatives in power but more importantly New Blood.
http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

He is a new appointee to the committee and others have greater seniority and committee experience.
fpete13527

It is time to get a lot of primaries in the works for the GOP Congress – both the SENATE AND THE HOUSE.

THEY HAVE GOTTEN ZERO MESSAGE……ZERO.

THEY ARE ABOUT TO GET IT.
IJB

*All* of the new Committee Chair choices were bad. Fred Upton is frankly an even worse choice than Rogers.

The answer to the question is – Right now, it’s looking like Yes, we did vote Republican for nothing.

These votes will test a lot of the new Freshmen – if they get rolled on these Committee Chair votes, it’s a ridiculously bad sign…
cam1

with Tom Price’s office and the vote was yesterday. There is no way to find out what the vote was until Boehner releases the tally.
NHConservative0227

I just did a quick google search and came up empty. I’d really like to contact my congressman-elect about this.

Also, anyone know if Guinta supported Upton?

Thanks!
usadying

so I can’t call him to vote against himself. I am stunned at the wasteful pork that he has brought here. People are drooling over the prospects of lots more of it coming. It is disgusting. The earmark ban is temporary, so they will patiently wait until the lid comes off. I understand that Rogers has the seniority, and it is hard to change procedure overnight. Maybe we should call his office and tell him we are watching him like a hawk. If the Republican establishment learned nothing in Nov 2010, a third party is probable. Which means conservatives lose.
JadedByPolitics

let us NOT make that mistake again in 2012! I have said that Boehner’s crying and pleading with God to help him make his decision to vote for the 700B of tax dollars to banks in 2008 was disgusting and not at all Conservative as well Cantor’s being yanked to vote for a 90% tax on Wall Street bonuses to “appease” the class warfare Democrats was not very Conservative. What these two men have is Conservative traits however that does NOT make them Conservatives!
NHConservative0227

If all the big talking heads would call Boehner and Cantor out for both Rogers and Upton.

I’m talking about Rush, Hannity, and Levin.

Especially Hannity who’s always been pretty soft on weak-kneed Republicans. Boehner was on his radio show a few weeks ago and they were all buddy-buddy. I got so sick of Hannity talking him up by repeating how Boehner has never taken an earmark!

What have you got to say now Sean?? Will you man up and call him out for this garbage??

I encourage everyone to try calling his show to bring this up.
dforston

Is there an official way of contacting new Reps? The ph#/Email lookup for my district still gives Ellsworth. I need to contact Buchson.

I suppose it could have been worse. They could have appointed Lewis.
dforston

They need to change the rules so that these appointments are done on merit, NOT seniority.
willy506

I called Mica’s office and the staffer said this is the third call he’s taken on this issue.
http://dreamsfrommyforefathers.com RoguePolitics

I have been saying since before the election we are going to have to MAKE them do it.

No the DriveIn won’t, by itself, make them do it but it is the beginning of making them do it.

We need to be prepared to spend the next 6 to 18 months getting in OUR Representatives face. Or vote all you want in 2012 and watch this happen again and again and again.

Blogs are great as a tool to drive people to action. By themselves they are meaningless.

It was the protests and crowds that stopped Shamnesty and almost stopped ObamaCare, not the blogs. The blogs got people there.

First the tax deal now this.

We are being sold out again.

THEAmericanDriveIn.com
jgwheeler

Although I don’t believe calling him would do one bit of good. Hannity is one of those faux conservatives who talks a good game, but is fine with big government and spending programs – when they fit HIS agenda. Didn’t hear the show but it doesn’t surprise me that he snuggled up to a pro-life statist like the Ohio Tanman.

Need to call Levin as much as possible and get him on board if we can.
NHConservative0227

So we have settle for a RINO instead of a real conservative.

I said that same thing when Boehner got all the support to be the next Speaker. He doesn’t deserve as proven by his support of Upton and most likely Rogers.

A real conservative like Michelle Bachmann deserved it who was out there on the front lines this past year fighting for conservatism.
fpete13527

They supposedly understood that they would need to give up a little in order to make the shifts that are needed. It turns out that they did NOT understand AT ALL, and more so, that they are totally WILLING.

Their detrimental actions with these committee chair decisions show that they needed to be pummeled with LOUD communications letting them know that they are moving COMPLETELY in the WRONG direction.

The communication needs to start NOW and if the message isn?t clear than there probably needs to be a MASSIVE primary initiation starting around February….of 2011.
NHConservative0227

Back on primary day here in NH on Sept 14th. As some of you may know I was all in for Ovide LaMontagne for Senate instead of Kelly Ayotte.

I called Hannity’s show right at 3 pm to discuss the differences between the two, His call screener told me he didn’t want to talk about it. That Hannity was going to mention it in his monologue. I told the screener that I’m sure I’d get through if I wanted to beat a dead horse by talking about the mosque!

During his monologue, Hannity mentioned that “today there’s a primary in NH!” Thanks Sean, I didn’t know that!!!! Thanks for going out on a limb.

I thought he’d want to encourage people like me to get involved, instead of turning away real conservatives.

Now we see where this go along to get along garbage gets us with the likes of Boehner and Cantor.

BTW: If I hear Newt on Sean’s show one more time I’m going to puke!
fpete13527
NHConservative0227

nt
NHConservative0227

nt
politicalqrm

it’s the same garbage. They aren’t giving these plum positions because these people are qualified; they’re giving them out because : hey, this guy has a great boat, or wonderful vacation home they love to visit or : they give great parties and hey: remember how much fun so and so was at the last party. Doing the right thing and serving the country is not in their mind; it’s the country club atmosphere all over again.
They have a terrific opportunity and it’s all payback to their buddies..They’re squandering a good thing, again.
scottb

on the voting records of both Rogers and kingston before making up my mind. I’m Leary of anyone who is recommended by a writer. No offence to Erickson but I’ve been stung before for not doing my own research. There is a lot to take into consideration, I’ll do my best.
chbroussard

are just another *entitlement* program. You’re entitled to a chairmanship just because you’ve been there the longest? Again, it seems we’re putting the fox in charge of the hen house. And it’s us chickens who will pay the price.

So to answer Erick’s question…..so far, yes.
bigredone

Just in. Kingston will not challenge H. Rogers in the full caucus.

Too bad.
Jim Tomasik

…
Wing Zero

spoke to “Dillon”. This kid said he would relay the message. No comment on who Wittman supported.
sarg01

Anything else is gravy.

We like to trash the R congress-critters and on some issues they deserve it.

However, how many R votes did Obamacare get? 0.5 (Cao was for it before he was against it)

How many R votes did the Dems attempt to extend only the sub-200k Bush tax cuts get? Zero.

So now Obama’s forced into negotiating on our terms and his base – already upset that we forced the Dems to moderate their own extreme proposals on stimulus, Obamacare and a raft of other policies – is absolutely on fire. Look at any lefty site and it’s full of calls for primary challenges, abandoning the Dem party altogether and even *impeachment*.

I get that the committee chairpeople could be better, but any R is better than 99% of the Ds, and the leadership can always be held to account later if a chair betrays a core principle and the leadership does nothing
southcoast

While I see the Republican party as the lesser of the electoral evils, my true allegiance is to conservative principles. I am hopeful the Tea Party element of the Republican Party will maintain its fidelity to these principles as well. It is not about the party, it is about the republic and the Constitution. A Constitution these members swear to uphold.
Remember folks, we have another chance to advance reformation in 2012 with the house and another crop of U.S. Senators.
Be vigilant and remember what these people do now and not the few months leading up to their re-election efforts.
It is our government and is for us to consent to the governance we elect.
johncox

Insanity is doing the same things, expecting different results.

Did you notice the news item about the new freshman class holding fundraisers for big lobbyists in DC? They immediately launched into as soon as they got there.

What do we expect? It is all about money and getting re-elected.

The only answer is to elect people who can’t be bought. WE must change the system. There ought to be 10,000 Congressmen elected from small districts where money isn’t the determining factor. Let those 10,000 elect 500 who will do the yeoman’s share of the work.

Get the money out of politics; end all Congressional salaries, offices, staff, and perks. Citizen legislators accountable to the people in small districts.
america1st

This is all I could find and all the NH GOP HQ has available. Called twice, but only reached an answering machine telling me to call during (listed) office hours. I was. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Fla Mom

…the office of my soon-to-be-seated Republican rep., Steve Southerland, since the action center gave me Democrat Allen Boyd’s info, plus the offices of Boehner and Cantor, plus Allen West, since he’ll speak frankly to anyone about anything, unlike most of them.

The only staffer who sympathized with my remarks was the one for LTC (Ret) West. All the others just said they’d pass along my remarks.

I’m so angry I can hardly stand it. They are truly the Stupid Party. I wrote an e-mail to Boehner about his speech right after the election, titled, “Nice Words,” to the effect that he should re-read his own speech when he is tempted to go back to business as usual.

Give ‘em H***- If we roll over now, they’ll assume we’re not paying attention anymore and they can do things the old way.

Fla Mom
Spotter

Just called Rep. Hensarling’s office, and was told by the individual answering the phone that the vote was indeed yesterday.
Spotter

Just called Rep. Hensarling’s office, and was told by the individual answering the phone that the vote was indeed yesterday.
america1st

Boehner & Cantor, FWIW. Told their answering staffers not to mistake the November results for an endorsement of the GOP but rather a renunciation of fiscal irresponsibility regardless of party labels. Further, that if their bosses didn’t understand this message, their primary opponents in 2012 will explain it to them again after taking their places on the general election ballots. Politely, of course.
Scope

no one will primary Cantor. I live in his district, and, have spent more time begging him not to do things, than ever being able to thank him for much of anything. His district is large, and, it includes the state capitol Richmond, and, surely there has got to be someone who would be willing to take him on, however, no one ever comes forward. Believe me, it feels very hopeless with him.
traversecityconservative

Primary them all. Check and see what seats are up for your state and county elections. Make sure you have tea party candidates and volunteer for them. This crap needs to stop. Find a Conservative printer in your area who will give you a discount and print up all sorts of cards to hand out with the headline, “This is what your moderate Republican did to you since he’s been elected” and offer them a good, Conservative choice. The truth is that Boehner and Cantor shouldn’t even be in charge. Same old face of the Republican party is NOT what we wanted when we voted for change. Do they not think we’re going to go after them just as hard as the Dems? They’re idiots…
joecollins

Rep Brian Bilbray, CA50.

Am grateful to have one of the very few Republican Reps in California . . . but he must still be accountable to the people. We can’t afford business as it has always been. We need new discipline.
runner12

Hopefully, she will get it. I am from a really red state and a very conservative district, but I still think it is important to make my voice heard. Besides, my rep has had some RINO tendencies in the past and I want to make sure she knows how people in her district feel about this.
Scope

would be to make them all part-time. Spend only part of the year in DC, and then go back home, run your business, or do your day job. Pay them as part timers. Give them just enough time to vote on important legislation, and forget the time wasted on voting for post office names, or to take yet more federal land. Keep them out of Washington, and, away from the special interest lobbyists as much as possible. It’s alot easier to get in touch with them when they are closer to home, rather than trying to get through the Washington wall. It would make it hard for the lobbyists to visit 435 districts, rather than getting them all at a DC cocktail party at once.
Scope

and a whole lot cheaper than $2,000 per month for a room in DC.
zornorph

Upton was there because Joe ‘Rules don’t apply to me!’ Barton sucked all the oxygen out of the room for other strong conservatives who might have been able to challenge for the spot. If greedy Barton had stood aside like he was supposed to under the RULES, then conservatives might have been able to rally behind Cliff Sterns. You have rule-breaker Barton to blame for Upton being chairman.
zornorph

Blame Rulebreaker Barton for the fact that we now have Upton as chair. It’s his fault more than anybody elses.
scottb

on Rogers and Kingston as far as the earmarks go. The worst of the two evils seems to be Rogers, yet Kingston requested 2 million in earmarks in the last 3yrs alone with Rogers having a 135 earmarks worth 246 million in the past two years. Personally I can’t imagine either one of these clowns on the Appropriations committee. When one starts checking into the money spent by these clowns on their pet projects, I say kick them all out in 2012 and start with 60+ new Rep. We did it this time, we can do it again.
dforston

Paul Ryan and Darrell Issa are awesome.
wonkish1

Issue. Rogers is a very, very big issue.

This effort is very definitely worth it. Its unlikely that we will succeed because it appears that the fix is already in, but if we win this battle we win a very, very big battle. Appropriations is key.
Fla Mom

Remember a few years ago when we were all mad at Bush? Don’t sell our liberty so cheaply.

Fla Mom
m_quick

Thank you for reminding us to keep paying attention, even after the election, and telling us where the fight is.
bigredone

Brett Guthrie and I correspond regularly. He gets it. I am proud of him.

Kingston is NOT challenging Rogers in the full caucus.
acat

I would like to see congresscritters paid at the same rate as second lieutenants. .. If it?s a service job, make it like the Armed Services. Provide on-base officer housing as well – there’s plenty of bases around the D.C. area, although we may need to bulldoze a golf course or two.

This may sound like a give-away, I mean, their housing is paid for by us. This does help in a couple ways, though…

No whining about “D.C. is sooo expensive!”.
Easier to audit. Their pay rate is set – and the worst case scenario is they decide to over-pay the armed services to raise their own rates – and any citizen can easily find out exactly how much money they ought to have.
Access restricted. There will be a record of every lobbyist who visits the home of the congresscritters.

Mew
bobmontgomery

….in that Nancy won’t be able to use her personal Air Force jet again until 2013. She hung around for a reason. We are led to believe that Upton can change his stripes, after all that was revealed about his votes. Well. Nancy isn’t going to change hers. This light bulb thing? Well, it’s just too far along to reverse now. So the excuse will be, there’s nothing we can do. All the incandescent bulb makers have quit making them…UNLESS SOMEBODY USES HIS BRAIN AND BANS CFL’s. Same thing with Obamacare. Too late. big bucks being made in certain quarters. EPA? Gotta have it. Absolutely essential. A valuable American institution, don’tchaknow? DOE? Get rid of the DOE? What, are you crazy? Some kind of Tenth Amendment fanatic?
Along with the question of “did you vote Republican (like we told you to) for nothing?”, maybe the question ought to be “Do we have a Republic for nothing? If the onus continually is on the public to force Congress to vote the right way on every issue, maybe we oughtta hang it up and go straight Democracy.
rel01

The vote was yesterday and Hal Rogers won according to staffer at Rep Mike Rogers (MI) office.
The Conservative-lite Republicans think the Tea Party people voted for them. How dense can they be?
I think we will be disappointed for the next two years.
Stick a fork in it, the Party is over!
sarg01

What they do after getting the job is what’s important, not what they’ve done in the past. Sure I feel more trust in some congressfolks than others, but the excesses of the past were signed off on by almost everyone not newly elected. I’m not going to permanently condemn folks who may have seen the Tea Party light before they have a chance to prove they’ve changed. If Boehner and Cantor say they’ve changed, for now that’s enough for me. If they start betraying us in their new jobs, Boehner and Cantor will either do something about it, or we’ll hold *them* accountable at that time.
Scope

It was something Jindal proposed in an interview-

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/25/jindal-says-congress-work-time/

In addition to part time, he also recommends term limits, and no lobbyist jobs after serving. I like those suggestions as well.

I loved this statement-

“When they live under the same rules and laws they passed for us, maybe you’d see more common sense coming out of Washington.”

Touche.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

am not invested any person in DC and think most of them need We the People’s belt poised to strike their butts after they have been there for more than 5 minutes and got their first invite to a Georgetown cocktail party. That includes Jack K.
jtlfromfredmd

the staffer informed me that he would relay the message to the congressman. If the vote has inded been made, I wish he would have told me so that I could have found out how my congressman voted. It’s the infernal machinations of what goes on in the belly of government that does us in.
kestrel

Every time I hear about so-and-so is next in line for a committee chairmanship, I’m reminded of our union-dominated public school system that protects incompetent teachers’ jobs while allowing award-winning younger teachers to be laid off.

Apparently it’s not enough for congressmen to earn a salary that is more than 3x what their average constituent makes, to have huge expense accounts, gold-plated healthcare plans, and fabulous pensions. No, they’re entitled to leadership positions whether they’re fit for them or not.

I hope Rep. Jeff Flake can be like Paul Ryan and make it to the top of this committee without becoming soft, lazy, self-serving or corrupt. I hope Mr. Flake can have a positive impact even as a freshman. I hope Mr. Flake is firm but more diplomatic than me. Thank you, House leadership for putting Mr. Flake on this committee.
Adjoran

The long knives are coming out already, before the new Congress is even sworn in.
kestrel

Sorry, Rep. Flake, not “as a freshman” but as a junior member. XOXOXO from the kestrel.
acat

The only issue with term limits is that it shifts the “institutional memory” out of Congress and into the various bureaucrats .. making it even harder to get rid of bad apples.

Can we impose “service limits” on civil servants?

Mew
http://dreamsfrommyforefathers.com RoguePolitics

Term limits on congress and limits on civil service.

On civil service not just term limits but age limits. Nobody under 35 for example. That way only people with real experience can get a government job.
Make it a 10 year limited gig with no retirement benfits as well.

Or better yet make it all patronage. When your guy goes so do you. Therefore you have an incentive to make you guy a success.

Getting rid of patronage as the primary determinate of federal employment was an early progressive victory. 1880′s to 1890′s I think.
red_oakster

These are the Steering Committee’s prerogative, and the Speaker’s most important source of power. Erick’s and Red State’s influence is very weak when it comes to inside appointment issues.

But Red State did make an earmark ban a priority, and the Republicans adopted it. Moreover, Rogers had to endorse it as the price of admission. And that moratorium will be a constraint on spending

So what’s the takeaway? Fighting for changes in rules is a better bet than trying to lobby the Speaker on his votes in the Steering Committee.

If you want to take further control of Approps, start fighting for term limits on the committee itself. If you can only serve on this committee for 4-6 years before rotating out, behavior and incentives will change for the better.
acat

in Chicago, they’re *still* fighting this.

I spent many hours waiting for code to compile or data migrations to grind through terabytes of bits talking to a former City of Chicago employee about what working for ‘em was like…. he had several guys reporting to him, about 2/3 actually came in, and about half of those actually did work… the stay-at-homes were very patronage, and at least one was mobbed up .. the do-nothings were nepotism…. couldn’t do much to ‘em because of who they were related to.

Patronage needs the same checks and balances as anything else… and in the absence, it leads to .. well, Chicago. Look up the Shakman decree to see the worst case scenario before advocating a return to it, eh?

Mew
america1st

They don’t have staff in place yet to field the phones, that is when they *get* the phones, but the one staffer available is passing it along to his CoS in DC.

Understandably difficult for the frosh to communicate with their base in this transitional period, but a suspicious individual might regard these quick & quiet organizational moves as
this as wonderful opportunity to keep the old-boy network alive.
america1st

Last line, properly edited, should have read:

” . . . but a suspicious individual might regard these quick & quiet organizational moves as a wonderfully convenient surreptitious opportunity to keep the old-boy network alive.”
http://www.barrypopik.com barrypopik

FWIW, you can still catch the reruns tonight. It’s about halfway through the show when RedState is mentioned.
Common_Cents
http://www.barrypopik.com barrypopik

FWIW, you can still catch the reruns tonight. It’s about halfway through the show when RedState is mentioned.
Common_Cents
Jim Tomasik

Why are you watching him? Did they ban porn on the the internet or something?

Let me check… Nope. That’s not it.
IJB
IJB

Believe me, I have WAY bigger problems with that than earmarkers.

So, no – Upton is a MUCH BIGGER issue that Rogers.
IJB
http://redmerrimack.blogspot.com/ charliebravoNH

I was a volunteer for Frank Guinta and the GOP ticket this year. I still have his email address from the campaign. I called the office and got the same answer you did when I told the woman I was talking to I opposed the choices of Hal Rogers and Fred Upton for their chairmanships. She told me that others have called opposing Hal Rogers.

I heard that it was a House Steering Committee that made the choices. I also heard on Mark Levin’s show at 6.00pm tonight they will be another vote of the whole caucus.
wonkish1

In all likelihood the energy committee wont be doing really anything over the next couple of years. No bills produced by that committee will make it to the floor. Appropriations is one of the big 4. Appropriations, Budget, Ways and Means, and Rules committee’s. One promising strategy in the next congress is to use appropriations like a hammer against the Dems to defund Dem programs.

Rogers certainly wont be as creative nor as aggressive as we would like in this key spot. Earmarks are not the biggest issue. Spending and current process that allows spending to be easier to do than cutting is a very bid issue and controlling the appropriations committee is key to that effort.
timelyrenewed

Putting true conservatives into influential positions in the 112th Congress is very important and worthwhile. However, in the end legislative efforts are by their nature subject to corruption, and even if not corrupt, can still be overthrown by the vagaries of future political developments. We need to seize this moment to go deeper, and restore respect for the Constitution.

Unfortunately it has been so misconstrued and abused by over 70 years of progressive control of the Supreme Court and other branches of the federal government that simple legislative action is not enough. We need to promote amendments to the Constitution to restore its original meaning and structure. This can lock in this moment of constitutionalist resurgence regardless of the future vagaries of political parties.

The first step is to put through an amendment to the amendment process itself which will eliminate the unnecessary convention now required by Article V and permit States to directly initiate amendment proposals. This will break the current de facto federal congressional and judicial monopoly on interpreting the Constitution, and empower grassroots patriots on the state level to restore the Constitution by amendment. This will then permanently constrain future federal mischief even if this Congress unhappily goes the way of the Republicans of the 1990s. See http://www.timelyrenewed.com
Common_Cents

5 min of olbermann is plenty.
http://dreamsfrommyforefathers.com RoguePolitics

Most of it accurate.
I always come back to knowing if you fire their boss you fire them too as the one way we can get payback on a bureaucrat who tells us we can’t fill a ditch or add a room.

All pie in the sky aside, we are so screwee by a system that is so corrupt. If there were a reset button we could push….

RS

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