Two veterans lose bids as House GOP elects new committee chairmen
Washington (CNN)–The tea party lost a battle for a key House committee Tuesday as the House Republican Steering Committee selected Michigan Rep. Fred Upton over Texas Rep. Joe Barton to head the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.
Tea party activists had been campaigning against Upton, whom they felt was not conservative enough. Barton has been the top Republican on the committee since 2005, and his GOP colleagues declined to give him an exemption to a three-term on Republicans to serve on the top committee.
But Barton released a statement pledging support for Upton.
"Now I want to offer my congratulations to Fred, who is taking over the best committee in Congress," Barton said. "He has an enormous job ahead, and I'm going to do everything I know how to make his chairmanship the kind of success that the American people want and expect."
House veterans also lost the chairmanship of the key Appropriations Committee – which will be ground zero for upcoming battles over spending bills and the Republican efforts to defund the new health care law. Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers won out over California Rep. Jerry Lewis and Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston. All three Republicans have requested earmarks in the past, but Rogers has pledged to support the GOP ban on all earmarks.
These slots must be approved by the full House Republican Conference at a meeting Wednesday morning.
Speaker-designate John Boehner put out a statement supporting the new lineup of committee chairs, saying all are committed to "helping small businesses create jobs, cutting spending, repealing the job-killing health care law, protecting life, and reforming the way Congress works."
Full committee lineup that will be voted on tomorrow is:
Agriculture Frank D. Lucas (Okla.)
Appropriations Hal Rogers (Ky.)
Armed Services Howard P. "Buck" McKeon(Calif.)
Budget Paul Ryan (Wis.)
Education and Labor John Kline (Minn.)
Energy and Commerce Fred Upton Mich.)
Financial Services Spencer Bachus (Ala.)
Foreign Affairs Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.)
Homeland Security Peter T. King (N.Y.)
Judiciary Lamar S. Smith (Texas)
Natural Resources Doc Hastings (Wash.)
Oversight & Government Reform Darrell Issa (Calif.)
Science & Technology Ralph M. Hall (Texas)
Small Business Sam Graves (Mo.)
Transportation & Infrastructure John L. Mica (Fla.)
Veterans Jeff Miller (Fla.)
Ways & Means Dave Camp (Mich.)
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Finally the Republicans show they have a brain.
Hey, Tea-guys, are you beginning to see the pattern yet? Let's see, the estate tax continues at 35%, then unemployment benefits are continued for another 13 months, and all for the sake of tax cuts for the richest 2%, which doesn't include any of you. All this adds yet another huge chunk to the national debt, which you have publicly sworn to fight and yet doesn't seem to matter much now. And lo and behold, all the key committee chairmanships, which is where most of the real power is, are going to "mainstream" republicans. You and yours can't seem to get anything. Wotta coincidence!
I have one word for all of the Tea Party congressmen and everyone who voted for them.....SUCKERS!
Speaker-designate John "Of Orange" Boehner put out a strange statement part of which stated that the new lineup of committee chairs, are committed to "repealing the job-killing health care law". Right behind it the statement included "protecting life", and "reforming the way Congress works." My question simply put is this. The new Health Care Law was designed to protect and improve the quality of life so how can repealing it "Protect Life"? Further I ask, how can "reforming the way Congress works", work on a body that does not work?
I submit that "Rep John of Orange" must have some strong stuff in those cigars he smokes. This cry baby of a man is not 3 bricks shy of a full load. All he has in his head are rocks shaped like 3 bricks for a brain.
Where are the female chairs? One token chair and no females in the leadership. Tells you a lot about where the GOP is.
I am so embarrassed that Texas Rep. Joe Barton was not selected to chair this committee and I think this nation owes him an apology. Another Texan flushed.
What a sorry lot of committee chairpersons the Republicans are about to choose. Imagine Ileana Ross-Lehtinen, the arch right wing Cuban who hates all other Cubans, as head of the House Foreign Relations Committee. It's going to be a rough couple of years from here on. Mayby Raoul Castro will send her a poison cigar and fix her up with a date with Bill Clinton.
What? The All Powerful, All Seeing, All Knowing Tea Party can't get one of their lackeys into a position of power in DC? Go figure.
Idiots who will shut down the government and be run out of town on rails like Newt the Grinch was.
Since Barton is the idiot who apologized to BP forour government's behavior, he deserves no reward. By the way where is the other loon, Michele bACHMAN ON YOUR LIST.