Back in the bad old days of the Cold War, one of the few ways one could find out who was up- or down- in the Soviet hierarchy was analyzing the photos of the leadership lineup atop Lenin's Tomb on big holidays.
Similarly subtle measures must be used to search for signs of moderation among the Republican members of the US House of Representatives. But Georgia Peach has one:
An ambitious attempt by Georgia Republicans to fill the ranks of
senior House leadership with the most conservative among them own
resulted in a flop Thursday, neither of the two hopefuls winning a top
caucus job.
Rep. Tom Price was defeated Wednesday
behind closed doors in his bid to take over the GOP conference, the
fourth-highest post GOP post, and now finds himself on the outside
looking in on top leadership.
At number five, he previously steered the Republican Study Committee,
viewed by members as a conservative check on top leadership. But the
deep bench of Georgians vying for leadership jobs left hope for some
that the state wouldn’t lose its control of the vaulted organization.
Rep. Tom Graves already had the support of every former RSC chair,
which generally translates into a lock on the job, but his opponent,
Rep. Steve Scalise, crossed the twenty-percent-support threshold to
force a full vote of the group’s membership.
The chairman selection process is a complicated one, the group’s
rules giving deference to the opinion of its founders and previous
chairs. But it’s not always so: Graves ultimately fell short, Republican
aides confirmed to Tipsheet, when ballots for the full caucus were
tallied.
Scalise, of Louisana, is not the first to override the opinion of the
group’s founders. Not that it will lessen the sting of defeat for
Graves, but one of his endorsers, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, accomplished the
same in 2006.
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| Nothing, alas, for Paul "Pits of Hell" "Lascivious Anal Clefts" Animal Lover Paul Broun, though. |
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