Susan Davis over at Roll Call is reporting that Congressman John Doolittle is going to be resigning from the powerful House Appriations Committee.
Here is an excerpt:
While Doolittle is expected to voluntarily take himself off the panel while the investigation continues, knowledgeable House sources said that Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and members of the Republican Steering Committee, which determines committee assignments were prepared to remove him from his post if he would not do so himself.
The move comes after FBI agents raided Doolittle¹s Oakton, Va., home on Friday, seeking documents related to his wife, Julie, and her fundraising firm, Sierra Dominion. That same day a former Doolittle staffer who had worked with Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig, Kevin Ring, resigned from his post at a top Washington lobbying firm, Barnes & Thornburg. The Doolittles have been under legal scrutiny for three years regarding both of their ties to Abramoff.
If it only takes an FBI search of one’s home to cause someone to leave the Appropriations Committee, then by all means the Feds should go pay a visit to Jerry "The King of Pork" Lewis and the other GOPers who embraced outrageous pork and earmarks. We can then replace them with Porkbusters like Mike Pence, Tom Feeney and Ed Royce, who would actually apply some common sense, and vote against wasteful and inappropriate spending.
As someone who considers John Doolittle a friend, I think the absolute worst thing that ever happenned to him was when he became a part of that committee. Any conservative who gets on that lard-dispensing body starts to lose touch with the very reasons they ran in the first place.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher has a unique idea for abolishing that committee, that should be very seriously considered as part of a "Pledge to do things differently" that the House GOP should make to dismayed grassroots Republicans who were reviled at the 41% increase in spending increases under the GOP majority. Perhaps a promise that no Republican who served on the Appropriations Committee in 2006 will serve on it again if we regain the majority…
FR readers, I kid you not. The "Appropriators" as they are called on The Hill are like Sith Lords. They are feared and idolized amidst a Washington culture that seems to glorify spending. When the GOP took the majority back in 1994, not only did we not overturn this culture, but the party of Reagan apparently embraced it.
UDPATE:
An excerpt from a release from Doolittle’s office says this…
"I am writing to request a temporary leave of absence from my seat on the Committee on Appropriations, effective immediately. I understand how the most recent circumstances may lead some to question my tenure on the Appropriations Committee. Therefore, I feel it may be in the best interest of the House that I take a temporary leave with seniority from this Committee until this matter can be resolved."
A "temporary leave with seniority" — hmmm. I guess that is like a placeholder so that when you return, you get back in the line to leadership of the group. It’s possible that with some time away from the dark side of the force, Doolittle may realize that being a part of ‘Team Jerry Lewis" was never the right place for him to be…