In his syndicated weekly column published this morning, well known Washington D.C. political analyst Bob Novak reports about a secret meeting of the House Republican leadership at which discussions took place about whether California Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis should be stripped of his leadership role, that of being the top GOPer on the House Appropriations Committee, because federal authorities are in the midst of an investigation of Lewis and allegations of corruption surrounding one of the House’s most prolific pork-a-holic spenders (so much so that he has been dubbed, "The King of Pork"). Here is what Novak had to say:
In a secret meeting Wednesday of the House Republican leadership, Minority Leader John Boehner ruled that Rep. Jerry Lewis of California will continue as the party’s ranking member of the Appropriations Committee while under federal investigation on ethics charges. That widened the gap between Boehner and reform-minded House Republicans, including members of the leadership. Under investigation for sponsoring questionable earmarks, Lewis remains a major Republican spokesman in Congress. He led the Republican debate Wednesday on Democratic procedures for handling President Bush’s veto of the expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Republican reformers complain that Boehner imposes a double standard that is harsher on rank-and-file members of Congress than on leaders. While Lewis keeps his leadership position on Appropriations, Rep. John Doolittle left the committee in April because he is a federal corruption target.
To this we say, shame on John Boehner. Here at this website, we’ve been critical of decision in the first place to leave Lewis in as the ranking GOP member of the Appropriations Committee. Why? 
Because Lewis (pictured left) is a passionate defender of a pork-barrel system on Capitol Hill that clearly played a role in the Republican’s loss of the House of Representatives last year. Lewis constantly pushes the primacy of the "Appropriators" as being a cut-above other members, and rather infamously has opposed repeated efforts by House conservatives to push alternative budget proposals that would include across-the-board spending cuts.
That said, we were not only critical of Lewis’ retention in this key post in the GOP leadership, but we also questioned the wisdom of the House Republican Conference in electing as their leader someone, in Boehner, who was part of the leadership team that lost the majority. A number of Congressman shared privately that Boehner had been in the House Leadership for but a short period of time (he came in when Tom DeLay, in disgrace, left the House), and that he should not be "lumped in" with Hastert and company.
We’ve been pretty quiet on the topic since the leadership elections — after all, the decision was done, and we need to focus on achieving a majority. That said, if Novak’s column is correct, and if given a very real opportunity to deliver a knock-out punch to the ever-larding Lewis, and he took a pass, than John Boehner’s rhetoric on earmark reform is just that — hot air. Everyone knows that the problems with egregious earmarks in Congress are not going to be solved by increasing "transparency" in who is doing what… Oh, that helps somewhat in the PR battle. But transparency is a means to an end — the end being to put the kibosh on a parochial system that awards pork based on seniority and political connections instead of establishing objective criteria for whether proposed earmarks are meritorious. These days, earmarks have become a ‘gateway drug’ laced into other spending bills in order to garner votes for bigger and fatter government.
Jerry Lewis should not be thrown off of the Appropriations Committee because he is in the midst of a federal investigation. To be honest, I don’t know of anything illegal that he has done, and I truly believe in the notion that one is innocent until proven guilty. That said, Lewis should be off of that Committee because he is a disloyal to the Republican cause of a limited role for the federal government, and because of his support for a shameful and egregious earmarking system that 
has and continues to play a big role in the cynicism of the public for the works of Congress, and has played a major role in the GOP losing its brand for being the party of fiscal discipline.
As for Boehner, I guess he "owns" Lewis now. What does that mean? It means that fiscal conservatives all around America who have repeatedly voiced their concerns about Lewis and his big-spending ways need look no further than Boehner in looking for the responsible party. That doesn’t help our cause of trying to regain the majority one bit.
(Once again we offer the opportunity for Representative Lewis to respond, which we will publish verbatim.)
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