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.
**There is more – click the link**
October 6th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Well-stated Jon.
When I speak to rank in file Republicans, and I mean good people who are not activists, they are very, very discouraged by the Republican leadership’s inability to stop spending tax dollars on pork projects and earmarks. They likely don’t even know who Jerry Lewis is or his role in Congress. But they do know they feel let down by the Republican leadership in Washington, D.C. even if they cannot name all of the names of those involved.
Therein lies a colossal problem I am convinced the House and Senate Republican leadership does not understand: that their rank in file members have lost faith in the current leadership’s ability to govern by applying Republican principles of smaller government in the decisions they make and laws they pass.
Part of leadership is making hard choices when you need to. It appears that Mr. Boehner and Mr. Blunt do not have the ability to make the hard choice for the better of the Party and, more importantly, for the country to sack someone who is so obviously a part of the problem. And when they fail to act and nothing changes in how the Party approaches pork and earmarks, rank in file Republican voters simply blame the entire Republican leadership – even those good people in the House and Senate who are advocating a true return to our Party’s guiding principles.
Bottom line – the Republican leadership in the House and Senate have a very, very long way to go to regain the trust of rank in file members of the Party.
October 6th, 2007 at 12:00 am
In other words, the leadership of our party hasn’t learned any lessons from last years electoral disaster. It’s business as usual. Thanks for nothing Boehner.