By the end of this week, the House and Senate GOP will have branded themselves in the eyes of many millions of activists, especially with the tea partiers hot-wired into the lame-duck doings and worried that all of their work and all of their money will have produced just another group of Beltway Republicans.
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This week, House Republicans will choose committee chairmen for the 112th Congress. As they do so, GOP caucus leaders and members alike should keep firmly in mind that Americans have given them nothing more than a probationary opportunity to preside in the lower chamber. Their mandate is to do what they always promised to do in the past but never got around to actually accomplishing — reducing the size, cost and power of the federal government.
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With earmarks shaping up as the first significant battle of the 112th Congress, lots of sense and nonsense is being thrown around about the issue.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, is always a source of sense on earmarks - and most any other issue, for that matter - has tackled the nonsense in a superb piece in National Review Online that tackles the major myths about earmarks.
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Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann has withdrawn from the contest for chairman of the House Republican Conference in the 112th Congress.
Texas Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling has issued the following statement on Bachmann's withdrawal:
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With the Republican party having achieved historic victories in the House of Representatives this year but Democrats still in control of the Senate and presidency, what will the near-term future of American politics look like? That question will be discussed in-depth today at a panel discussion featuring the staffs of the Washington Examiner and the Weekly Standard.
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Rep. Jeb Hensarling is the leading candidate to succeed House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, but the Texas Republican is no pillar of the Washington GOP Establishment, according to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
Speaking earlier today on ABC News, Armey, who is currently chairman of Freedomworks and a key leader in the Tea Party movement, offered these thoughts on Hensarling:
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Former Senate Majority Leader and chief cheerleader for the departed Strom Thurmond Trent Lott retired from Congress earlier than expected to insure that he could have an unemcumbered hand on lobbying his former colleagues. That was 2007 and you can read all about in The New York Times.
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In a conference call with reporters following GOP Leader John Boehner’s, R-Ohio, remarks at the National Republican Campaign Committee victory celebration , Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., laid out his agenda for when he assumes the chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, including reforming earmarks and investigating President Obama’s reliance on unconfirmed “czars” to run important functions of government.
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So, you're a congressman who voted for President Obama's economic stimulus program, Obamacare, TARP, and cap-and-trade. How would you feel if you knew a week before the election that two-thirds of the registered voters in your district want to throw out you and the rest of Congress, and start over?
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Interesting exchange on a recent edition of "McLaughlin & Company" when host John McLaughlin asked a question about the likely committee chairmen who would emerge in the wake of a GOP takeover of the House next Tuesday:
McLaughlin: As a group, how powerful and how tough are these Republican chairmen?
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