GOP strips 4 of House committee seats

Four House Republicans have been stripped of their committee seats after it was determined by the Republican conference that they were "not team players," a GOP leadership aide told NBC News. 

The decision made Monday during a meeting of the Republican Steering Committee strips Reps. David Schweikert (R-AZ) and Walter Jones (R-NC) of their seats on the Financial Services Committee, and Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) of their seats on the House Budget Committee. 

The decision to take the committee seats away from Schweikert, Amash and Huelskamp has transformed into a mini-battle between conservatives and the Republican leadership establishment, with Schweikert's office saying his removal was a result of his "voting based on principle." 

"This morning Congressman Schweikert learned there was a price to be paid for voting based on principle. That price was the removal from the House Financial Services Committee," Schweikert's Communications Director Rachel Semmel told NBC News in a statement, "We are obviously disappointed that Leadership chose to take this course, but Rep. Schweikert remains committed to fighting for the conservative principles that brought him here." 

Reps Amash and Huelskamp caught flak from Republican leadership after they voted against the Republican budget during a vote to move the bill from the Budget Committee to a full vote of the House. As a result the bill made it through committee by only one vote.

When the Republican budget was voted on by the full House, Amash, Huelskamp and Jones were among a small group of Republicans who voted against it, saying it did not go far enough to cut the federal deficit.

House Republican leadership aides say the assertion by Schweikert's office that the move is a reflection of his voting record is "absurd."

"These guys are clearly not team players. This isn't about ideology; this is about how you treat the people on your team," a GOP leadership aide told NBC News, "Paul Ryan is one of the most conservative-principled members of our conference, and he kept his committee assignment."

Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), responded by saying, "The Steering Committee makes decisions based on a range of factors."

Schweikert is known for ruffling feathers within the Republican conference.  In July, Schweikert was removed from the GOP "Whip team," which is responsible for gathering votes to pass bills, because he voted against a bill he was telling members to vote for, according to a Politico report.

The fight has spilled outside of Capitol Hill, with the conservative group Club for Growth calling the move "a consequence of their principled stands on behalf of pro-growth policies, often bringing them in conflict with the leadership of their own party."

"Congressmen Schweikert, Huelskamp, and Amash are now free of the last remnants of establishment leverage against them," Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in a statement. "We expect that these three defenders of economic freedom will become even bolder in their efforts to defend the taxpayers against the big spenders in both parties."

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Whoa!

Talk about a pity party... lol

Keep in mind the same bunch of misogynists also finally appointed a women to a leadership position after much public pressure!

  • 67 votes
#1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:32 PM EST

Two words: Republican Implosion!

This "movie" just gets better and better! Oh, to be a fly on the inside!

  • 70 votes
#1.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:34 PM EST
Comment author avatarFeisty Redhead Roselle, ILExpand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

These bloated, old, white clowns are about as inclusive as the Grand Wizard of the KKK enodorsing Willie's BBQ shack!

These people make me SICK!

  • 69 votes
#1.2 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:39 PM EST

Keep in mind the same bunch of misogynists also finally appointed a woman to a leadership position after much public pressure!


One
woman? Well, it's a start. LoL.

  • 39 votes
#1.3 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:39 PM EST

And only after alot of criticism and public outcry. I bet she feels real special.

  • 47 votes
#1.4 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:41 PM EST

Heh heh.... This is great; the teabaggers and the theoretically adult GOP leadership squabbling among themselves. The GOP got in bed with the wrong partners and now they found out it wasn't a one-night stand... LOL!

Gotta love it!

  • 72 votes
#1.5 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:58 PM EST

hahahahahaha

  • 21 votes
#1.6 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:00 PM EST

The Repubelickin Teabaggers put the woman in charge of the kitchen. A committee that she did even serve on last session. First time this has happened in over 150 years.

  • 33 votes
#1.7 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:18 PM EST

The trouble is Amish stands to the right of everything. Way right. Maybe even to the right of the tea bags. He is the very definition of a RWNJ and being in his district which also includes Grand Rapids and I think Holland we can look forward to no representation from this kook for a long, long time. There are more of them then there are of me, Gerri Mandering played a significant role in his election. Hopefully with the next census that will be fixed. Maybe they will replace him with Walburg, another kook.

  • 20 votes
#1.8 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:19 PM EST
Comment author avatar1funnygirlExpand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

Feisty Redhead Roselle, IL

These bloated, old, white clowns are about as inclusive as the Grand Wizard of the KKK enodorsing Willie's BBQ shack!

Bigoted, aren't you there old girl? And wasn't the Grand Wizard a Democrat?

These people make me SICK!

As you also do to others, you old leg-humping Creatan.

  • 13 votes
#1.9 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:55 PM EST
Comment author avatarkkwilsonExpand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

Siding with the opposing party has consequences.

The GOP is determined to fight for what is right for America including fighting the Obama failed policies.

We're with you all the way.

  • 3 votes
#1.10 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:56 PM EST

As you also do to others, you old leg-humping Creatan.

Back atcha.

  • 14 votes
#1.11 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:58 PM EST

1funnygirl - What's a "Creatan"?

If you're gonna insult somebody, you should at least know what word you're using. (cretin, maybe? or possibly creationist?)

  • 44 votes
#1.12 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:20 PM EST

Election's over - throw the tea overboard!

  • 50 votes
#1.13 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:21 PM EST

Rut-Roh ... looks like there is trouble in paradise! But thank God, the GOP leadership had the good sense to let Michelle Bachmann retain her seat on the House Intelligence Committee --- we'd have serious problems in government if the country didn't have her valuable expertise there.

  • 49 votes
#1.14 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:33 PM EST

Oh! Wait, feisty one! I'm unhappy that a Navajo-Mexican-African-American-Gay-Transgender person wasn't chosen. That is so exclusionary! (Some of you people need to don your "big girl" knickers!)

  • 4 votes
#1.15 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:45 PM EST

Well, at least, after 2014 democrats will be able to recreate the country in their own image. I hope it works out. It would be interesting to see how a filibuster proof Congress would work. I don't really agree with everything that is liberal. I just like to see things change. I like to see folks squirm. Democrats or Republicans don't matter to me. Let's just do something different. Anarchy or Communism or something in between. Let's just do something new and different.

  • 4 votes
#1.16 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:48 PM EST

@Pat: yes it's true that the GOP has learned their lesson from the last election about treating women with more respect. But the press conference reminded me a bit of a 1st season episode of Mad Men; with Candace Miller playing the part of Joan - the only thing missing was Boehner (as Don Draper) holding a glass of Old Grand Dad while he made the announcement to the rest of the "boys in the office." Perhaps they could have had Eric Cantor (as Ken Cosgrove) driving a John Deere around in the background .... what could be the harm in that?

  • 18 votes
#1.17 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:21 PM EST

Idiots!

  • 6 votes
#1.18 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:22 PM EST

Now if the White House can identify 25-30 more "moderate" type Republicans and pull them away it can effectively neutralize whatever advantage the GOP has in the House.

There's got to be a "reasonable wing" of the GOP now forming that is willing and able to compromise on the important issues.

One can only hope.

  • 28 votes
#1.19 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:26 PM EST

Go ahead, purify your party more. Your out of touch, far right stands on the issues is what cost you the election. American's won't tolerate 4 more years of obstruction.

Keep doing what you're doing, as I'm liking having Democrats have it all in 2014.

  • 15 votes
#1.20 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:26 AM EST

I have always thought that such purges can only happen in Stalin's Russia or 1930s Germany.

.

if the GOP leadership is determined to get on its self-destruction binge, there will be no hope. From reading this news, I am glad that there is still some common sense among rank-and-file Republicans. Political moderation is not dead.

Let's hope for the best for this great nation, let's prepare for the worst regarding the fate of a GOP that has been at the mercy of the Pee Potty.

  • 16 votes
#1.21 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:32 AM EST

1funnygirl ....

Your obsession with Feisty is getting pretty obvious by now.

you old leg-humping Creatan.

Coming from a sofa-humper ... pretty funny! When you find an original thought, well, keep it. We're used to your BS and I'm pretty sure most are sick of your Jen pic and your hate.

  • 22 votes
#1.22 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:55 AM EST

Yikes .. anyone who isn't a st8, white male, better watch out tonight. The crosses will be burning big time in Alabammy and all those other Bible belt states that constantly suck off the teat of the government. The GOP and the TP are going through a D-I-V-O-R-C-E, and it ain'ta gonna be pretty. You all better watch the latest installments of "Justified". Something tells us barns will be afire, crops will be torched, crosses will be burned, and the White Sale at Pennies and Sears is going to be a blockbuster event. Chamomile or Oolong anyone?

  • 12 votes
#1.23 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:55 AM EST

You better vote the way WE tell you to..... OR ELSE !!!!!! The Republican Party is looking more like the Nazi Party everyday.

  • 22 votes
#1.24 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:36 AM EST

I just love the response of kkwilson

Siding with the opposing party has consequences.

The GOP is determined to fight for what is right for America including fighting the Obama failed policies.

We're with you all the way.

They got rid of those congressmen because they were NOT willing to compromise with Obama. If you had been in Congress, you'd lose your committee assignments as well.

It's good to see Boehner cleaning house and REMOVING a few Tea Baggers from key positions. Let them sit on a committee where they can't do as much harm, like Agriculture. Boehner knows that after the Teabaggers force the country off the fiscal cliff, he is going to have to compromise on taxes and budget. That requires him to remove the Teabaggers from positions where their vote actually matters. After all, the president won re-election. Boehner can't keep things moving if he allows even more stalemate.

As for kkwilson... you lost another election... :-)

  • 7 votes
#1.25 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:53 AM EST

The Teabaggers are revolting! In more ways than one!

  • 7 votes
#1.26 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 4:07 AM EST

This appears to me that the "Traditional Republicans" are trying to seize control back from the TEA Party Republicans. Clearly they've seen that the extremists are negatively impacting their electability and allowed the Democrats to become perceived to be a more centrist party.

This is a nohing more than an internal power grab.

  • 10 votes
#1.27 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:44 AM EST

The fight has spilled outside of Capitol Hill, with the conservative group Club for Growth calling the move "a consequence of their principled stands on behalf of pro-growth policies, often bringing them in conflict with the leadership of their own party."

The Club for Growth...isn't that an offshoot of The Hair Club for Men? ;)

  • 9 votes
#1.28 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:30 AM EST

Yes sir! The tea party has caused the loss of control of the senate for the second election in a row. In Indiana, a very republican state, they threw everything they had at Richard Luger, a moderate, so he would be defeated in the primary by Mourdock. Instead of getting Mourdock elected, this very strong republican state, elected a democrat.

  • 6 votes
#1.29 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:39 AM EST

it looks as if a politican who can actually think for himself is not wanted in the republican party..it then has to be either the republican way or no way..which will in the end ruin this nation.

  • 4 votes
#1.30 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:34 AM EST

Wow! You just gotta love these euphemisms..." Club for growth"...whose growth? Not the country's.

"We expect that these three defenders of economic freedom will become even bolder in their efforts to defend the taxpayers against the big spenders in both parties."

I guess that would be the big spenders who belive in feeding and educating the poor children.And those who believe that poor women should have access to healthcare. What a bunch of neanderthals.

  • 5 votes
#1.31 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:41 AM EST

Ah good, the purges have begun. It was bound to happen as the GOP does everything it can to mimic Hitler's rise to power in the 1930's. Too bad (NOT!) they haven't found a charismatic leader, like Adolf, to lead their party into the Third Reich of greatness.

Not "Republican enough" eh? As more and more moderates (read: "rational") Republicans leave the party or at least government, the GOP will drift more and more to the right until there is virtually no difference between their policies and belief's and those of Hitler. It's a sad end to the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower. The crowning irony is they still carry the torch for St. Reagan even though by their own standards he would be far too moderate for the party today.

Keep it up boys and girls, you're more than half the way to "laughing-stock-ville" in the state of "lunatic-fringe". Too late to turn back now!

Not to worry, we'll strip the rest of your committee assignments when we retake the House in 2014.

  • 6 votes
#1.32 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:50 AM EST

I think you read it backwards,skip. These goosesteppers were too hard core even for the mainstream repugnicans. They were told to go stand in the hall until they can play nice.

  • 2 votes
#1.33 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:55 AM EST

"These guys are clearly not team players.

Good!

  • 1 vote
#1.34 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 10:54 AM EST

Seems to me that Boehner saw these guys as a threat to his position so he cut off their legs.

But all those other theories are pretty funny too.

This ain't gonna be boring.....

  • 2 votes
#1.35 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 11:12 AM EST

Woody, you Republicans need to try to pull up your Big Boy Depends Pants

  • 2 votes
#1.36 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 11:52 AM EST

Agirl

What's "Sofa Humping" anyway?

    #1.37 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:29 PM EST

    Revolting is the proper word to describe Republican leadership. The party of Lincoln has seen better days. Time to throw Boehner, Cantor, Grover, Rush and Beck under the bus.

    • 4 votes
    #1.38 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:46 PM EST

    I don't think an internal shuffle of committee assignments are the point, when we have fiscal cliff worries. With the threats from the "hard" right against any Republican who will "compromise", you still have the tail (right wingists) wagging the dog (the rest of the electorate who want to move on). I spent my early years overseas, and so have an inclination to look at the big picture. We have a minority cloaking themselves in patriotism as justification for the economics of extremism, that has no rational economic basis. (This includes the Club for Growth, tea partyers, newly minted up and coming folks like Marco Rubio, Scott Walker (loves the cameras and sympathizes only with hard working volunteer pole workers) and old white guys like John Boehner, and John Kasich). What I saw as a political tragedy was Dick Luger losing an opportunity to stay in the Senate, even though I am not a Republican. It seems that the Republican Party will have to play out this trajectory before reasonableness can return ( maybe in 20 to 25 years).

    • 1 vote
    #1.39 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 4:34 PM EST

    TO: kkwilson who wrote:

    "Siding with the opposing party has consequences.

    The GOP is determined to fight for what is right for America including fighting the Obama failed policies..."

    The GOP isn't "fighting for America", they're "fighting" for the Top 2% wealthiest and are trying to burden 98% of the American People in order to spare "the few" from paying their fair share of taxes the way of the rest of us do.

    President Obama has the majority of the American People on his side, which how President Obama got re-elected.

    • 1 vote
    #1.40 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 4:45 PM EST

    To sum up: just a case of a-holes treating other a-holes like a-holes.

    That said. Bachmann/Cain 2016!! Let the Republickers roll out their best and brightest!

    • 1 vote
    #1.41 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:41 PM EST

    How about Bachmann/Palin!? That'll take back this country... you betcha!

      #1.42 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 9:27 PM EST

      60% of the republican party is Tea Party sympathizers or Tea Party Members. I won't be suprised if there is a third party.

        #1.43 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 9:38 PM EST

        Donner's Pass for the GOP. Let the feasting begin!

          #1.44 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 11:21 PM EST

          The GOP eats their own......that's why they lost the elections. Soon, after they drive us off the cliff, they will be the minority party, and then John "Toonces" Boehner can go back to handing out bribes from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House to get votes....disgusting....every damn one of them..

          Protect the rich!..........they'll need it.

            #1.45 - Wed Dec 5, 2012 12:04 PM EST
            Reply

            Looks like more cracks forming in that teapot!

            • 42 votes
            Reply#2 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:35 PM EST

            Or more crack pots forming with the tea?

            They won't win more elections going farther right. It's why they lost 2 Senate seats.

            They just don't get it.

            • 17 votes
            #2.1 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:33 AM EST

            Yet they kept the nuts out there like Braun on the Science Committee!

            • 8 votes
            #2.2 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:46 AM EST

            and in 2 years we will throw the teapot in the garbage! get out and vote the do nothing republicans out Boehner, McConnell and Cantor

            • 3 votes
            #2.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 11:19 AM EST
            Reply

            They want to work to fix the budget??? They can't fix themselves.

            • 29 votes
            Reply#3 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:49 PM EST

            Nature's taking care of it.

            Which explains all the Viagra prescriptions.

            She's taking care of the GOP ranks, too. How many of these old coots do you think will even make it to the next election?

            • 17 votes
            #3.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:22 PM EST

            Republicans = "if we just purify our party more and move farther to the right we'll win"

            Please keep this mantra, I want the house in 2014.

            • 13 votes
            #3.2 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:34 AM EST

            Demoted for not being "team players"?... So serving the people is now a sport ?

            What happened to the notion of representing your constituents and voting your conscious ?

            Looks like we have more HOUSE cleaning to do in 2014

            • 1 vote
            #3.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:13 PM EST
            Reply

            Speaker Boehner, how about removing from the House science committee every Republican who has taken blatantly anti-scientific stances on the subjects of biology, geology, or climatology? Oh, wait, then there wouldn't be any Republicans left...

            • 47 votes
            Reply#4 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:52 PM EST

            you mean now they want the crazy people out

            • 10 votes
            Reply#5 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:57 PM EST

            The republican party is in big trouble and they know it.

            Its just a matter of time before it implodes.

            • 26 votes
            Reply#6 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:59 PM EST

            republicans this is what happens boner for voting in crazy people in your party

            • 17 votes
            Reply#7 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:59 PM EST

            Countdown to Inaugeration Day -

            Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president, was the first president to take the oath of office in Washington DC. The Capitol Bldg. was just being built, with only the Senate Chamber completed on the day of Jefferson's inaugeration.

            Jefferson was living in a boarding house at the time. And to show that our democracy was not like royalty, he did not take a carriage or horse to the swearing in but instead he walked to the Capitol, dressed in plain simple clothing.

            The path he walked to that morning is now called Pennslyvania Avenue. But back then it was just a muddy path.

            The Capitol Bldg. was burned down during the War of 1812 so when James Monroe, our 5th president, was sworn it, he had to take his oath in the "Brick Capitol" bldg, the site where the U.S. Supreme Court now stands.

            • 9 votes
            Reply#8 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:06 PM EST

            So what does your history lesson have to do with modern day Republicans simply being despicable human beings. (voter Suppression, misinformation, lies, ignoring facts, obstructionism, and fraud)

            • 9 votes
            #8.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:35 PM EST

            @Pat - I just marvel your sense of history. Would love to one day, have a cognac with you in front of a fire place and listen to you relate the tales of our history that you know so well. Cheers - and thanks for keeping the stories alive.

            • 6 votes
            #8.2 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:02 AM EST

            RedDev and Pat ... I want to be there as well! Pat is such a great poster of history and we all do need to remember it ... otherwise, it tends to repeat itself. Hugs to you both!

            • 5 votes
            #8.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:53 AM EST

            Layton - Pat has just an incredible sense of history, an incredible sense of mind. When Pat speaks, we have no choice but to listen. There was a day when the Pat, and an incredible sense of others gave this board intent despite the odds. What we post today is in honor of those veteran posters (and there are so many good ones to name ((and yes I tried))). The second group came out to continue and from them, us 3rd generational posters. Facts, figures, truisms, is what these postings are about. I'm thrilled to be a 3rd generational poster on the site.

            • 5 votes
            #8.4 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:36 AM EST

            Well Pat that is true, but you left out that the boarding house was just across the street on the SOuth Side of the Capital. Not many take a carriage to cross the street. Conrad and McMunn's boarding house which stood where the Longworth House Office Building Now Stands--he returned right after the inauguration to have lunch at the boarding house. Not sure what he ate! And that was before we had had numerous plots to kill our presidents. You used to be able to walk up to the White House and knock on the door, that ended after Lincoln was President.

            It was also 55 Degrees that day.

            They did not used to have a big parade either

            But Obama did walk a significant portion of the way. So did Carter.

            Bush2 did not on his 1st and since Bush2 was not elected he was probably right. He did walk some on his second inauguration.

            ANd when they do that it drives the Secret Service nuts.

              #8.5 - Wed Dec 5, 2012 2:36 AM EST
              Reply

              Once again the GOP is eating it's own. Too rich.

              • 27 votes
              Reply#9 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:07 PM EST

              Well, in the case of the GOP, you can never be too rich -- especially if you can get richer by taking from those less fortunate.

              • 15 votes
              #9.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:36 PM EST

              Would you care to explain how the GOP takes from those less fortunate?

              So the Dems are all saints? And all the Dems in politics are impoverished social workers?

              Do you have a f*cking clue on the subject to which you attempt to speak?

                #9.2 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:03 PM EST

                Would you care to explain how the GOP takes from those less fortunate?

                Not that it will do any good, but clearly one of the most disturbing examples is this last election cycle where we saw the GOP repeatedly scam millions out of their poorest members only to squander it on expensive consultants and a candidate that didn't have any intention of winning. Other examples are the Ryan budget plan/s that seek to remove services from the most vulnerable members of our society and the disabled while retaining as many tax loopholes as possible for the richest among us ... who coincidentally tend to support the GOP.

                So the Dems are all saints? And all the Dems in politics are impoverished social workers?

                Hardly; the Democratic party is as disorganized as, well a group of Democrats and is a tremendous disappointment to many ... but it's all relative and next to the current GOP, they look like utopia. The Dems have got more than their fair share of flakes, crooks, and just plain worthless politicians, but the big difference is that you can actually have an intelligent conversation with rational human beings at a Democratic caucus. Unlike any GOP / Tea Party gathering, where you either have to pay to get in (e.g. like my GOP representative's "Town Halls"), have to use all the proper code words from Faux Noise or you're branded a heretic, or most importantly have to have the correct "look" to be accepted. As you can tell, I'm not a fan of bigots - hey, it's just me, but to each his/her own. So no, the Democrats are not perfect, but they are capable of coherent thought and that's a huge step up from the alternative at the moment. ..... For the record: I'd like that to change and so would millions of others; the US desperately needs a strong, vibrant, Republican party that stands for it's founding principles ....

                Do you have a f*cking clue on the subject to which you attempt to speak?

                And why would you care either way? I'm certainly not going to lose sleep over your comments nor have you made any argument to change my opinions.

                • 1 vote
                #9.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 4:53 PM EST
                Reply

                Team Players who pay homage first and foremost to the Repub's party? Since when does being a Republican Team Player trump the voters? Republican's have stooped to a whole new low contrary to our nations founding fathers. These guys strong hold others into following instead of allowig them to be the intended voice of their constituents. I'd laugh if these guys changed political party as a rebuttal and became Dems a perfect rebuttal to those power mongers.

                • 15 votes
                Reply#10 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:08 PM EST

                I don't know about the others but Amash is not a good candidate to be a Dem. Matter of fact he is a representative without a party at this time. How he got reelected is beyond belief.

                • 12 votes
                #10.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:23 PM EST

                Yep. The repubs are the proverbial tail wagging the dog. The 'party' will tell the constituents what they want.

                • 9 votes
                #10.2 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:04 PM EST

                Before you hope to recruit these "miscreants" as Democrats, just remember that 'your enemy's enemies are not necessary your friends.'

                • 9 votes
                #10.3 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:06 PM EST
                Reply

                I mean when even THEY say, you're out because you voted your principles, and not the party line. Well, ya give 'em credit. They are out-republicaning each other.

                Quick, DUCK. Ther goes another flying tu*d. The BS reigns (and rains) supreme.

                • 14 votes
                Reply#11 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:10 PM EST

                If I'm not mistaken, these 4 are tea partiers. Now the Repub mainstream leadership has a bad case of buyer's remorse.

                • 18 votes
                Reply#12 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:12 PM EST

                Dick Armey resigned!???

                • 7 votes
                #12.2 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:29 PM EST

                Dick Armey resigned!???

                yup .. he wouldn't bend over and act the puppet to the Chinese gambling lords. I hear Adelson just got a couple billion to spend on the next election. Explains the look of pleasure on his face .. although I've always wondered if that pleasure is from the money or from bending over.

                • 7 votes
                #12.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:06 AM EST

                RedDev ...

                Explains the look of pleasure on his face

                How does a geriatric money-grubbing face-like-a-pig express pleasure on his face? His eyebrows move? ;-)

                • 2 votes
                #12.4 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:55 AM EST

                They might, but at the expense of being crude, his mouth forms an (o) : )

                Adelson could be interesting, like a Muntz of the 50s, but he has neither the inclination or the originality. To bad and so sad. We could use a few Muntz' in society about now.

                • 1 vote
                #12.5 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:07 AM EST
                Reply

                Lawrence O'Donnell tweet:

                In praise of Bob Costas tonight @TheLastWord at 10pm.

                • 6 votes
                Reply#14 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:19 PM EST

                Pat - ah, the good old days when we could actually debate the issues of gun control vs. the crap from the right wing like Benghazi-gate, Fast/Furious-gate, and those oh so delicate issues like bruising the GOPTP egos over spending (like they never saw a spending bill they didn't approve).

                • 7 votes
                #14.1 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:14 AM EST
                Reply

                Where's it written you reap what you sow? Oh yeah, that same bible that the Republicans like to thump. Well, they got their people in and now look where it's gotten them. Next head to roll Bachman? She ain't one of the good ole boys. Nearly as crazy, or possibly more so, then the Governor of the state I live in , Nikki Haley. Ya'll know, the one that gives us Jim DeMint and Joe Wilson.

                I love internecessene warfare. That's what makes the Republicans of today so fun to watch.

                Abraham Lincoln, one of the founders of that once-proud party, would hang his head in shame. Even Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower and most of the previous party leaders would be considered way too libeal for the party today.

                As for their hero, Ronald Reagan, he raised taxes a lot of times, 17 I believe. He was pragmatic, or at least his wife was.

                • 19 votes
                Reply#15 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:22 PM EST

                Next head to roll Bachman?

                Speaking of which (or did I mean witch), has that welfare queen ever come off the government dole? What did we pay her coffers in the last year for farm subsidies and child imprisonment? No doubt, in the thousands.

                • 8 votes
                #15.1 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:18 AM EST

                No, unfortunately Broomhelda of the North is still raking in what she can wherever she can. Let's count our blessings that we won't be subjected to Marcus and Michelle on Dancing With The Stars. Maybe she can use those subsidies to clone a dinosaur on her farm ... since she's convinced that we all lived together about the same time.

                  #15.2 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:27 PM EST

                  Lincoln & Republicans, bah. They haven't been the "party of Lincoln" for over a hundred years.

                  • 1 vote
                  #15.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:46 PM EST
                  Reply

                  Right now the Republik Party doesn't have a clear leader. This could get interesting!

                  • 13 votes
                  Reply#16 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:22 PM EST

                  I wonder how Eric Cantor feels about these changes.

                  • 3 votes
                  #16.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:10 PM EST

                  Pat, How silly. You know Cantor has no feelings.

                  • 20 votes
                  #16.2 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:01 PM EST

                  I wonder how Eric Cantor feels about these changes.

                  He suddenly doesn't know the price of tea in China. Now let's ask Cantor about the Hungarian right wing movement to itemize the Jews. You suppose he loves right wingers right about now?

                  • 3 votes
                  #16.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:20 AM EST

                  skip . . .

                  Right now the Republik Party doesn't have a clear leader

                  And Boehner is crying in his beer and Mittens is wishing he could have one and that he could have been the leader. Poor fella! No job to go back to ....

                  The times they are a changing ....

                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWdCKPtnYE

                  • 5 votes
                  #16.4 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:00 AM EST

                  Trust me ... Cantor has not a single human cell in his body. I wrote to him (since the IDIOTS in my district voted him in despite my vote against him) to complain about one of his stances and he obviously didn't even read what I wrote as he sent back a "thank you for your support" of the same position I was protesting against. If he doesn't have a BRAIN then he doesn't have a heart and without either one he has no feelings.

                  • 8 votes
                  #16.5 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:07 AM EST

                  @Cat: things could be worse. Last year I wrote a short letter to my GOP representative outlining why I thought he should vote against a particular bill on NASA policy and instead asking him to support commercial development of space technology on a different NASA bill. No reply, but 2 weeks later, I get this call from a survey service on health care. I'm not making this up - every 3rd question had the phrase "job-killing, socialist takeover of the American healthcare system by Obamacare" in it. About halfway through, I stopped the woman giving the questions and asked her if it was connect to my GOP rep. She said "I can't tell you directly, but what do you think?". So, we both had a good laugh and she continued to survey me; both of us were rolling on the floor by the end because this was clearly not a scientific or valid survey. As a taxpayer, I was paying for this idiot to trump up some numbers to support his biased position. Most of the questions didn't even have an answer for if you agreed with the Affordable HealthCare Act; just varying degrees of dislike or an "NA". It was completely juvenile.

                    #16.6 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:40 PM EST
                    Reply

                    Grover Norquist is the ringleader and he is not a politician. It's a boy scout club not for the common people. President was re-elected on his common sense views. GOP still does not realize this. Long/short term memory loss disorder. GOP is wacked.

                    • 25 votes
                    Reply#17 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:29 PM EST

                    Everyone must contact as many GOP senators and reps. as possible to tell them that the electorate wants them to work for them, not for the top 2%. I've contacted 8 so far and not gotten any responses. Do what President Obama asked for - get involved and let them hear your voices now. They are living in the bubble of DC and they think they are controlling their message. It's our message they need to hear.

                    • 3 votes
                    #17.1 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:56 AM EST

                    Exactly right, P/B/P!!

                    The people who vote need to take our power into our hands and let those GOP clowns know that if they want a job in D.C. after the next election, they had better get to work for the American people.

                    We all need to contact our representatives and let them know they are accountable to their constituents. They are supposed to be working for us, not against us.

                    • 1 vote
                    #17.2 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:59 AM EST
                    Reply

                    Remember that their Presidetial candidate didn't even write a concession speech. Talk about arrogance. And now the hens are coming home to roost, or at least their roosters.

                    Bye Teabaggers, happy hunting in the next election cycle.

                    • 20 votes
                    Reply#18 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:29 PM EST

                    Tea baggers remorse,,,

                    • 7 votes
                    Reply#20 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:56 PM EST
                    Comment author avatarMRABILITYExpand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

                    These people all need a bullet

                    • 2 votes
                    Reply#21 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:01 PM EST

                    This is as good as it gets......comedy at its best!

                    • 4 votes
                    Reply#22 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:03 PM EST

                    They were removed for getting out of step when they goose step marched.

                    • 10 votes
                    Reply#23 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:08 PM EST

                    I've said this before; the GOP has a problem. They gained their power by kissing up to every far right wing group in existance. Now, they can't get rid of them. Keep their racist, homophopic, anti-immigrant base, and they alienate everyone else. Abandon that base, and they have NO support. They tell themselves that it's not their ideas, but how they package them. Problem is, it IS their ideas that so repulse America.

                    • 15 votes
                    Reply#24 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:33 PM EST

                    Bob, you are just a bit opinionated aren't you?

                      #24.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:50 PM EST

                      No...not really. Opinion is factually baseless. Not the case here.

                      • 9 votes
                      #24.2 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:59 PM EST

                      Gotta love when a woodpecker pecks at wood and then asks your opinion about being a full fledged pecking hen on wood. So tell us woodpecker, do you insist on Viagra or is it an option?

                      • 2 votes
                      #24.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:24 AM EST

                      Opinionated? No, just a first-hand target of GOP hate. I work more than full time and go to school fulltime, but because of my payrate and structure, I pay no federal income taxes. So, though I work fulltime and go to school full time and pay all taxes I owe, the GOP says that I don't take responsibility for my own life. Their hate is quite ridiculous and that hate and bigotry is a permanent element of their party. America rejected, and will allways reject, such blind prejudice and hatred.

                      • 7 votes
                      #24.4 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 8:10 AM EST

                      Bob, to call the entire GOP bigoted, racist, homophobic and anti-immigrant is to paint with an overly broad brush don't you think? I grew up in the home of a Democratic county chairman. Because of his antics, I have pretty much voted GOP most of my life. I have also voted with the Democratic party on several occasions. Your comments are hyperbole. I paid income and other taxes for forty five years and the maximum FICA for many of those years. When your pay rate increases to where you do pay taxes, then I'll pay more attention to your rant.

                        #24.5 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 12:11 PM EST

                        Robert Warner........

                        Just which "ideas" held by the far right do you find repulsive? Try being specific and also point to an example.

                          #24.6 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:43 PM EST

                          Woody, it seems you don't pay any attention to anything your party says or does. Let me pick someone you might like, the Idol of your party. Why do you think Reagan opened his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi? He could, after all, have started it in the real Philadelphia, or in any of a few thousand other towns. So, do you think he was there seeking the votes of civil rights workers? Or do you think he was there seeking the votes of the racists who murdered the civil rights workers?

                          And there, my little beanbrain, is an example of a repulsive right wing idol and a repulsive policy he supported and continued and which is alive and well today. What do you think Donny Trump, Newtie and birtherism are all about?

                            #24.7 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 9:00 PM EST

                            Your two paragraphs make little sense. I voted for Obama instead of McCain/whats-her-name. McCain and I are roughly the same age, the idea of Palin, the squirrel, being president was frightening. Yes I am a republican...but I'm not stupid. You go on and be silly, I will watch and wait. (I also think "Boner" is a bit goofy)

                              #24.8 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 9:37 PM EST
                              Reply

                              Cry baby ann and mitt,,lmao

                              • 3 votes
                              Reply#25 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:35 PM EST

                              Mitt? Mitt who.,,,,,,,oh, sorry, you mean Rommel Robme, the man.

                              Mitt Romney:
                              A Man Without a
                              Plan

                              • 6 votes
                              #25.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:57 PM EST
                              Reply

                              Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
                              Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been.
                              You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,
                              Provided with toys and Scouting for Boys.

                              Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
                              What did you dream? It's alright we told you what to dream.

                              So welcome to the machine.

                              • 6 votes
                              Reply#26 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 10:58 PM EST

                              Ain't it the truth.

                              Pink Floyd Prophecy!

                              • 4 votes
                              #26.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:03 PM EST
                              Reply

                              There's usually a period of infighting after losing an election. That's no reason to think they won't get it together in time to make a strong showing in the midterm elections.

                              Though with an approval rating of 12% I'm sort of thinking both the republicans AND democrats might be in trouble. We might have a nice, fresh batch of politicians to abuse online. :D

                              • 2 votes
                              Reply#27 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 11:06 PM EST
                              Reply
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