The Republican establishment is cracking down on all dissent in the party:
The House Republican crackdown has reached a new level of severity.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz has stripped North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows of his subcommittee chairmanship, just days after he defied leadership on the House floor by voting against a party-line procedural motion.
“Sometimes the coach needs to make a change on the field,” Chaffetz (R-Utah) told POLITICO Saturday. “He’s still a valuable contributor, and I really like Mark Meadows, he’s a good person. But I need to make a change.”
Losing a subcommittee chairmanship midway through a congressional session is among the most serious punishments thus far in Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) majority. Boehner and his leadership team have grown frustrated with Republicans who vote against the procedural “rule” motion. Those votes — which allow the Republican leadership to bring a bill up for debate and a vote — typically fall along party lines. But a group of conservatives has voted against the measures, mostly in protest of Boehner’s leadership. Republican leadership sees the move as unacceptable —akin to ceding power to Democrats.
The offense made was voting against Obama’s trade deal.
More:
Meadows was one of the 34 lawmakers who voted against the motion. Chaffetz said there were a “variety of factors” that led to him losing his chairmanship of the Government Operations subcommittee.
“I’m just going to leave it at that,” he said, when asked about the other factors. “There were a variety of factors, but I did what I felt was in the best interest of the oversight committee.”
Chaffetz said he this was his decision, not the Republican leadership’s.
Many subcommittee chairs voted against that resolution, and have not been punished. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the conservative Freedom Caucus, chairs an oversight subcommittee that oversees health care, benefits and administrative rules. He has not lost his chairmanship.
This was how Mark Levin characterized it: “Former Dukakis hack Jason Chaffetz blows out conservative from committee post at Boehner’s direction.”
If only Republicans were this vicious in their struggle against Obama as they are against conservative Republicans.