I took great delight in this blog from the Washington Post. The House GOP leaders....how the mighty have fallen. To think that the very inadequate, totally annoying Adam Putnam is now 3rd in leadership gives me both anger and delight...because they are having to stoop that low.
The House GOP Leaders' Precipitous FallThe dissolution of a once proud House Republican leadership team is near complete.
Dennis Hastert (Ill.), the affable wrestling-coach-turned-House-speaker, and Deborah Pryce (Ohio), the former head of the GOP Conference, both announced this week that they do not plan to stand for reelection next year, ending political careers that total more than 36 years combined.
..."Of the top six GOP leaders from the last Congress, only Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.) remains in a leadership position. It's impossible to overstate how strong willed that leadership team was. Two years ago this week, in a swan song story for our alma mater, Roll Call, The Fix wrote a story headlined, ""GOP Claiming Big Momentum." (Subscription required.) The House had passed a series of bills in late July, including the Central American trade package and an energy bill. Hastert's main ally on K Street, Dan Mattoon, boldly predicted that the chamber would definitely pass "some vehicle" for President Bush's Social Security reform plan. Even the Senate Republicans had reason to crow as Democrats were already signaling they approved of Bush's first Supreme Court choice, soon-to-be-Chief Justice John Roberts.
Politically, the House GOP's campaign arm -- the National Republican Congressional Committee -- had raised $40 million in the first six months of 2005 and was sitting atop $16.4 million cash on hand. Its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was much poorer, boasting just $8.5 million in its coffers and another $3.7 million in debt.
Flash forward two years: The DCCC raised more than $36 million in the first six months of 2007 and has $19.5 million on hand, while the NRCC raised less than $30 million and burned through most of its cash trying to pay off debt from the 2006 elections, leaving it with just $2 million in its bank account.
Then he posts about Hastert, Pryce, Delay, Blunt, Kingston.
Rather than face a rematch against Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, Pryce announced her retirement today. Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), who turned 33, succeeded Pryce as conference chair with the start of the 110th Congress.