Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
There was gnashing of teeth and wailing at the Arizona Republic(an) last week after the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, removed Arizona's Rep. David Schweikert from the powerful Financial Services Committee. See, for example, Other reasons for Schweikert committee move?:
Dave Wells, who teaches American government at Arizona State University, argues that Republicans engineered a committee assignment to ensure re-election for Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., a freshman congressman vulnerable in the 2014 midterm elections. To raise his profile (and his warchest), Wells contends, they cleared a spot for him.
Way too cerebral, professor. Tea-Publicans operate from their lizard brains. Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog posts about the POLITICO Tiger Beat on The Potomac report that claims to have the real reason Rep. David Schweikert was removed from his committee. It’s Not Your Ideology: It’s Your A-Holery:
[T]oday’s Politico has a piece by Jonathan Allen reporting that House Republican leaders are trying to tamp down rapidly spreading right-wing fury over a “purge” of three conservatives from choice committee assignments by letting it be known that they were punished not for their ideology but for being “a—holes.”
Yes, that’s the official term deployed by a spox for Rep. Lynn Westmoreland in explaining the punitive actions. An unnamed source [but of course] in House circles called the three (Reps. Amash, Huelskamp and Schweikert) the “most egregious a—holes in the House Republican Conference,” so this is a very precise message they are getting out.
I wouldn’t have thought a-holery was against House GOP rules or mores, but maybe there are limits, even in that community. Perhaps they said hurtful things about Speaker Boehner that made him cry.
You can bet the Arizona Republic(an) is not going to publish a story about the "a-holery" of their boy David Schweikert.
UPDATE: I stand corrected. The Arizona Republic(an)'s Joanna Allhands blogged about it with this softened headline. Is U.S. Rep. David Schweikert a jerk? | Insiders.