U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland launched a bid for speaker of the House on Tuesday with a plain-spoken reminder: “This isn’t rocket science, guys.”
The Coweta County Republican, one of five would-be speakers who spoke to a group of Southern Republican House members, laid out plans to be more strategic and aggressive in the quest for conservative goals. The reception was positive, and he left with a bounce in his step.
Two hours later, Westmoreland’s speaker campaign was over, torpedoed by the anointed savior, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.
"I'm out, he's in, brother," Westmoreland said as he emerged from the meeting in which Ryan told his colleagues that he would be speaker if his terms were met.
Within days, Ryan had wrapped up the support he needed. Because this is the House, there’s always the opportunity for fresh chaos. But ahead of the internal GOP vote and the public House floor tally coming this week, the skies look clear for the 2012 vice presidential nominee.
That left Westmoreland lamenting his brief run: “People were clapping!” he said, ruefully, Tuesday night of his Southern Coalition speech.
He was not the only Georgian elbowed out during the leadership scramble.
U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell Republican, had been going for the majority leader post. It was a close, heated race with Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., until current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy reversed course and decided to stay in place instead of go for speaker.
Georgia was deprived of a real prestige boost that could have come from having a member in top leadership for the first time since the Newt Gingrich era. Choice committee assignments and access to the floor agenda for parochial priorities could have flowed to the Peach State had either man been successful.
But as lobbyist and former Sam Nunn aide Bob Hurt pointed out, the real problem is the relative inexperience of the Georgia delegation — particularly its House Republicans.
The delegation has four freshmen this year among its 10 GOP members, to go along with one sophomore and three members first elected in 2010. Westmoreland and Price are the graybeards, each having been in Congress for a whole 10 years.
“It takes time to have committee assignments settle out and seniority build up again,” Hurt said.
Price, the chairman of the Budget Committee, is the best-placed of the state’s House Republicans. He is also the one in the best position to see his stature grow in a Ryan regime.
The two policy wonks are longtime pals who got to know each other through committee work. Price succeeded Ryan as budget chairman. They eat breakfast together once a week as part of a small group on Capitol Hill.
“What I like about (Price) most is he knows who he is,” Ryan told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently, while Price was running for majority leader.
“He knows what he’s trying to get done,” Ryan said, “and he knows how to work with people who do not necessarily agree with him, which makes him, in my opinion, a very effective conservative.”
Sounds like someone Ryan would look to put out front to help sell his agenda — assuming that Ryan wins the post and no more unexpected twists lie ahead in the speaker saga.
Perdue opposes sentencing bill
Criminal justice reform could be the last major initiative with a chance of becoming law in the Obama presidency, with partisan battle lines well drawn on most issues, and basic government maintenance and campaigning taking up the remaining oxygen.
The Senate Judiciary Committee took a step toward that goal by moving a bipartisan bill Thursday that would slash mandatory minimums and allow some federal prisoners to seek sentence reductions. It's a response to prison overcrowding and excessive punishment for drug crimes that lawmakers and activists across the political spectrum believe has gone too far.
But the details are tricky, which is why Georgia's U.S. Sen. David Perdue was one of five Republicans to oppose the bill in the committee vote.
“I’m unable to support many of the changes this bill makes to our mandatory-minimum-sentencing laws, as well as its retroactive nature,” Perdue said in the hearing.
“The first problem I have,” he said, “is that the bill significantly reduces sentences of violent, repeat offenders, not just drug offenders, including four-time felons sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act.”
Perdue and Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson co-sponsored an alternative bill that applies only to nonviolent offenders.
Vote of the week
The U.S. House on Friday voted, 240-189, to pass a bill to repeal parts of Obamacare, block funding to Planned Parenthood and install other budgetary measures.
Yes: U.S. Reps. Rick Allen, R-Evans; Buddy Carter, R-Pooler; Doug Collins, R-Gainesville; Tom Graves, R-Ranger; Jody Hice, R-Monroe; Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville; Tom Price, R-Roswell; Austin Scott, R-Tifton; Lynn Westmoreland, R-Coweta County; Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville.
No: U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia; John Lewis, D-Atlanta; David Scott, D-Atlanta.
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