House Leadership Battles Heat Up-- Ryan's proxy Battle Against Boehner

A bloodletting inside the Democratic caucus was averted when Nancy Pelosi announced she was staying on as Democratic Leader even as Steny Hoyer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz agreed to a path for the psychotically ambitious Wasserman Schultz to become The First Jewish Speaker. According to the pact, he's next in line to Pelosi-- as progressives have dreaded-- and she skips over Jim Clyburn into some custom-built, specially-created Debbie position. And Absolute Corruption is institutionalized to the point where the Republican caucus won't be any worse than the Democratic caucus. Meanwhile, a senior progressive Member told me that if Hoyer ever becomes Speaker, he'll run every single bill through K Street, let his lobbyist whores rewrite them and that nothing of any consequence will ever happen in the House of Representatives. Sounds horrible, huh? Wasserman Schultz is even sleazier!

Meanwhile, a slow-burning war is breaking out in a leadership battle today on the other side of the aisle-- a proxy war between Boehner and Ryan featuring vaguely mainstream conservative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and off-the-rails psychopath extremist Tom Price (R-GA). Ostensibly it's for the House GOP's #4 position, the Conference Chair.

Boehner is officially neutral but privately supporting McMorris Rodgers. Paul Ryan, the returning chairman of the Budget Committee whose profile rose enormously during his vice presidential run, is asking colleagues to back Price.

McMorris Rodgers is the highest ranked woman in the House Republican conference, and a loyal leadership ally who has earned their trust as the conference’s vice-chair. A surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential run, she isn’t known as a hard-line ideologue but has cultivated a conservative voting record in recent years.

Price, meanwhile, is the favorite of the GOP’s conservative wing. A former chairman of the deeply conservative Republican Study Committee, he has been backed by outgoing conference chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (TX), who is expected to chair the Banking Committee next year.

Those who support McMorris Rodgers say she’s in good shape to win.

On Tuesday morning, Ryan sent out a “dear colleague” letter building support for Price: “I am asking you to join me in supporting Congressman Tom Price to be our next Chairman of the House Republican Conference,” he wrote, calling Price “uniquely qualified for the job” and noting that he was “instrumental in drafting our House Republican budget.”

“No one will work harder than Congressman Price at building a strong and compelling communications and policy strategy that reflects the will of our membership and the needs of the nation,” Ryan wrote.

The GOP aide disputed a key part of the case for Price-- that he’s more conservative. “That dog’s not hunting,” the staffer said. “If you actually look at the voting records of Price and McMorris Rodgers there’s not much difference there.”

Comparing voting records of Republicans is really whistling in the wind. They all vote so overwhelmingly in absolute lockstep that there is truly almost no difference between any of them, save the tiny libertarian contingent. Tom Price, more a radical than a conservative, has a 2.10 lifetime ProgressivePunch score on crucial roll calls. 2.10 out of 100 is pretty right wing, exactly tied, in fact, with another fringe secessionist and racist pig, Joe "You Lie" Wilson of South Carolina. As for McMorris Rodgers being less right-wing... well, if you want to split hairs, her score is 2.36, exactly tied with Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the Republican Study Group, which is, ideologically, to the GOP something like what the Schutzstaffel was to the Nazi Party in pre-War Germany. Why don't we just call it a draw and hope the ceiling caves in on all their heads today?

The only race that I'm really interested in pits progressive icon Barbara Lee against corrupt New Dem chairman and Queens County Party Boss Joe Crowley, who spread around over $2 million hoping to buy the post from easy-to-bribe colleagues. But I don't think that election will be for another week.