‘Everything Old is New again’… in politics just like everywhere else …
With Donald Trump doing a victory lap against efforts to kick him out of his job?
The hardRight conservatives are back in….
At least in some House top GOP slots….
Five years ago, the nascent House Freedom Caucus irritated Republican leaders to the point that some of its members got kicked off key committees. Now two of the group’s founding members have risen the ranks to the top of two prominent panels.
On Tuesday, the House Republican Conference is expected to approve recommendations from its Steering Committee that Ohio’s Jim Jordan become the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee and that North Carolina’s Mark Meadows take his place as ranking member of the Oversight and Reform Committee.
“There’s no question I think we have a little bit more meritocracy,” Arizona Rep. Dave Schweikert, one of the Freedom Caucus members who was once kicked off a committee, said of the Jordan-Meadows moves. “We just need to keep pushing to be able to have that opportunity to prove that we’re good at policy.”
Jordan and Meadows helped found the Freedom Caucus in 2015 as a far right offshoot of the Republican Study Committee. As the first two members to chair the Freedom Caucus, they spent the better part of the next four years waging policy and political battles with their own leadership.
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In the minority, Republicans have no control over the policy agenda, providing little incentive for such infighting. The Freedom Caucus and GOP leaders are both stronger working together to fight against the Democratic majority…..
image…Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., right, and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, greet visitors in the Capitols Statuary Hall on Jan. 25. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo) (CQ Roll Call)