House Republican leadership is in drape measuring mode, and has started the planning for dealing with their newbie members. They want to make sure that these new members, many of them teabagger insurgents, remain under tight control, according to two new Roll Call articles [sub req].
First, all applicants for staff jobs with Republican members are being urged to take an ideological litmus test.
The House Republican Study Committee is asking people who want to work for a member of the conservative group next Congress to fill out ideological surveys on the websites of two conservative organizations....
The links to questionnaires on the websites of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and Leadership Institute’s conservativejobs.com site, are pasted into the RSC e-mail. The RSC claims more than 115 House Republicans as its membership....
The questionnaire on the Heritage Foundation website asks applicants questions about their views on foreign, economic and social policy.
Applicants are then asked to “rate” their level of agreement with individuals and organizations on the survey.
Individuals and organizations listed include former vice president Al Gore, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Cato Institute, President George W. Bush and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
But to really ensure that the new teabagger rubes coming to the House don't make too much of a mess, they're going to make sure that there are grown-ups, e.g. lobbyists, in charge.
In anticipation of major GOP gains in next week’s elections, House Republican leaders have put together a list of experienced Washington hands to help fill top staff positions for the surge of newly elected outsiders.
Leading the effort are Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The leaders have put together a list of about 75 to 80 potential chiefs of staff, including current and former Capitol Hill staffers and lobbyists who have been recommended or have inquired about working for an incoming Member, according to several Republicans familiar with the document.
This is going to go over so well with teabaggie insurgents: “'You want to be sure that the newbies, when they hit town, do not necessarily bring their campaign staff to run their Congressional offices, because in some cases they are totally ill-equipped,' one veteran Republican lobbyist said." Ideologically pure lobbyists is their solution to the mass of yahoos they expect to descend upon their caucus next session.
