Republicans Flee from Rep. Jerry Lewis

For those that missed it, yesterday, the FlashReport published an open letter from Shawn Steel, Chairman of the California Club for Growth, calling for Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis's resignation. Choice quotes:

On behalf of the California Club for Growth, we are asking you to resign or not seek re-election. ...

Essentially, your efforts to promote congressional free-spending ways led to the demoralization of conservatives and betrayed the GOP spirit of 1994. Worse than that, under your leadership you personally obstructed, a modified line-item veto, refused to support "sun-setting" useless government agencies, enhanced shameful "earmarking" or  pork barreling to historic atmospheric levels, as well as larded more spending into "supplemental" spending bills.

Remarkably, the letter does not specifically address the fog of corruption that surrounds Mr. Lewis, but we can only assume that it played a role. As the Hill reports:

Some Republicans are quietly calling on the GOP conference to deny Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) the ranking member position on the appropriations panel, according to three knowledgeable GOP sources. Lewis is under investigation by the FBI for steering lucrative appropriations contracts to former staffers, and many believe the party cannot afford to have another member of its leadership under investigation and perhaps indicted. Lewis has denied any wrongdoing.

The GOP considers Lewis a liability. It is very unfortunate that we didn't have a serious candidate running against him in 2006, but I suspect it will be on the Democratic radar come 2008.

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