Last week House Speaker John Boehner removed Kansas First District Congressman Tim Huelskamp from the House Agriculture and Budget committees because Huelskamp had voted against Boehner on key issues.
Specifically, Huelskamp voted against the agreement in the summer of 2011 to raise the government’s debt ceiling and took other extreme right-wing positions.
Three other Tea Party types were disciplined similarly. This week Huelskamp wrote to the speaker asking he be given his important committee positions back.
None of the four should have been surprised. Speaker Boehner shouldn’t even think about reinstatement.
Huelskamp should be denied plum committee assignments. Not because party members should toe the official line and banish all thoughts of independence, but because he is a danger to the Republic.
Our First District representative was perfectly willing to see the United States of America go bankrupt and be unable to pay its bills. He apparently thought it would serve his country right to be so humiliated and damaged by its own Congress before the rest of the world. His core beliefs are so radical that he should be denied any position of significance.
It was for that very persuasive reason that he was banished from those key committees and left to dangle until the Kansans who elected him find a man or woman to take his place who more accurately represents Kansas good sense.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
