Center-Right Bloggers are appealing to the Republican community to support John Shadegg for Majority Leader of the House of Representatives:
An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers
We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.
We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.
But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.
As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.
Signed,
N.Z. Bear, The Truth Laid Bear
Hugh Hewitt, HughHewitt.com
Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com
Kevin Aylward, Wizbang!
La Shawn Barber, La Shawn Barber’s Corner
Lorie Byrd / DJ Drummond , Polipundit
Beth Cleaver, MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Jeff Goldstein, Protein Wisdom
Stephen Green, Vodkapundit
John Hawkins, Right Wing News
John Hinderaker, Power Line
Jon Henke / McQ / Dale Franks, QandO
James Joyner, Outside The Beltway
Mike Krempasky, Redstate.org
Michelle Malkin, MichelleMalkin.com
Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters
Scott Ott, Scrappleface
The Anchoress, The Anchoress
John Donovan / Bill Tuttle, Castle Argghhh!!!
The Club for Growth has also endorsed Rep. Shadegg. Here is the statement of The Club for Growth:
Washington, D.C. – Club for Growth, the nation’s leading free-market advocacy organization with over 34,000 members, announced today that it is endorsing Rep. John Shadegg’s candidacy for U.S. House Majority Leader.
“There is no member of the House of Representatives more committed to the idea of limited government and economic freedom than John Shadegg,” said Club for Growth president Pat Toomey. “To be an effective governing party, Republicans must focus once again on these core issues and John Shadegg has the unique qualifications to lead the way.”
Rep. Shadegg is one of only four Members of the House of Representatives to vote the pro-growth position on every key vote identified last year by the Club for Growth. To view the scorecard, click here.
“The House Republican Conference has been ideologically adrift,” continued Toomey. “This nominally conservative party is responsible for a huge expansion of government and letting spending get out of control.”
“John Shadegg is a principled, effective leader who can build consensus across the full range of the Conference to return to the core issues of limited government and economic freedom that produced a Republican majority in the first place,” Toomey concluded.
The Republican Party needs to remove from its leadership any taint from the Abramoff scandals and anyone who has even a hint of corruption. The new Party leadership needs to be squeaky-clean and an exemplar of integrity and ethics.