Missouri Rep Kenny Hulshof dumped from House Ethics Committee

LaBelle sends a link to a local story.

U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof issued a rebuke of his own party leaders this morning after learning that he would be removed from the House Ethics Committee.

Hulshof, a Republican from Columbia, [Missouri] said the removal came in response to his actions last year on an ethics complaint related to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Last fall, the ethics committee admonished DeLay, R-Texas, for the way in which he tried to persuade a fellow Republican to change his vote on a Medicare prescription drug bill. Hulshof chaired a subcommittee that investigated the allegation.

"I think it’s pretty crystal-clear that the decision to remove me from the committee was a direct result of my work in the last session of Congress where we admonished one of our Republican leaders," Hulshof said. "And I think that’s wrong."
  Columbia Tribune article

Too bad, pimp.

Hulshof's reaping what he's sewn. Eg., refusing to meet with constituents here in his home town. And I've heard that one constituent set up a meeting with him in Washington, and when she got there, he blew her off.

Ironically, Hulshof came under fire last year from a Democrat who questioned his impartiality because of ties to DeLay. Linda Jacobsen, Hulshof’s opponent in the fall campaign, noted that Hulshof had accepted money from a political action committee linked to DeLay.

Hulshof is far from a maverick in GOP circles. Last year, in fact, he served as the official Missouri spokesman for the re-election campaign of President George W. Bush.

But he has bucked the party on some issues, including a push last year to scrap a rule requiring House leaders to step aside if they were indicted for a felony. That change - opposed by Hulshof - was seen as protection for DeLay, whose fund-raising associates have been indicted in Texas. The change was initially approved, but later retracted by Republican members.

Yeah, ironic. It's not really. He was trying to play both sides of the fence and got hung up. He was taking money from DeLay's PAC, and sitting on the ethics committee that was ruling on DeLay's unethical behavior; he had to try to make it appear his own ability to pass judgment wasn't compromised - which, of course, it was, by virtue of accepting money from the PAC - by opposing something that wasn't going to fly anyway and not appear to be protecting his benefactor. Hard to play the ethics game when you're as ethically challenged as our dear Representative Hulshof.

Far from a maverick is right. He's a toadie. A scum-sucking toadie.

Yeah. Here's another good one...Hulshof representing his constituents again....

Republicans shoot down plan to help family farmers: Shoemyer’s proposals to allow soybean farmers to keep excess seeds for upcoming years is shot down by Farm Bureau, GOP, and Hulshof
  Show Me Issues article

But wait...he says he's a farm boy!

To the Editor:

I saw a clear contrast in tonight’s debate for the Ninth Congressional District: Kenny Hulshof, the slick Washington insider who likes to talk about his farm roots, and Linda Jacobsen, educator and businesswoman who is fighting for Missourians. Kenny actually said, "I don’t represent Missouri," in attempting to address the unemployment numbers for Missourians in the past month. "That’s for the governors," he said.

I think we need a representative to represent the Ninth District and Missouri - not Washington lobbyists!

In one of the closing responses in which Hulshof was to present his views on what he thought of the divisions in America, he referred to the fact that the two most popular movies in America in the past several months have been "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "The Passion of the Christ." He expected us to draw the conclusion that good Christians are on one side and Democrats on the other.

[...]

I think it is time for Kenny to pawn his $1,200 suit and spend some time getting to know the farm he owns.
  Letter to the editor: Columbia Tribune

Bush Wannabe Hulshof
Caption: Bob Pemberton, left, and Kenny Hulshof check a tower on a center-pivot irrigation system in a corn field in Hulshof's family farm in southeast Missouri.

Now, let's get down to ethics...

Three of the five Republicans on the House ethics committee that rebuked House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have been replaced by conservative party loyalists, including two who donated to DeLay's legal defense fund.

[...]

House Speaker Dennis Hastert's shake-up of the GOP side of the panel, made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, reflects the annoyance of GOP House leaders with the former chairman, Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo. He led the probe of two cases that resulted in three public admonishments of DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

[...]

Democrats and public interest groups who had grown to respect Hefley's independence were angered by the changes.

"It is further evidence that there is a purge under way of any Republican who does not precisely toe the party line," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

About the contributions to DeLay's legal defense by two new committee members, John Feehery, a Hastert spokesman, said: "I don't think it matters at all. These are people who have a reputation for fairness and honest and they will do an excellent job on the ethics committee."

Hefley said donations between members and their party leaders are "not unusual, but I do think it creates an appearance which people will interpret probably wrongly."
  Houston Chronicle article

So next time Kenny, don't take money. Contribute.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.