Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) would like to become the next chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, a body that has launched many an ambitious pol to higher GOP leadership in the House. And he wants tea partiers to help him get there.
Gohmert is a tea party kind of guy. A staple of their rallies, he voted against every stimulus and bailout proposal brought to the House floor when the economy was in a tailspin, making him a fiscal conservative rock star in tea partiers' eyes. He's also a colorful fellow, famous for his attacks on illegal aliens, as well as his suggestion that pregnant Arab women were seeking visas to come to the US to give birth to "terror babies." Last year, at a tea party rally on Capitol Hill to protest the health care bill, Gohmert fired up the crowd, declaring, "I've brought an abortion to show you." He then went on to wave a copy of the health care reform bill in the air.
Tea partiers like the idea of Gohmert heading the Republican Study Committee (RSC), where he's promised to serve as a watchdog of his party. Most House Republicans, however, are less excited by the idea of giving the chairmanship to a guy who once protested US funding for the protection of rare dogs and cats in China by saying that there was no guarantee they wouldn't be turned into "moo goo dog pan"—and who has co-sponsored a bill demanding that all presidential candidates prove their citizenship before running for office.
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