Congressman Mike Pence must be doing something right. Gets taken to the woodshed by Speaker Hastert

Harry Truman said "I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell" when responding to a supporter's urging to, 'Give'm hell Harry'. Congressman Mike Pence should adopt Truman's response as his motto.

From: GOP in Turmoil by Robert Novak:

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Pence, a 46-year-old former radio talk show host from eastern Indiana serving his third term in Congress, is currently chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC). [See: Republican Study Committe rises to Tom Delay's challenge] He has tried hard to cooperate with the regular House Republican leadership rather than confront it. So, he could not have been happy last Tuesday when he found himself in a closed-door autodafe, with GOP leaders as the inquisitors and Pence as the heretic.

Pence and the RSC's heresy was to propose that massive federal outlays resulting from Hurricane Katrina be offset by reduced spending elsewhere. Specifically, they requested offsets to cut highway projects earmarked by individual House members, and a delay in implementing President Bush's new Medicare prescription drug subsidy. The negative reaction by the leadership was reflected when Pence, offered a seat at a later meeting, explained that he would be more comfortable standing because House Speaker Dennis Hastert had just tanned his hide...

Porkbusters
Katrina Recovery
Mike Pence
Dennis Hastert