The Republican leadership will decide on the next chairman of the Committee in a few days. The leading contenders are Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Jack Kingston (R-GA). Word on the street is that Rogers will select Bill Inglee as the Committee Staff Director should he get the job.

Who is Bill Inglee?

Inglee is the classic RINO who ran the Wednesday Group – the meeting of the liberal Republicans on the Hill. He went on the serve as a lobbyist for Lockeed Martin where he pushed for defense earmarks for the company.

To secure earmarks Inglee gave political contributions to leading Democrats include Jack Murtha (D-PA) and Dan Inouye (D-HI). In short, Inglee is not only a RINO, he is an appropriator through and through.

The time has come to reform and limit the appropriations process. The last thing conservatives need is an earmarking RINO running to committee.

Say No to Hal Rogers and Bill Inglee.

Any House Speaker hopes his committee chairmen and leadership team will be made up exclusively of hardworking, competent colleagues who share one additional attribute that trumps all others: loyalty. They rarely manage to put together such a team, however, for a variety of reasons. Politicians being what they are, allies are prone to putting their own interests first when the chips are down. In leadership elections, winners are chosen not because they are the Speaker’s favorites but because of personal popularity, competing interests within the party caucus, or because of pressure from outside interests.

Boehner’s challenges are complicated. The Republican majority he leads was elected by voters who really do want change in Washington and tend not to trust “establishment” Republicans, nor anyone with whom they are less than familiar.

In addition, Mr. Boehner famously said after the election that he and his team heard what the voters were saying and would act on the message being sent. That means House Republicans have to try to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare and really try to tackle the out-of-control spending that scared so many Americans into their first political activism. Granting an earmark lover and big spender like California’s Rep. Jerry Lewis a waiver so he can chair the Appropriations Committee would be seen by many as selling out the principal message of the election — regardless of how loyal to Boehner he might prove to be.

At the same time, it has to be recognized that congressional leadership and, now, chairmanship contests resemble club or high school elections more than anything else, and that the motivation of those who choose one candidate over another are often indiscernible to anyone outside the club.

Sometimes opponents are demonized or outside support is leveraged to persuade colleagues that those running deserve support. That’s what’s happening in the contest to succeed liberal Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.) as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The former chairman of the committee, Rep. Joe Barton (R) of Texas is trying to persuade, cajole or force Mr. Boehner to grant him a waiver of term limitations, such that Barton may chair the committee again.

Barton, as it turns out, has decided to portray his most likely replacement as a “part-time” Republican who would, as chairman, sell out the leadership and the voting public on everything from healthcare reform to cap-and-trade. His allies are circulating a 22-page indictment of Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) designed to make him unacceptable to conservatives — and especially to those conservatives who are new to Congress and don’t know him.

It is perfectly true that Upton is more moderate than Barton or Illinois Rep. John Shimkus (R), Upton’s main competition should Barton fail to secure a waiver, but he is no devil and might well make an excellent chairman.

Upton is no right-winger, but he is a fiscal conservative with a 72 percent rating from the American Conservative Union (ACU) in 2007 and an 80 percent the Congress before. He might not always vote with conservatives, but he’s a team player and “plays well” with the right. He’s voted right and wrong, but tends to get very high ratings from business and tax groups and mixed reviews from groups like the National Right to Life. He was an original co-sponsor of the ban on taxpayer-funded abortions, supports the repeal of ObamaCare and believes strongly that the solution to the nation’s fiscal problem lies in cutting spending rather than raising taxes.

Upton has cast some non-conservative and even goofy votes as a member of Congress and, even worse, is a Cubs fan, but his stated agenda, should he win the chairmanship, is almost identical to that being articulated by Shimkus, a good man who has also cast a non-conservative vote or two during his time in Congress.

What’s perhaps just as important is Upton’s experience, his grasp of the issues, his likability and work ethic, which along with his ability to bring others along could make him a valuable member of an effective GOP leadership team.

Members should remember that it’s the nation, and not their high school class, that’s at stake this time.

This article originally appeared in The Hill.

The acquisition process related to the defense industry is a place where both Members of Congress and industry lobbyists have made a pretty good living by sending pork home and enriching the underbelly of the nation’s capital in the process.

Exhibit A: C-17

The facts are that the C-5 transport plane is being modernized to supplant the C-17 transport plane at a reduced cost.  The Air Force has repeatedly stated that it does not want any more C-17s, yet Congress continues to fund new ones adding $1.5 billion to this year’s budget for five more, after it added $2.5 billion to last year’s budget for 10 more.

But what’s $4 billion among friends when your country has a long-term deficit over 10 trillion dollars?

Secretary Gates has openly campaigned against any new C-17s, stating emphatically that he will recommend a Presidential veto of any appropriations bill that includes new ones.  Gates has said, “The leadership of the Air Force is clear: they do not need and cannot afford more C-17s.”  Any questions?

And here comes the kicker.  Just the other day, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Inouye was covered in a defense industry publication stating more money would be appropriated for the C-17.  Inouye said, “Asked if he is trying to fund more C-17s in the fiscal year 2011 defense appropriations bill, Inouye replied: ‘I think the House will do so.’  Senators, he added, ‘usually go along with’ such action by the House.”

At a time when the deficit is exploding and we are mortgaging our children’s future, powerful Members of Congress continue to support defense systems that serve as nothing more than pork-barrel projects that even the military brass say we don’t need or want.

At what point do we ask, when is enough enough?

Rep. David Obey, a leading liberal Democrat and chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, intends to retire at the end of his term this year, Democratic sources said Wednesday. It is another blow to Democrats defending their majority in an election season of voter discontent.

Obey, 71, won the first of 21 terms in 1969—when a special election was held after President Richard Nixon tapped Melvin Laird to be his defense secretary. He faced a potentially bruising re-election campaign this fall.

His office issued a statement saying he would make a major announcement in early afternoon, but disclosed no details. The Democratic sources spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about Obey’s decision before the announcement.

Obey, among a handful of veteran House Democrats who had been bracing for competitive races this fall, has routinely won re-election easily despite representing a competitive district. He won in 2008 with 61 percent of the vote. But he has never faced the level of competition as he does this year as voters sour on Washington.

Sean Duffy, 38, a Republican district attorney, is seen as the favored candidate in the GOP primary, and his candidacy has attracted the backing of Republicans in Washington as well as the party’s 2008 vice president nominee, Sarah Palin, and tea party activists.

Obey came to the House during the tumult of the Vietnam War, when it was dominated by Southern conservative Democrats. He earned a reputation as a reformer over the years and is a longtime ally and confidant of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

He also can have a gruff, sometimes prickly demeanor and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

He first became chairman of the Appropriations Committee in 1994, and was a top architect of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill.

Continue reading here. The administration has resorted to sealing wax and duct tape to convince the public that the stimulus bill has “worked.” The fact that one of the bill’s ‘top architect’ can’t face the voters this fall is probably the only data point we need that the stimulus failed.

Half-a-million dollar NSF stimulus grant pays to search for alternatives to Facebook

Stimulus funds pay to create an online database of bugs

Stimulus funds to pay for talking buses in Ohio; Human voices to replace beeping sounds that alert pedestrians of approaching buses

Congressmen successfully pressure the Food and Drug Administration to approve medical device manufactured by campaign contributor

Spending bills stalled by decision of Appropriations Committees to withhold government reports from the public and other members of Congress

Political ‘scientists’ lobby to keep millions of dollars in federal science grants

Congress will spend more than $100 million to put sand on beaches