The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 2 of 3)

Already, Sununu fundraisers are saying that he is garnering strong support from national GOP donors and traditionally supportive corporate and industry lobbying groups. "They understand the stakes involved in the Sununu race and they want to build him up as early as possible, have him well armed and ready to fight," says one fundraiser. "Finances won't be a problem. But it's going to be a fight."

Right now, there is no clear candidate to challenge Sununu.

p> MINIMUM DECENCIES br> By now, most of the GOP staffs of committees and personal offices working for those Republicans who lost in November know their fate and are looking for new slots on Capitol Hill or in other parts of Washington or the country. But for many of them, the exit was far rougher, not because of Democrats, but because of their own party, and sources point to the main culprit being Rep. Roy Blunt . /p>

During the lame duck session in December, outgoing House majority leader John Boehner went to incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and negotiated what amounted to a severance package for Democrat and GOP committee and personal staff who lost their jobs due to turnover. The package was initially for two months' severance, but limited to leadership staff and some committee staff. That package was eventually expanded, and Boehner and Pelosi thought they had a deal.

But according to House leadership sources, Rep. Roy Blunt and a cohort of fiscal conservative Republicans scuttled the deal. "They claimed that they couldn't very well cave on a payout to staff and then look like hypocrites fighting a minimum wage increase," says the leadership staffer. "The problem is, we've already caved on the minimum wage increase, so this was just grandstanding."

"I can't believe our own people treated us this badly," said a staffer on Ways and Means who is out of a job. "We could have used that two months pay to at least give us a bit of peace of mind over the holidays, but they couldn't even give us that."

p> HOLY NEUTRALITY br> The Michigan Catholic Conference, the statewide leadership office for the Catholic Church in Michigan, has joined forces with far-left political groups that support unlimited abortion, fetal tissue testing, and cloning to support regulation of the Internet. /p>

topics:
Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Business, Abortion, Environment, Law, Immigration