John Shadegg For House Majority Leader

John Shadegg is the new conservative hope for House Majority Leader. Until Shadegg entered himself in the race, the contest was between Missouri's Roy Blunt and Ohio's John Boehner. Blunt has been sullied by the Abramoff scandal, and Boehner has the black eye of having passed out tobacco settlement checks on the house floor. (Not the image of cost-controls and fiscal conservatism I'm looking for.)

Larry Kudlow, writing in RealClearPolitics, says that

(h)opefully, Shadegg, who is not part of the Abramoff lobbying culture, will run on the budget-cutting proposals of the Republican Study Committee, in particular the RSC plan to end midnight "earmarks," which stealthily insert pork into bills without debate.

These earmarks are not only budget-busters, they open the door to rogue lobbying, where legislative favors are traded for cash. If the 100-member RSC gets behind Shadegg, it could win in come-from-behind fashion. This rebel group is full of change agents, people like Mike Pence, Jeff Flake, Paul Ryan, Marsha Blackburn and Jeb Hensarling -- rising young stars in the GOP firmament. This crowd, of which Shadegg is a longtime member, stands on bedrock conservative principles. They all deserve seats at the leadership table of high Republican policymaking.

A Who's Who of right leaning bloggers are endorsing the candidacy of John Shadegg for House majority leader. This letter, crafted by N.Z. Bear and circulating around the the hot right blogs, welcomes Shadegg into the race.

An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers

We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.

We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.

But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.

As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.


Signed,

N.Z. Bear, The Truth Laid Bear
Hugh Hewitt, HughHewitt.com
Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com
Kevin Aylward, Wizbang!
La Shawn Barber, La Shawn Barber's Corner
Lorie Byrd / DJ Drummond , Polipundit
Beth Cleaver, MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Jeff Goldstein, Protein Wisdom
Stephen Green, Vodkapundit
John Hawkins, Right Wing News
John Hinderaker, Power Line
Jon Henke / McQ / Dale Franks, QandO
James Joyner, Outside The Beltway
Mike Krempasky, Redstate.org
Michelle Malkin, MichelleMalkin.com
Ed Morrissey, Captain's Quarters
Scott Ott, Scrappleface
The Anchoress, The Anchoress
John Donovan / Bill Tuttle, Castle Argghhh!!!

The conservatives in the Republican Party have placed emphasis on three outcomes--national security, judicial restraint, and fiscal conservatism. We are working on one, we are succeeding on the second, but the third has been an incredible disappointment, particularly as we have had the numbers in the House and Senate, as well as the Presidency.

This can only mean that many of those that were elected to fight on these principles have either forgotten their way or were never on the same path with those that elected them. Of the three candidates running for the post of House Majority Leader, only John Shadegg seems to be of good memory and direction.