By any fair measure, the House Freedom Caucus has seen better days. The chamber’s GOP leadership, for example, has been working on appropriations bills to prevent government shutdowns by largely ignoring the right-wing faction’s demands.
What’s more, the Republican Main Street Partnership recently made the unusual decision to go after a sitting Republican member of Congress: The center-right contingent agreed to support a primary challenge to Rep. Bob Good, the Freedom Caucus’ controversial chairman.
Complicating matters, the House Freedom Caucus appears to be shrinking.
Last summer, members of the group agreed to oust Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from the faction. It was the first time the Freedom Caucus had ever chosen to kick out one of its members.
But it wasn’t the last time. Politico reported last week that Rep. Randy Weber was pushed out of the conservative group because he hadn’t attended enough caucus meetings. If the Texas Republican wanted to rejoin the Freedom Caucus, he’d “effectively have to reapply.” Weber told Politico soon after, “This just isn’t the Freedom Caucus I joined 10 years ago.”
This week, the group reportedly showed another member the door. The Hill reported:
The House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) from the group Tuesday night, three members of the conservative group told The Hill, a dismissal that comes days before he is set to retire from Congress. One of the Freedom Caucus members, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal proceedings, said the group decided to oust Buck because he has not been a member in “good standing” and has not regularly attended meetings of the body “in months.”
The Hill, whose reporting has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, went on to quote the unnamed Freedom Caucus member saying Buck “hasn’t been with conservatives on several major issues.” It’s worth noting for context that the Colorado Republican’s last day on Capitol Hill is tomorrow — Buck recently announced his resignation — making it wholly unnecessary for the Freedom Caucus to vote to oust him. But evidently the far-right group wanted to deliver one final, symbolic rebuke before Buck walked away. As for the idea that the Coloradan “hasn’t been with conservatives on several major issues,” a closer look suggests Buck drew his party’s ire by acknowledging reality on GOP impeachment-related efforts. What we’re left with is a House Freedom Caucus with a shrinking list of members and a Republican leadership that sees the group largely as an annoyance. If recent history is any guide, this is usually around the time the faction’s members do something dramatic to remind the political world of their relevance.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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