2nd UPDATE
Three More House Members Feel The Lash For Bucking The Speaker On DOT Election

2nd Update at 3:31 p.m. adds sample comment from blog. New material highlighted.
1st Update at 3:10 p.m. adds comments from strategists, sources, bloggers, and adds some historical perspective.

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(2/4/08) Three more House members have been stripped of important committee assignments for voting contrary to Speaker Glenn Richardson’s wishes in the race last Friday for the 9th District DOT seat, won by incumbent Mike Evans. Richardson was supporting challenger and former state Rep. Stacey Reece.

Besides Tom Graves, who we learned Friday had been fired as a House “Hawk” and told to vacate his Capitol office in favor of the less-posh digs at the Coverdell Legislative Office Building across the street:

* John Meadows was removed as vice chairman of Natural Resources & Environment and as secretary of the Insurance Committee.

* Doug Collins was removed as chairman of the children’s health issues subcommittee of Health and Human Services.

* Martin Scott was given the heave-ho as co-chairman of the income tax subcommittee of Ways & Means and as secretary of Ways and Means.

We’ve also learned of some other positions that Graves has lost, besides his slot as a House “hawk.” He’s no longer chairman of the state highway subcommittee of Transportation. He’s no longer chairman of the education subcommittee of Children and Youth. He’s no longer chairman of the general health subcommittee of Health and Human Services. And he’s no longer chairman of the tax reform subcommittee under Ways and Means.

Clelia Davis, the Speaker’s spokeswoman, said Richardson made the decisions “and the House leadership fully supports them.”

Word of Collins’ removal was circulated earlier told by the Gainesville Times. He told the newspaper, “This is something I knew could possibly happen if I voted for Mike Evans. It’s very frustrating, but I felt the need to vote my conscience and my constituency. I made those decisions based on what I felt was best for this community.”

Senate leaders have been suggesting both subtly and not-so subtly that the punishment may trigger a backlash against Richardson in the House. It certainly serves their purposes to suggest that, since anything that might suggest a certain weakness in the other chamber can be beneficial in the usual game of House-Senate poker.

One Republican strategiest volunteered this comment this afternoon: “Once the Speaker banishes, attacks and shuts out enough of his members, they will add up to a coalition to replace him with someone who can actually lead the House. His governing by ego and anger only hurts the members of his caucus as Mr. Richardson leads them to defeat after defeat. It’s too bad because they could actually work with the Governor and the Senate and accomplish big things. What a waste.”

But a House source dismissed that as wishful thinking. "That's a small group trying to make a big story out of a small story. I don't think you're going to see that big a group."

Meanwhile, some political bloggers were going to town with the punishment story and, per their usual no-holds-barred style, being none-too-kind to the Speaker. Gwinnett County GOP activist Buzz Brockway, in a posting on Peach Pundit, wrote: "This is beyond embarrassing. We didn’t put these guys in the majority to pull this kind of crap."

And for a bit of perspective here, Republicans didn't invent retaliation as a form of political discipline. Democrat Zell Miller, while lieutenant governor, famously demoted Senate Rules Chairman Nathan Dean for voting against his wishes and Democratic Speaker Terry Coleman bounced Tom Bordeaux as Judiciary Chairman for dragging his feet on tort reform.