Foxx Hunt: Where Is She?

Don't miss Robert Novak's column today about the uproar over federal spending among House Republicans. According to Novak, it's come down to an auto-da-fe for Republican Congressman Mike Pence. I love that arcane term ... auto-da-fe. It comes out of Portuguese, meaning literally an "act of faith." It was used once upon a time primarily to describe the burning at the stake of heretics during the Spanish Inquisition. See, it was an "act of faith" for the church mullahs of that day to torch a guy who deviated from doctrine; it was also an "act of faith" in a sense for the poor sucker tied down on the pile of flaming fagots, to see if his alternate beliefs would save him from the fire. Usually not.

But back to the back-flipping House conservatives, 100 of whom have formed the Republican Study Committee. They absolutely HATE the $200 billion price tag (so far) for Katrina hurricane relief and have suggested very publicly a long list of "offsets" where spending could and should be cut. Virginia Foxx is NOT a member of this group, though she's been all over the press in the 5th District claiming how "accountable" she wants the federal government to be, and she was quick to sign on to a letter to Prez Bush requesting that he suspend wage rules and allow corporations in the hurricane zone to pay desperately unemployed people whatever the companies feel like paying.

Anyway, Denny Hastert and Tom DeLay and other bigwigs in the House Republican leadership, according to Novak, are administering verbal beatings to House conservatives who step out of line. One wonders about Foxx in all this, since she was one of only 11 House Republicans to vote against the Katrina supplemental relief bill, a bill which her Prez and her House leadership wanted very badly for PR purposes.

Where does she stand on the Republican Study Committee's list of budget offsets, principal among them the detested drug benefit provision under Medicare?

What tightrope is she walking, trying to be a loyal Republican when loyal Republicanism has gone completely 'round the guv'mint welfare bend? Will someone please volunteer to ask her office. For some reason, they don't return our calls.

Does she get a taste of the DeLay bullwhip? Might be, since DeLay is a big contributor to her reelection fund, and he's not exactly a man known for big-heartedness unless he gets something in return. Like absolute loyalty.