Rep. Renee Ellmers charges that the freshman class of House Republicans had turned into a "monster” during intraparty fighting at weekly freshman meetings, according to a new book on the impact of the incoming class.
The freshmen drove Republicans into the majority during the 2010 midterm elections, but also caused substantial headaches for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other leaders, some of whom, feared the divisiveness could lead to mutiny, according to a Washington Post account of “Do Not Ask What Good We Do.”
The infighting reached the point that the new representatives were shouting at each other during weekly meetings instead of exchanging ideas about how to bring conservative legislation to the floor, according to Ellmers’s spokesman, Thomas Doheny.
“You’ve created a monster,” Ellmers warned House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, according to the Post account of the book.
The Dunn Republican was among a group of Freshman members who met several times with author Robert Draper.
Ellmers has yet to read the book, according to Doheny, but he said the point of contention was over the most productive ways of getting everyone's opinion heard, not over the conservative principles that unite the entire party in Congress.
