As you probably know, grassroots conservatives are up in arms over the fact that some conservatives Members were “purged” from committee assignments.

Now, it seems Republican leadership is aiming to make matters even worse.

According to CQ RollCall, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, “a staunch conservative who sits on the Republican Steering Committee that made the decision to remove the lawmakers,” is insisting that the conservative Members were purged — not because of their voting record — but because … well, let’s let him explain:

“What I tried to explain to them was, it didn’t have anything to do with your voting record, a scorecard, your work across the street or anything else. It had to do with your ability to work within the system and to try to work. And to be, I guess, constructive in things. And I said, ‘I guess you could say it was an asshole factor,’” Westmoreland said. “Now I wasn’t calling any member in particular an asshole, I was just trying to describe an environment where some people that you’re trying to work with, they just don’t want to work within the system.”

(Emphasis mine.)

Westmoreland may, in fact, be correct.

But was that a smart thing to say? (No, it was not.)