Justin Amash, Tim Huelskamp and David Schweikert are the focus of the fight. | AP Photos 'The a--hole factor'

Back-bench freshmen Justin Amash, Tim Huelskamp and David Schweikert are gaining martyr status among conservative activists after they were “purged” from House committees for what they say is a matter of sticking to their principles on tough votes.

But some of their colleagues say the trio got yanked by the leadership-driven Republican Steering Committee because they’re jerks — or worse.


In an interview with POLITICO, one member of the Steering Committee called them “the most egregious a—holes” in the House Republican Conference.

( Also on POLITICO: Booted House members complain to Boehner)

The argument: This went beyond voting records. The members who were booted made life harder for other Republicans by taking whacks at them in public for supporting the team, according to Republican sources familiar with the Steering Committee’s decision.

In a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Study Committee on Wednesday, Amash and Huelskamp argued that they had been unfairly targeted for their conservative voting records, complaining that the leadership used a “secret scorecard” to rate their loyalty.

( Also on POLITICO: Boehner: Scorecard not behind committee purge)

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a conservative who is close to party leaders, told them that "the a—hole factor" came into play in the Steering decision.

“He said that it had nothing to do with their voting record, a scorecard, or their actions across the street [meaning fundraising],” Westmoreland spokeswoman Leslie Shedd told POLITICO. “It had to do with their inability to work with other members, which some people might refer to as the a—hole factor.”

Shedd said her boss didn’t intend to call anyone a name and acknowledged later to her that “perhaps he should have said obstinate factor instead and wanted me to reiterate that he did not and would not call another member of Congress an a—hole.”

Huelskamp called it a “typical Backroom deal.” When asked why other conservatives didn’t suffer the same fate, he said “ask John Boehner, he’s the one in the room. Ask Kevin McCarthy, he’s the one with the scorecard.”

“The purge” has gained mythic status in conservative circles, a sign to some that Republican leaders are so detached from the base that they are anxious to punish anyone who points it out.

( Also on POLITICO: Right ballistic over John Boehner ‘purge’)

The fight has obscured an important shift in insider House politics, as these were the first members pulled off committees as punishment for political or personality reasons in nearly two decades. Even Tom DeLay, the fearsome majority leader known for hardball tactics, drew the line there.

By exacting retribution, party leaders sent a strong message to the Republican rank and file that they won’t tolerate members of the conference attacking each other in public. That’s a welcome message for some lawmakers who had urged leaders to attach consequences to working against the goals of the party.

The narrative picked up steam not only among conservative activists, including the Club for Growth, but also in the mainstream media. The Washington Post published a story Wednesday suggesting that Boehner’s hand has been strengthened in fiscal cliff negotiations because cowed freshmen aren’t standing up to him this time around. The three main lawmakers booted from their committees have done rounds of TV interviews, and Schweikert, who beat former Vice President Dan Quayle’s son in a contentious primary this year, wrote about the episode in The Washington Times this week.

A fourth Republican, veteran North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones, was kicked off Financial Services, as well. Despite splitting from his party on the Iraq war and many other matters, Jones is well-liked, and some who side with the ousted members have posited that his dismissal was a bit of a decoy so that it wouldn’t look like the freshman class had been unfairly targeted.

Republicans who side with leadership note that plenty of conservatives kept their committee posts, chairmanships and subcommittee chairmanships. They also point to the elevation of iconoclastic conservative Mick Mulvaney to the Financial Services panel as evidence that ideology wasn’t the key determinant in the decision-making process.

One place where the conservatives are clearly right: Party leaders did prepare a list of members’ votes for consideration when they made committee assignments for all members of the conference. The spreadsheet, which the conservatives call a “secret scorecard” is no more sinister than a compilation of public records. But it has become a central point of contention, as the lawmakers who lost out have demanded that leadership turn it over. That hasn’t happened yet, as the Steering Committee generally tries to keep its deliberations secret.

Ironically, a leading force in promoting the cause of the purged conservatives is the anti-tax Club for Growth, which compiles scorecards and spends millions of dollars each cycle to try to oust moderates in Republican primaries.

Amash of Michigan and Huelskamp of Kansas were plucked from the Budget Committee after having voted against Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget blueprint, which is considered to be something of a holy document by many fiscal conservatives. Ryan, who sits on the Steering Committee, hasn’t raised a stink, and it’s unlikely that they would have been removed if he had fought for them.

Schweikert of Arizona and Jones were taken off Financial Services, where Jeb Hensarling, a former head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, is the new chairman. Hensarling argued for retaining them, one source told POLITICO.

It has been years since anyone lost a committee assignment for anything other than a breach of legal or ethical standards. The last similar case came eight years ago, when Rep. Chris Smith, then the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, was denied another term with the gavel after repeated run-ins with then-Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

But for months, the Steering Committee members and other lawmakers have been discussing whether recalcitrance — or sabotage — should be punished by the loss of a committee assignment, according to GOP sources. The panel, which is headed by Boehner, includes a cross-section of other party leaders, committee chairmen and representatives from several regions of the country. It is responsible for picking which committees each Republican member serves on and selecting chairmen.

Part of the reason for the talk of stripping committee assignments is that earmarks have been banned. Without that carrot, the stick of conditional committee service has been an increasingly appealing tool to foster unity.

“The guys who are taking heat for taking tough votes back home don’t understand why there aren’t consequences for people who don’t do the same thing,” explained one leadership aide.

Each committee’s roster was discussed separately, meaning that the two members removed from Financial Services — Schweikert and Jones — came up first. But Steering Committee members insist that the lawmakers who were booted went above and beyond simply voting against, or even speaking against, the party leadership.

Schweikert’s colleagues believe — fairly or not — that he was the source of a POLITICO story that revealed lawmakers and aides had jumped into the Sea of Galilee on a trip to Israel. Schweikert has publicly deniedthat he was the source and one of the reporters on the story confirmed that he was not the source on television.

“I promised my constituents I would do everything I could to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington, and that is what I did,” Schweikert wrote in The Washington Times this week. “I am proud of these votes, even though they cost me a seat on the Financial Services Committee. I am proud to vote my conscience and to stand up for the conservative principles I campaigned on. Given a choice, I would do it all over again.”

Amash had publicly attacked fellow Republicans on Facebook and Twitter, a social media penchant that has made him less popular with his colleagues.

Huelskamp was also booted from the Agriculture Committee. Republican sources say he has gone out of his way to point out perceived shortcomings of his fellow Kansans back home. One member of that delegation, Lynn Jenkins, was just elected to the GOP leadership and sits on Steering.

Boehner actually put the brakes on a bum’s rush by rank-and-file members of the Steering Committee at one point. When discussion over their fate reached a fever pitch inside the room, according to sourcesfamiliar with the deliberations, Boehner tabled the discussion so that his colleagues could cool off. When they returned to the matter, they were still steamed enough to take the extreme action of removing members from their committees.