Republican leaders in the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to strip Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ, 4th Dist.) of his chairmanship of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. This move, according to NJ's Star Ledger newspaper, was "prompted by the New Jersey lawmaker's failure to follow the party line and his insistence on increasing spending for veterans." Literally beloved by veterans' groups, many of which (Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of American, Vietnam Veterans of America) immediately denounced his ouster, Smith also was dropped from the veterans committee entirely--an extremely rare move in Congress--from a seat he has held for 24 years.
The full text of today's article appears here.