Barton's Bid For House Commerce Gavel Gets Boon From Colleagues

In the latest salvo of the battle for the gavel of the powerful House Commerce Committee, Republican members of the House wrote their fellow colleagues to support Rep Joe Barton's (R-TX) bid for chairmanship.

Reps Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and John Shimkus (R-IL), two of the signatories, had previously been identified as candidates for the position but have now made their deference to Rep Barton formal. Other lawmakers signing the letter are Reps. Ralph Hall (R-TX), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Lee Terry (R-NE), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Steve Scalise (R-LA).

"Under Joe's leadership, and despite being outnumbered and outgunned, we subjected the Democrats' health bill to 17 days of brutal markup, including a 10-day retreat by the Democrats to regroup despite their overwhelming superiority of numbers," the letter states. Democrats "won, but it was stubborn, intelligent Joe Barton who made certain that they'd won a Pyrrhic victory."

The letter also pointed to Barton's pushback on cap-and-trade and credited him with killing current Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman's network neutrality bill.