Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was right to publicly excoriate Democrat Congressmen Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell this week, while also defending his selections for the revamped House Intelligence Committee to the Capitol media.
McCarthy was "drawing a distinction" between former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., kicking Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., off every committee assignment in the House two years ago, and booting Schiff and Swalwell (both California congressmen) as they are no longer suitable for the powerful intelligence committee, Obernolte told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"All the speaker is trying to do is restrict [Schiff and Swalwell] from a certain number of committees," Obernolte said on "John Bachman Now."
"He's not disenfranchising their constituents. [McCarthy's] not saying they can't serve on any committees. He's just saying it's not appropriate for them to serve on the [high-level] committees for which they've been [previously] appointed."
Obernolte backs McCarthy's rationale for picking and choosing congressional personnel on prominent committees.
However, Obernolte might need some coaxing to support the constitutional amendment proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who's calling for a maximum limit of two six-year terms with U.S. senators and two three-year terms for members of Congress.
"I have a long history with the [term limits] issue," said Obernolte. "I served in the California Legislature during a point when we had term limits. I remember enthusiastically voting for the California constitutional amendment that created those term limits.
"But when I got to the Legislature, I found the damage that those term limits have wrought. ... Serving in Congress is absolutely, hands-down the hardest job I've ever done in my life. I feel like, that after two years, I was just now getting my hands around the job."
"When you have inexperienced members of Congress, that means the bureaucracy runs everything, and that's also very unhealthy. We need to have members with the confidence and experience to push back on executive branch agencies, to ask questions in budget committee hearings," said Obernolte, while reiterating that individual success in Congress only "comes with experience."
In the U.S., "we already have term limits ... because we have to go back to our district [every two years] and ask to be reelected," Obernolte noted.
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