Graves eyes upper rungs of conservative ladder

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | October 2, 2011 | Daniel Malloy

[barmag25]

WASHINGTON — A year into Tom Graves’ career in Congress, the time came to set his course.

By his telling, the Republican from Ranger faced an ultimatum from third-ranking Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy late this spring: Commit to McCarthy and the GOP leadership’s “whip team,” or side with the Republican Study Committee, which is tasked with moving policy as far to the right as possible.

Graves chose the conservatives. He described the parting as amicable, while McCarthy, through a spokeswoman, declined comment.

With the RSC, Graves chose conservative orthodoxy over adhering to party leaders’ agenda, as seen when he recently helped lead a campaign against a spending bill that he said didn’t cut enough. The effort helped defeat the bill on the floor, an embarrassing setback for leadership, though the House passed a similar bill the next day.

Graves cast the RSC choice as “putting principle over my own political career,” but he has an eye on a political rise within the study committee, which he calls the “conscience” of the GOP caucus, that could place him at the helm of the right wing of the House.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Good for Tom Graves. He and Paul Broun were the only two GA congressmen who voted agains’t the debt bill.