Dem who opposed Pelosi for speaker is blocked from Judiciary Committee seat

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Pelosi under presser from incoming congressional progressives

Nancy Pelosi apparently doesn’t forgive fellow Democrats who cross her.

On Tuesday the House speaker from California blocked a bid by Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York to land a seat on the influential House Judiciary Committee -- in what seemed like payback for Rice opposing Pelosi's effort to regain the speakership after Democrats retook control of the House.

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Pelosi managed to keep Rice, a third-term Democrat from the Long Island suburbs of New York City, off the list of her preferred members for the committee after convincing other Democrats to join the panel, Politico reported.

The move came despite the New York delegation's efforts to get Rice on the high-profile committee, which oversees, among other things, appointments to the federal courts and law enforcement agencies -- as well as impeachment.

The committee will be the starting point for investigations into President Trump, his business dealings and personal life.

House Speaker Pelosi on Tuesday blocked Rep. Kathleen Rice’s (pictured) bid for a seat on the influential House Judiciary Committee, punishing one of the leading critics of Pelosi who opposed her speakership earlier this month. (Associated Press)

Earlier this month, Rice – along with other 14 lawmakers – voted against confirming Pelosi as House speaker and instead proposed their own candidates.

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Rice had argued for a change in leadership and warned that returning Pelosi to the job she held from 2007 to 2011 would lead to Democrats losing the chamber in 2020.

“Many of the candidates who won us this majority … promised the people of their districts that they would support someone new to lead our party in Washington,” Rice wrote in the Washington Post in November.

“If — in their first vote as members of Congress — they fall victim to the pressure, intimidation and arm-twisting for which Washington is infamous, it won’t just be a broken campaign promise. It could very well cost them their seats two years from now,” she said.

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The move by the California Democrats to block Rice from the judicial committee was criticized by members of the New York delegation, according to Politico, but Pelosi insisted that the state was already represented well on the committee, pointing to two sitting New York Democrats: Chairman Jerry Nadler and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

But Rice backers pointed out that Pelosi was happy to recommend a freshman Florida lawmaker for a House committee that already has two Florida representatives.

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Another anti-Pelosi Democrat, Rep. Anthony Brindisi, from upstate New York, was also blocked from getting on the Armed Services Committee on Monday, further suggesting that the House leadership is retaliating against those who opposed Pelosi -- despite Pelosi’s claims that she wouldn’t hold their opposition against them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.