12/08/00 12:25 p.m.
Illinois Shuffle
Power plays in the House.

By NR’s John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

hree Illinois congressmen are in the running for committee chairmanships: Henry Hyde for international relations, Don Manzullo for small business, and Phil Crane for ways and means. So are they benefiting from the fact that the Illinois delegation also includes the Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert? No. In fact, word is that Hastert is quietly backing the opponent in each case: Nebraskan Doug Bereuter against Hyde, New Yorker Sue Kelly against Manzullo, and Californian Bill Thomas against Crane. In each case, the congressman from Illinois is the more conservative candidate for the job.

There's a pretty good case for Kelly, though it's a little complicated. Bear with us for a second. A lot of conservatives, and members of the house leadership, want to keep liberal Republican Marge Roukema of New Jersey from chairing the banking committee. The current plan is to help Mike Oxley of Ohio win that post. Oxley is currently fighting Billy Tauzin of Louisiana to chair the commerce committee. But House leaders want to transfer jurisdiction over securities from commerce to banking, making the banking chairmanship more attractive to Oxley. So Oxley and Tauzin both win, and Roukema loses. Sue Kelly — see, we haven't forgotten her — gets small business as a consolation prize for party liberals.

But what about the other two? The international relations committee has gotten embroiled with moral issues over the years. Pro-lifers want to keep American taxpayers from subsidizing abortion abroad, directly or indirectly. A left-right coalition of human-rights activists wants to eliminate subsidies for regimes that persecute Christians or traffic in women. Bereuter is an enemy of both groups. (If Hyde manages to stay at the judiciary committee, as he wants to do, the other candidate is Chris Smith of New Jersey, a leading pro-lifer in the House.)

Crane sought treatment for alcoholism last year, and some of his colleagues are still nervous about his ability to lead ways and means. But Thomas is quite abrasive, and he's responsible for what may be the worst political mistake the Republicans have made since 1994: including a Medicare premium increase in the balanced-budget bill of 1995.

Members of the left wing of the House Republican caucus say that it's important to have chairmen who can reach compromises with the Democrats. In many cases, that's true. But why should Republicans compromise with themselves before even reaching the bargaining table?

Inhofe vs. Ridge
In next week's Human Events, Oklahoma Republican senator Jim Inhofe volunteers to reporter John Gizzi that he opposes Tom Ridge's nomination for secretary of defense. Says Inhofe, "I served with him in the House when he was opposed to SDI — one of Ronald Reagan's most lasting legacies — and was opposed to aiding freedom fighters in Central America."

Elsewhere…
Ramesh Ponnuru reviews a Democratic take on the new investor class.