Off the Record

Putting Their House in Order. The first week of December saw the House Republicans vote on their leaders, little more than a week after conservatives managed a clean sweep of the available Senate slots. The top spot in the House, of course, was retained by perennial Minority Leader Bob Michel (R., Ill.), who went unchallenged largely on the assumption that this would be his last hurrah. The real battle was over the chairmanship of the National Republican Congressional Committee, where Don Sundquist (R., Tenn.) challenged incumbent Guy Vander Jagt (R., Mich.), whose 15-year tour of duty as chairman has been marked by ever-decreasing numbers of House Republicans.

Normally, conservatives would have been expected to rally round such a challenge, but in this case the budget summit intervened. Right before the final package, Mr. Vander Jagt took a number of hits from the White House for refusing to can co-chairman Ed Rollins, whose offense was advising GOP candidates to keep their no-new-tax promises. Shortly thereafter, Sundquist challenged Vander Jagt for the post, leading to speculation that Sundquist-formerly the chairman of the National Congressional Steering Committee of Bush for President-was put up to the task by the White House. That pretty much sealed his fate. As one GOP leader told Cato, “Anyone else but Sundquist would have beaten Vander Jagt this year.”

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Putting Their House in Order. The first week of December saw the House Republicans vote on their leaders, little more than a week after conservatives managed a clean sweep of the available Senate slots. The top spot in the House, of course, was retained by perennial Minority Leader Bob Michel (R., Ill.), who went unchallenged largely on the assumption that this would be his last hurrah. The real battle was over the chairmanship of the National Republican Congressional Committee, where Don Sundquist (R., Tenn.) challenged incumbent Guy Vander Jagt (R., Mich.), whose 15-year tour of duty as chairman has been marked by ever-decreasing numbers of House Republicans.

Normally, conservatives would have been expected to rally round such a challenge, but in this case the budget summit intervened. Right before the final package, Mr. Vander Jagt took a number of hits from the White House for refusing to can co-chairman Ed Rollins, whose offense was advising GOP candidates to keep their no-new-tax promises. Shortly thereafter, Sundquist challenged Vander Jagt for the post, leading to speculation that Sundquist-formerly the chairman of the National Congressional Steering Committee of Bush for President-was put up to the task by the White House. That pretty much sealed his fate. As one GOP leader told Cato, “Anyone else but Sundquist would have beaten Vander Jagt this year.”