The new American gulag: Hastert & Delay tighten control of the House

By DOUG THOMPSON Jan 12, 2003, 23:00

House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert & Majority Leader Tom DeLay, saying they are fed up with independent thinking from members of their party, have turned the Republican side of the chamber into what some colleagues call "the new American gulag."

"The speaker and his majority leader are making it clear: It's their way or the highway," says on GOP House staff member. "You either join in lockstep with the leadership or you're out of it.

To drive home their point, Hastert and DeLay have dumped the traditional seniority system of the House, bypassing longtime elected officials to award committee chairmanships and other plum posts to party loyalists.

At the same time, they have rewritten the internal rules of the House to exert more control over committees and Members.

Recently, Hastert quietly dumped the rule that limits his term as Speaker to eight years. "It's a new American gulag and Hastert and Delay are in charge of the camp," grumbles one senior Republican member of the House who, for obvious reasons, asks not to be identified. "You either join in lockstep or you're on the outside looking in."

"It's all about power," says political scientist George Harleigh. "The Speaker has it and he intends to keep it."

As expected, Hastert's spokesman puts a different spin on his boss's actions. "The speaker exerts influence and is in a position to exert even more power over the process," says Hastert spokesman John Feehery.

House insiders said DeLay is the real architect of the power grab and Hastert is going along for the ride.

"Tom Delay has his own agenda," says Harleigh. "That agenda is more ambitious than even that of the President. He wants deeper tax cuts. He wants more curbs on abortions. His agenda is far more conservative than either Bush's or Hastert's."

After Republicans increased their control of the House in the midterm elections last year, Hastert dumped the seniority system entirely, assuming full control for appointment of committee chairmanships and insisting that committees elect subcommittee chairmans (traditionally, committee and subcommittee chairmanship were automatically awarded to the most senior members of the committee).

Hastert and Delay personally interviwed all candidates for committee chairmanships and pointedly asked each about their loyalty to their party leadership.

"They made it clear to each that their first loyalty was to the leadership of the House, not to their conscience or their constituents," complains a staff member to one senior member who was bypassed for a chairmanship. "We may live in a Republic, but our Congress is now controlled by a dictatorship."

Hastert and DeLay bypassed several senior members of the House Resources Committee to appoint Richard W. Pombo of California to the chairmanship. Pombo, a staunch conservative and loyalist, has a strong anti-environmental record. The move angered several rank and file Republicans on the committee.

The House leaders also installed Virginia Republican Tom Davis, a relative newcomer to the House, as chairman of the Government Reform Committee, bypassing senior member Christopher Shays, a longtime proponent of campaign finance reform.

"Yes, what happened took my breath away," says Shays, who expected to get the slot. "The seniority system in the House provides stability and aids transitions. Breaking it up creates anxiety and causes problems."

Davis has a different view. "In abandoning the seniority system, the leadership was able to ensure that it had its team on the committees," Davis says. "Chairmen are not autonomous. They owe their allegiance to the leadership."

Under the new rules, all committee chairman report directly to DeLay, who warned the committee leaders privately last week that they are expected to toe the line. Committees now will even be required to get the Majority Leader's approval for press releases and any public statements on issues before Congress.

© Copyright 2003 by Capitol Hill Blue

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