Demo takeover will impact Utah delegation

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

(Deseret Morning News)

Deseret Morning News, Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Demo takeover will impact Utah delegation

By Suzanne Struglinski
Deseret Morning News

The Democrats won the House Tuesday, putting Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in an unfamiliar position — the House majority — with election results too close to call to determine whether the Democrats would also control the Senate.

Landslide winner Jim Matheson, joined by supporters, speaks at the Utah State Democratic headquarters on election night.

Keith Johnson, Deseret Morning News

The House takeover will at least require a new leadership team — likely to be headed by California Democrat Nancy Pelosi — and a reshuffling of committee assignments.

But some Republicans fear impeachment proceedings for President Bush could not be far off.

If the Republicans keep control of the Senate, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, will help set the Republicans' agenda in the Senate under new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. If not, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will lead the Democrats in the Senate, with Bennett helping McConnell adjust to life in the minority.

"It's depressing to see the House shift to the Democrats' control," said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. "It is a lot harder being in the minority."

With the Republicans out of the majority in the House, Cannon will lose his chairmanship of a House Judiciary subcommittee, but he expects to continue serving on the House Judiciary and House Government Reform Committee, "which are going to be two nasty committees," he said.

The House Judiciary Committee would handle impeachment proceedings, and the House Government Reform Committee, which will "probably have a raft of nasty investigations" under presumptive chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

"I suspect that I will be on both of those committees as a go-to guy," Cannon said. "That's going to be a harsh and ugly environment."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he does not think the Democrats would resort to impeachment, saying he believes they know they would look horrible if they did.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is on the House Rules Committee, which controls amendments and considers every piece of legislation that goes to the House floor. The majority party generally holds more seats on the committee, so Bishop's seat may not be there during the next session, but nothing is certain.

Bishop said he has "had a good relationship with Democratic leaders, so personally I'll be OK" but that the Democrat take-over "is a negative situation for the nation and Utah."

"Nancy Pelosi's agenda is something that is out of step with Utah," Bishop said. "With split government, in the worse-case scenarios, the president still has a veto. So that means nothing too bad can happen. The only caveat area are tax increases."

Matheson credits moderate Democrats, known as the Blue Dogs, with the takeover and points out that is it not just going to be Pelosi, a more liberal Democrat, leading the House, but all levels of Democrats.

He hopes to stay on the Transportation, Science and Financial Services committees, which he says "are all good for Utah." With his fourth term, he does not have enough seniority on any committee for a chairmanship.

Bennett said he has heard from Democratic friends that Pelosi is going to "be very civil."

"She would be very smart if she were," Bennett said. "I think one of the reasons the Republicans lost the House was because of Delay (and other Republican leaders) ... whose actions stemmed from the attitude that the majority was a God-given right. The Democrats need to understand that their majority is not a God-given right, either. The best thing they can do is act like grown-ups and show a contrast to the kinds of things we have seen in the House."

Bennett said the Democrats need to avoid the temptation of impeachment proceedings, revenge or an overall "we are going to get those Republicans" attitude.

"If they do that the country will suffer, and they will lose their majority in 2008," Bennett said.

Bennett serves as the Senate's chief deputy whip. McConnell served as the Senate majority whip, but Bennett has been working with McConnell for the past four years to take over the Senate's top position when the time came. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., did not run for re-election. Bennett said McConnell asked him not to run for the whip position, which was something Bennett was not interested in anyway

"I am a policy senator, not a process senator," Bennett told the Deseret Morning News.

He said being the whip would take too much time away from his committee duties. Bennett serves as a Senate Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee chairman as well as chairman of a subcommittee of the Senate Banking Committee and vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee.

Bennett said by working with McConnell, he gets a seat at the leadership table. "Frankly, we don't know what the title will be," Bennett said.

If the Democrats take control of the Senate, Bennett will still have a spot in the minority leadership team.

Contributing: Lee Davidson, Deborah Bulkeley