Congressmen pay the price for lofty position

While Congressman Jim Nussle of Manchester is in as the new chairman of the House Budget Committee, Congressman Jim Leach of Davenport is no longer a committee chairman. Leach was chairman of the House Banking Committee for the past six years, but when the G-O-P took over Congress in 1994, the party installed six-year term limits on those top committee posts. Leach hoped to be named the new chair of the House International Relations Committee, but that job went to Henry Hyde of Illinois. A “Center for Responsive Politics” analysis of House members vying to lead committees suggested Leach had little chance of winning the post based on a “party-loyalty test”. Leach gave no money to other Republicans running for Congress. By comparison, Hyde gave over 100-thousand to the G-O-P cause, as did Congressman Jim Nussle. Nussle’s contributions to fellow Republican candidates outdistanced his rivals for the job of House Budget Committee Chairman.