Impeachment Team Doing Fine

Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) has landed a job with the Bush administration. So has former representative Charles Canady (R-Fla.) although he works in Tallahassee, not Washington. Is their former colleague James Rogan (R-Calif.) next?

Hutchinson, named by President Bush to head the Drug Enforcement Administration; Canady, general counsel to Bush’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, R; and Rogan, who recently joined a law firm, share one indelible link: They were part of the team of House impeachment managers who unsuccessfully prosecuted former President Clinton in the Senate.

Remember? There were 13 of them, all Republicans, and for a time they were at the center of one of the fiercest political storms in U.S. history. When it was over, Clinton still occupied the Oval Office and the Democrats vowed revenge in the 2000 elections.

The former managers, however, are doing quite well.

Eleven ran for reelection in their districts, and only Rogan--the Democrats’ top target, in a tough district for Republicans--lost. He recently joined the Washington office of the law firm Venable and, he said, is heavily involved in recruiting for its government relations practice.

But Rogan’s career in private law practice isn’t expected to last for long. According to Republican sources, he will soon join Hutchinson in the Bush administration as undersecretary of commerce, in charge of copyrights, and director of the Office of Patents and Trademarks.

The two impeachment managers who did not run for reelection in their districts are Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) and Canady. McCollum gave up his House seat to run for the Senate, but lost to Democrat Bill Nelson in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla.

McCollum publicly expressed an interest in heading the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a job that went to John Walters. McCollum now spends his time shuttling between the Orlando and Washington offices of Baker & Hostetler, a law firm headquartered in Cleveland.

Canady imposed a limit of four terms in the House on himself and did not seek reelection.

Of the 10 impeachment managers who won reelection last year, two--Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.) and Stephen E. Buyer (R-Ind.)--have left the House Judiciary Committee to join the Energy and Commerce Committee. Each left Judiciary shortly after the end of the Senate trial.

As a group, the eight who have stayed have gained more influence on the panel. Because of the term limits for committee chairmen that Republicans instituted when they took control of the House in 1995, Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) head of the impeachment managers, was forced to give up the Judiciary leadership, but he now heads the International Relations Committee and is still the second-ranking Republican on Judiciary. In his place, another impeachment manager, F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) was elevated to chairman.

Three other impeachment managers now head subcommittees on the panel. Bob Barr Jr. (R-Ga.) is chairman of the commercial and administrative law subcommittee; Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) heads the constitution subcommittee; and George W. Gekas (R-Pa.) is in charge of the immigration and claims subcommittee.

The three managers who are missing from Congress--Rogan, McCollum and Canady--expressed no regrets about their role in the impeachment drama and said they’re happy with what they’re doing now. None closed the door entirely to a return to elective politics, but they said they have no immediate plans to do so.

Rogan said he considered running for the House seat now held by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) when it appeared that Cox would be one of Bush’s first judicial appointees (Cox was passed over in the first round of judicial nominations), but changed his mind.

“I looked at it, but with 8-year-old twin daughters at home I just decided it was not the right time,” Rogan said. “Is the bug totally gone? The answer for ex-congressmen is that the bug dies when they do.”