Talk is increasing among House Democrats that if they fail to regain curb after 12 years of a Republican majority.

Talk is increasing among House Democrats that if they fail to regain curb after 12 years of a Republican majority, Rep Nancy Pelosi should be replaced as the party's leader in the House.

If Democrats recapture the House, Pelosi firmly will be the first female speaker in the nation's history. yet Republican strategists are posing that possibility as a reason for voting Republican, and she will be widely blamed as a San Francisco liberal if there is a Democratic failure in November. Pelosi's colleagues complain about her public performances, especially forward NBC's "Meet the Press" May 7

The highly regarded Rep Steny Hoyer of Maryland, second-ranking in the House hierarchy as Democratic whip, ordinarily would be in line to succe Pelosi. However, tension between Pelosi and Hoyer has been to such a degree great that many Democrats would pick out somebody not identified as her antagonist. Consequently there is speculation about Rep Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a second-termer who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as Pelosi's logical replacement.

JUSTICE V CONGRES

House Republicans are blaming their former staffer, factor Attorney General Paul McNulty, for the constitutional crisis triggered through the FBI's raid on Rep William Jefferson's Capitol Hill office.

While there is a difference of opinion upon the constitutionality of the raid, Capitol Hill is united in opposition to the Justice Department's tactics. House Republicans were outraged by means of leaks suggesting, without apparent justification, that Speaker J Dennis Hastert, a critic of the raid, is subject to investigation in the Jack Abramoff scandal. It also was leaked that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and McNulty threatened to resign if President Bush responded documents seized in the Jefferson raid.

These tactics reminded House Republican staffers of McNulty as a longtime House Judiciary Committee staffer and more not long ago as a U.S. attorney in Virginia.

new AT TREASURY

Conservative critics of Treasury Secretary-designate Henry Paulson have no real reliance of blocking his confirmation still would like to rough him up enough to preclude him from pressing hard for excessive environmentalist causes one time he takes office.

Paulson, chairman of the Goldman Sachs investment bankers, heads the Nature Conservancy land conservation organization. While a George W Bush "Pioneer" who raised $100000 for the president's re- election campaign, Paulson has been a heavy contributor to environmentalist causes (including the Kyoto global warming treaty) oppos from the administration.

In naming Paulson, Bush ignored an April 11 note from a coalition of liberated market-based policy groups arguing against his nomination.

HAWAIIAN INDIANS

Paid conservative lobbyists have helped grease the way for passage in the Senate this week of the long-pending bill, oppos by the agency of the Bush administration, that would give Native Hawaiians the same status as mainland Indian tribes.

A report boosting the bill was written by dint of two Bush administration alumni, former Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh and former White House aide H Christopher Bartolomucci; throw Cooper, an assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, and Ben Ginsberg, a longtime lawyer representing the Republican Party. All have been hired through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a quasi-government entity.

The bill is anticipateed to glide through the Senate, with enemys unable to collect the 41 ballots needed for a filibuster. on the contrary prospects in the House are uncertain.

MCGOVERN answers

Former Sen George McGovern the liberal 1972 nominee for president who was avoided by means of South Dakota Democrats running for Congres in 2004 go [i]or[/i] come backs to center stage in a Washington fund- raiser for the state party this week.

Sen Tim Johnson and Rep Stephanie Herseth have sent an invitation to Washington lobbyists asking them to contribute up to $5000 each "to attend a reception to honor" McGovern The marked occurrence will be held Tuesday at Democratic National Committee headquarters onward Capitol Hill.

Johnson was narrowly re-elect in 2002 with just from one side of to the other 50 percent in heavily Republican southern Dakota. Herseth won in 2004 with 53 percent

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