Majority Leader

From a purely parochial point of view, yesterday's lopsided election of Rep. Steny H. Hoyer as House majority leader is a great day for Maryland. Fewer than two dozen men have served in that influential post since 1899. Mr. Hoyer is the first from this state, and the potential benefits to Maryland are obvious. But it's also a welcome development from a national perspective. The new leader is an effective and accomplished legislator who has built a loyal following in his party. His ascendancy gives hope that the next Congress won't get mired in legislative gridlock and may actually accomplish something over the next two years.

For the good of the country and the legislative process, regardless of who wins the presidential race, the following should resign their leadership posts (although there's a slim chance that it will happen, but Washington is simply dead with them in place): House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Dick Durbin (the Senate's assistant majority leader), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl. Earl Watkeys, Phoenix

HARRY TRUMAN'S press secretary, Charlie Ross, noting early in the 1948 campaign how his boss was getting beat up by fellow Democrats, remarked: "You can guard yourself against the wiles of your enemies but not the stupidity of your friends." His words would apply these days to another plain-spoken man of the Midwest, Bob Dole, a choice target of panicky conservatives, most of whom have never wished him well.Their chief advice, which isn't worth much, is that the GOP presidential nominee should give up his post as Senate majority leader for the supposed purpose of focusing on his national campaign.

A key ally of Speaker Michael E. Busch expressed confidence that the votes will be there to pass Gov. Martin O'Malley's gambling expansion bill when it comes to the floor of the House of Delegates Tuesday. "I think we're going to have the votes. I think it's looking very good,"  Majority Leader Kumar Barve, a Montgomery County Democrat, predicted after House Democrats held a caucus behind closed doors. Barve said several large delegations have backed off earlier statements that they would try to extract concessions for their jurisdictions in return for their votes.

WASHINGTON - In a potential shake-up to national politics, House Majority Leader Dick Armey is telling congressional colleagues that he doubts he will run for re-election next year, one of the Texas Republican's closest confidants said yesterday. "Armey is considering not filing for re-election for next year's election and serving out his term in Congress in the next session as majority leader," he said. Armey spokesman Gayland Barksdale declined to comment. No announcement of Armey's decision has been scheduled.

IF SEN. TRENT LOTT of Mississippi, the early-line favorite, succeeds Sen. Bob Dole as majority leader of the Republican-controlled Senate, "confrontational conservatism" will reign supreme on Capitol Hill. Mr. Lott is an old buddy and soul mate of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and, even more, of House majority leader Dick Armey. He is neither in his relationship with his party's presidential nominee, long an advocate of "commonsense conservatism." There's a big difference.Mr. Dole opposed his likely successor when Mr. Lott won the party whip's job two years ago. And the Mississippian returned the favor by backing Sen. Phil Gramm in his losing primary battles with Mr. Dole earlier this year.

For Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, the significance of her new job as majority leader of the House of Delegates is not the impressive title or the largely procedural duties on the floor. It's where she'll be when the House leadership hashes out its position on key issues. "The majority leader is always in the room when decisions get made," the Baltimore Democrat said this week. House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. named McIntosh, 53, to the majority leader post last month when the resignation of Del. Ron Guns to take a job on the Public Service Commission forced a reshuffle of the House leadership.

?I intend to do everything in my power to make Nancy Pelosi the most successful speaker.? Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, incoming House majority leader ?Let the healing begin.? Rep. Nancy Pelosi, incoming speaker of the House, who had urged Democrats to pick Rep. John P. Murtha for majority leader

For the good of the country and the legislative process, regardless of who wins the presidential race, the following should resign their leadership posts (although there's a slim chance that it will happen, but Washington is simply dead with them in place): House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Dick Durbin (the Senate's assistant majority leader), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl. Earl Watkeys, Phoenix

Republican Bob Dole's big gamble -- running for president while holding on to his post as Senate majority leader -- hits crunch time after Congress returns from its August-Labor Day break. The Kansas senator will hardly be in a celebratory mood. After failing to win Iowa's straw poll vote, a phony exercise with very real atmospheric impact, his ratings fell from 51.7 percent to 36 percent in a more authentic public opinion sampling in Iowa.Whatever its final effect on his presidential bid, Mr. Dole's position as Senate majority leader will place him in the center of a stormy showdown between the Clinton administration and the Republican-controlled Congress.

Kenneth Halls Masters, an attorney who represented Catonsville and Arbutus in the Maryland General Assembly, where he had been House majority leader, died of cancer Tuesday at Sinai Hospital. He was 68. Born in Washington and raised at Scientists Cliff in Calvert County, he was a 1961 graduate of Charlotte Hall Military Academy. Interested in politics as a teen, he campaigned for longtime Maryland Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein. He earned a bachelor's degree at what is now Towson University, where he was student body president.

As the No. 2 member of the House, Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland has a lot riding on the outcome of today's health care vote. If the measure is defeated, some congressional aides predict privately that Democrats will lose their House majority in the fall elections. Hoyer's job as majority leader would disappear, along with its power and influence. That outcome is significantly less likely after a Sunday press conference in which anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak of Michigan expressed his support for the bill.

House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve, who has supported stricter drunken-driving laws, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after being arrested in Gaithersburg late Thursday, police said. Barve, 49, a Montgomery County Democrat, was stopped by a Gaithersburg police officer after his car left a parking lot in oldtown Gaithersburg through a driveway marked "entrance only," police spokesman Sgt. Rudy Wagner said. The delegate did not return calls seeking comment yesterday evening.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the No. 2 Republican leader in the Senate, announced yesterday that he will resign before the end of the year. With his wife, Tricia, at his side during a news conference in Pascagoula, Miss., Lott said that after 35 years in the House and the Senate, "It's time for us to do something else." The departure by year's end means that Lott, whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, could accept a position lobbying his former colleagues one year after he leaves office under the current law, instead of waiting for two years, as is required under the new Senate ethics law that goes into effect in January.

He's moved into some of the choicest real estate in the U.S. Capitol, all crystal chandeliers and gilt-framed mirrors a stone's throw from the rotunda. He's gotten more publicity in the past six months than during his previous four decades in public life - most of it positive. But Steny H. Hoyer says the biggest change in his life since Democrats won control of Congress and chose him over a spirited challenger to become House majority leader was the sudden rush of power. "I used to wake up in the morning and wonder what's going to happen that day," he said during an interview wedged between a dizzying round of meetings, press conferences, floor appearances and phone calls with dignitaries.

When he entered politics at the age of 27, Steny Hoyer wanted to be the top man in Annapolis. He worked the halls of the State House, eventually winning election to the Senate president's office in 1975 and becoming the youngest person to serve in that position. Four years later, he became Acting Gov. Blair Lee III's running mate, hoping to eventually become governor. But the Lee-Hoyer ticket lost, and Hoyer found himself out of a job. Three years later, when Congresswoman Gladys Noon Spellman suffered a stroke and a special election was held to replace her, Hoyer decided to run for her seat.

WASHINGTON -- Rank-and-file House Republicans launched a push yesterday to require every member of their leadership except Speaker Dennis Hastert to face elections Feb. 2, saying the step is necessary to convince voters the party is serious about ethics and lobbying reform. Rep. John E. Sweeney, a New York Republican, planned to circulate a petition as early as last night asking for broad elections. The move underscored that many House Republicans believe their leaders need to do more to respond to the unfolding corruption scandal involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff if the party is going to keep its majority in the November elections.

LONG ABOUT cocktail hour, on the evening of Nov. 7, 1963, Tom Dodd of Connecticut took the floor of a nearly empty Senate to complain that the majority leader, Mike Mansfield of Montana, was "not leading the Senate" and was compiling a "record of failure." Dodd yearned in a boozy voice for the days when Lyndon B. Johnson ran the Senate like an "orchestra leader" blending the sounds of his ensemble into a harmonious whole. That hilarious description of LBJ's cacophonous Senate was one of the least offensive things Dodd had to say. The minority leader, Everett McKinley Dirksen, another of Dodd's targets, ("soft.

?I intend to do everything in my power to make Nancy Pelosi the most successful speaker.? Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, incoming House majority leader ?Let the healing begin.? Rep. Nancy Pelosi, incoming speaker of the House, who had urged Democrats to pick Rep. John P. Murtha for majority leader

WASHINGTON -- After an electoral shellacking widely seen as a message for change in Washington, House Republicans decided yesterday to stick with much the same leadership team as they adjust to becoming the chamber's minority. The GOP lawmakers elected Reps. John A. Boehner of Ohio as minority leader and Roy Blunt of Missouri as minority whip, rejecting challenges to each by conservatives. The challengers offered themselves as better able to recommit the party to fiscal discipline, arguing the GOP had strayed from that tenet during the party's 12-year control of the House.