Word: michel
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With adjournment looming, the 96th Congress moved last week to set itself up for the 97th and Ronald Reagan's White House. Among House Republicans, the preparation took the form of electing Illinois' Robert Michel as minority leader over Michigan's Guy Vander Jagt; obviously, the feeling was that the new President's legislative program stood a better chance against the Democratic majority under Michel's brand of amicable persuasion. Republicans also elected New York's Jack Kemp as chairman of the party's conference, or caucus, and Mississippi's Trent Lott...
...selecting their new leadership, House Republicans were trying to downplay their traditional image as the party of reaction and obstruction. Thanking his colleagues for electing him, Michel said: "We've got to be affirmative, forward looking. The bottom line is enacting the Reagan program." He warned Democrats against trying to "gut" Reagan's proposals. If that happens, said he, "we will have confrontation...
...Michel has his way, confrontation will be kept to a minimum. Stinging in partisan debate on the floor, he is conciliatory in the cloakroom, putting together packages and deals. Michel and Tennessee's Howard Baker, the new Senate majority leader, will have unaccustomed Republican muscle. In the next Congress, the G.O.P. can claim 192 of the House's 435 members, as well as 53 of 100 Senators...
...Reagan camp has remained studiously neutral. Vander Jagt was picked to give the keynote address at last summer's Detroit convention, but Michel was tapped to sing the National Anthem. Michel may have an edge because of his legislative skills; on the other hand Vander Jagt enjoys substantial loyalty among the 52 incoming freshmen, who are grateful for the advice and party funding they received through...
Both men claim to hold the 97 votes (out of 192) needed to win. "I don't count them hard unless I've looked at them eyeball to eyeball and shaken their hands," says Michel. Says Vander Jagt: "I count a vote hard when he looks you in the eye." The battle will end next week when House Republicans meet eyeball to eyeball for a secret ballot...