'Perfect storm' ends chairman's run

He, Michigan lose muscle as his frail health, Pelosi's neutrality help rival

Deb Price / The Detroit News

John Dingell becomes the longest-serving member in U.S. House history at a bittersweet moment: For the first time since 1981, he's not chairman or ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

That's no small setback for Dingell or for Michigan. But it's also a loss of personal identity.

Rep. Bart Stupak, a Menominee Democrat and Dingell protege, recalls that even when Republicans were in charge of the House from 1995 to 2007, House members continued to refer to Dingell as "Mr. Chairman."

Dingell lost his chairmanship in a rare intraparty challenge: Henry Waxman of California decided to take him on after the November elections, arguing that he could bring about more sweeping change on global warming and other issues of high priority to the newly elected Democratic president.

It was a close vote by House Democrats -- 137-122 -- that would have ended with the gavel in Dingell's hand if eight votes had swung the other way.

"I have had a significant loss of clout. I will have to make up for it with hard work and with extra effort," Dingell said.

Dingell's political fortunes were swept away by a perfect storm.

First, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly said she was neutral and her neutrality played to Waxman's advantage simply because she didn't use her considerable power to stop the contest.

Waxman is a Pelosi ally who, like the speaker, hails from California and is politically liberal. And Pelosi and Dingell had clashed over the years:

Pelosi supported Dingell's opponent, Rep. Lynn Rivers of Ann Arbor, in 2002, when Rivers and Dingell were tossed into the same district after reapportionment. After the 2006 elections,, Pelosi and Dingell backed different candidates for Democratic majority leader. Dingell's choice -- Steny Hoyer -- won.

And in 2007, Pelosi bypassed Dingell's committee by creating a special panel on global warming headed by a lawmaker whose views on reducing greenhouse gases were more to her liking.

But Dingell was hit by even more bad luck. The Big Three automakers, associated closely with auto guardian Dingell, had just committed a public relations belly flop by flying on private jets to ask Congress for a bailout.

Dingell's health hurt, too. The 82-year-old was recuperating from a full knee replacement that didn't heal quickly. While Waxman could dart about to make his case in person, Dingell, at that point using a wheelchair, had to command his battle largely by phone.

Ultimately, Stupak argues, the race turned on the votes of newly elected members, who arrived on Capitol Hill without any allegiance to Dingell or awareness of his accomplishments.

"If you are here, you know John Dingell," Stupak said. "But if you are an outsider, you don't understand his rich history and what it takes to pass legislation."

Dingell says he was "absolutely astounded" that he lost. "But that is part of life. A little man would whine. A big man won't. I hope I fall on the right side of that dividing line."