A Committee Post and a Pledge Drive -WP (repubs buying committee chairs)

[Rose Siding]

Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), seeking the powerful post of House Appropriations Committee chairman, wrote to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert this month pledging to shrink the deficit, impose discipline on congressional appropriators and, oh, by the way, raise $15 million every two years from committee Republicans for GOP campaigns.

"I believe appropriators must help maintain our Republican majority through aggressive fundraising," Rogers said in his two-page letter to Hastert (R-Ill.). "On my watch, members of the committee will raise, at a minimum, $15 million per cycle towards that goal. As I've proven -- raising and giving over $5 million to our candidates -- I am ready to lead by example." Rogers's office declined to comment on the letter, first reported in Congress Daily, but a source clarified that the $15 million would be a cumulative sum from the committee's three dozen Republicans, not a per-person goal.

It's no secret that congressional Republicans and Democrats who seek coveted committee assignments are expected to raise campaign money for their parties. But Rogers's unblushing bid suggests that the targets keep rising, veteran congressional staffers say.

The letter "makes it look like the job is for sale," said Scott Lilly, top Democratic aide on the Appropriations Committee the past decade and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Rogers, a 24-year House veteran, is considered a long shot in the three-way race to succeed term-limited chairman C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) at the all-important spending panel. The top contenders, Reps. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio) and Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), declined to comment on their pitches to Hastert. Hastert spokesman John Feehery said his boss never comments on activities of the GOP Steering Committee, which chooses House committee chairmen and is largely controlled by the speaker.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8850-2004Dec17.html?nav=rss_politics