http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0105/07linder.html;COXnetJSessionID=BecJU0GCmm9TeVzum3fe79hMfKIk9wovYx9SjlS1PXJMeT99qPUV!-1799279083?UrAuth=%60N%60NUOcNWASHINGTON — Rep. John Linder of Georgia on Thursday was awarded a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee as a consolation prize for being passed over for the chairmanship of the House Rules Committee.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he gave Linder the highly coveted seat so the Duluth Republican can continue to press his decade-long fight to replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax.
Linder's appointment came at the expense of a fellow Georgia Republican, Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta, who has been lobbying since his election in 2002 for a seat on Ways and Means. Hastert instead gave Gingrey Linder's old seat on the Rules Committee, another powerful panel, which determines how the House handles individual bills.
"I am very excited about this new opportunity," Linder said. "With Social Security reform and tax reform on the president's agenda . . . Ways and Means is exactly where I want to serve."