Race for Chairmanship of House Int’l Relations Committee Heats Up

Whoever replaces retiring Rep. Henry Hyde as Chairman will have big shoes to fill, particularly when it comes to Hyde’s blunt moral clarity on North Korea and those who would appease its regime, as well as on Japan’s need to come to terms with its own past. Five candidates are said to be seeking the Chairmanship, presuming that the Republicans hold the House in November. I will express strong opinions on just those of whom I know through the (admittedly narrow) lens of Korea policy.

My only mixed review goes to Rep. Dan Burton (official site), which you can read more about here. Burton has shown the right kind of interest in such concerns as human rights in China, but he appears not to have kept current with the state of affairs in South Korea.

Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa (official site) is one of the House’s genuine foreign policy heavyweights as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asian-Pacific Affairs. Leach himself is a calm, measured, and not-very-charismatic man with enormous credibility and esteem among his peers. He is also a relative moderate, who at the July 2005 Freedom House conference on North Korea urged attendees to avoid the very sort of white-hot regime change rhetoric that I took up blogging to promote. His history of policy disagreements with the Administration may hurt his chances. That said, Leach and his staff have been exceedingly effective in producing tangible and beneficial change in U.S. policy toward the North. Leach’s results do much to explain away his rhetorical restraint.

Of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (official site) one of the leading candidates, I don’t know enough to comment intelligently. I do know that she’s an anti-Communist fire-eater, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned, as long as it doesn’t impede her ability to caucus with liberals and moderates as needed (and on this issue in particular, I believe that it often is needed).

A trusted source at the center of the U.S. movement for human rights in North Korea speaks of Rep. Chris Smith (official site) with glowing reverence (I have little personal knowledge of him). Some of Smith’s fights with his own party leadership and with the Clinton Administration — agree or not — have been “profiles in courage” material, and likely cost him the influence to be a more visible supporter of the North Korean people in Congress. Smith is also a very strong advocate of human rights in China. His record is stubbornly independent, which probably earns fewer friends in this town than it would in others. For example, Smith is a staunch opponent of both abortion and the death penalty. Smith could be counted on as an uncompromising supporter of policies that would demand human rights improvements in North Korea.

Rep. Ed Royce (official site) seems to be the man who is always there when there’s any discussion of human rights in North Korea. In the unlikely event he’s not there, his very able staffers will be. I’ve blogged about many of Royce’s appearances and efforts on this issue; I will note two that give insight into his views here and here. I don’t know enough facts to offer a preference for any one single candidate — it would be pretentious in the extreme to believe that anyone would care anyway — but if there’s one single candidate that Kim Jong Il would least prefer as Chairman of the HIRC, I would guess it would be Rep. Royce. If Royce doesn’t win the Chairmanship — his odds are said to be long — he’d be a strong candidate for the Asian-Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has dropped out of the race.

All of this assumes, of course, that the Chairman will come from that side of the aisle ….

Thanks to a reader for a tip.
—–