Rep. Linder won't Chair Rules, but becoming a member of Ways and Means? Go figure . . .

Last week we read that Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) would be appointed the the Ways and Means Committee after the House Republican Steering Committee decided to keep Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) as head of the Rules Committee.

Linder was next in line to become Chairman of Rules, and he was obviously taken back, surprised and disappointed by being passed over as Chairman of Rules.

But Linder’s appointment to Ways and Means is intriguing because he received strong Republican support for his bill to replace the current tax code with a national sales tax (his bill attracted 54 co-sponsors, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas)).

I wish I could figure this latter appointment out. I know it is to appease him for being passed over as Chairman of Rules, since Ways and Means, as is the Rules Committee, is certainly a desirable appointment.

But why Ways and Means?

Putting Linder on Ways and Means leads me to wonder if someone in the GOP is going beyond appeasement and by this appointment also putting Linder in a visible position of being able to advocate his controversial viewpoint.

And it comes just as tax experts are telling us, according to the 01-08-04 Washington Post, that President Bush's new tax panel is expected to recommend incremental change to the tax code, not a fundamental replacement (and this despite Bush's reiteration of his intent to push wholesale changes to the tax code that would make it simpler and more conducive to economic growth).