Hang on to your hat, Mike

Gov. Mike Leavitt, used to dealing with some crabby GOP complainers from his political right, a few local Democrats snipping from the left, is now entering a new world of powerful national politicians ready to slam him like he's never seen before.

After President Bush's announcement Monday that Leavitt will leave heavily Republican Utah for the political shark waters of Washington, D.C., to head the Environmental Protection Agency, some Democratic Party presidential hopefuls for 2004 were already letting loose.

It's par for the course, says former U.S. Sen. Jake Garn, an old Leavitt friend and mentor.

"I told him, 'You have my great congratulations — and my condolences,' " Garn said Tuesday. The condolences came because Garn has seen close-up the vitriolic politics surrounding the EPA and environmental battles. After all, for six years he chaired an appropriations subcommittee that oversaw it.

Unlike Garn, many of Leavitt's current and future detractors probably haven't even met the man. Or know little of his environmental stands.

But unlike the personal politics of Utah — where there are maybe 2,000 players, Republicans and Democrats alike, who mostly know each other — in Washington strangers take you apart if they can nick a piece of your boss in the process.

"All you hear from on these environmental issues are the extremes," Garn said. Garn adds he found that both environmental groups and pro-development forces hate and attack leaders who forge a good balance — as he predicts Leavitt will try to do.

In short, Leavitt likely will run into flak early and often, and it almost surely will make the fights he faced as governor look like tiny squabbles.

Leavitt has some idea what he's up against. After all, he was chairman of the National Governors Association, a member of several congressional committees and in 1984 was a top staffer for Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign in the Northeast.

But even frequent visitors to D.C., especially non-threatening governors or mayors, may see some bared teeth but don't feel the cuts.

For now, Leavitt is taking the standard approach of administration nominees awaiting Senate confirmation — he's shutting up.

Monday the governor refused to answer any detailed questions about how he might oversee the EPA.