Pelosi ally topples Dingell

WASHINGTON — Rep. Henry Waxman — a liberal ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — has wrested the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee from veteran Rep. John Dingell when the new Congress convenes in January.

Waxman, a California liberal and avid environmentalist and booster of health-care programs, toppled Dingell Thursday on a vote of 137-122 in the Democratic Party caucus, capping a bitter fight within party ranks.

Dingell has been the top Democrat on the panel for 28 years and is an old-school supporter of the auto industry. Waxman has complained that the committee has been too slow to address environmental issues like global warming.

"The argument we made was that we needed a change for the committee to have the leadership that will work with this administration and members in both the House and the Senate in order to get important issues passed in health care, environmental protection, in energy policy," Waxman said after the vote.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a committee member, had been among members working the hardest to defend Dingell in a losing cause by calling other members and giving interviews to the national press.

He earlier said about Dingell, "I think as a chairman, he has shown an ability to look five or six moves ahead and get bills signed into law, a skill that we need now more than ever as we look at key issues like energy, health care and telecommunications."

"The next two years are critical," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who spoke on Waxman's behalf in the closed-door caucus. "It's not personal. It's about the American people demanding that we embrace change and work with the president on critical issues of climate change and energy and health care."

Waxman, 69, is an accomplished legislator. He had chaired the Energy and Commerce health and environment subcommittee for 16 years and won a series of piecemeal expansions of the Medicaid health-care program for the poor that added many children to the program. He's also taken on the tobacco companies.

The Energy and Commerce panel is one of the most important House committees, with sweeping jurisdiction over energy, the environment, consumer protection, telecommunications and health care programs such as Medicaid and the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program.