Capital briefs

* CHASTENED SMITH RETURNS: Likening himself to "the pioneer scout who has returned to the wagon train to report that the path I've explored is more dangerous," New Hampshire conservative Sen. Bob Smith-who only four months ago said he would "stay an Independent, whatever happens in the future-last week ate some crow and rejoined the Republican Party. (As it turns out, he told reporters, he never legally left the party because somehow his request to his town clerk to change his voter registration was either never received or never acted on.)

* AND MADE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Flanked at the U.S. Capitol by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) and GOP National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson, Smith revealed that he had been discussing a return to the GOP fold with both of them, but that the recent death of Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Chafee (R.-R.1)"forced the Republican Conference to make an immediate decision regarding [the] chairmanship. I am the next senior senator in line for that chairmanship. I felt that since I was coming back to the party, the conference should know that prior to making their decision."

A day later, the conference confirmed the committee members' decision to make Smith chairman of Environment and Public Works. A serious clash between Smith and his closest friend in the Senate, fellow conservative Jim Inhofe (R.Okla.), who is next ranking in seniority on the panel, was avoided when Inhofe chose not to contest Smith's succession to the chairmanship.

* GOP & LCV: A debate among GOP presidential candidates to be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on January 12 has a curious and very un-Republican cosponsor: the super-liberal environmentalist League of Conservation Voters (LCV). The debate will also be sponsored by the Izaak Walton League of America, Iowa Farmer Today, and the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The LCV-which proudly says it "works to elect a pro-environment majority to Congress"has for years pounded on Republicans with its "Dirty Dozen" list of supposed environmental miscreants and its congressional vote ratings heavily skewed to the left. (Democrats have an average rating of 72%, Republicans 24%.) Why would the Republican candidates agree to build up the LC\fs prestige by participating in anything under its auspices?

* THEY STILL HATE HOOVER: Twenty-eight years after his death, J. Edgar Hoover is still an object of visceral hatred on the left. Last week, 12 portside Democrats led by House Black Caucus Chairman John Lewis (D.-Ga.) actually introduced a bill to remove the name of the FBIs first director from the bureau's headquarters in Washington and rename the building in honor of late U.S. Judge Frank M. Johnson, best known as a champion of public school integration.

Lewis & Co. cited Hoovers animosity toward Martin Luther King, Jr., as the chief reason for wanting to rename the FBI building. They hailed Johnson as a fighter for civil rights, but did not say precisely what he had to do with the FBI. For very good reason. He was never connected with the bureau. A similar measure to remove Hoovers name from the FBI building went down to resounding defeat in the Senate in 1997. Among the opponents were Hawaiis two liberal Democratic senators, Daniel K Inouye and Daniel Akaka, who have long praised the late FBI director for being the most prominent American to oppose internment of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor.

* BUDGET BATTLE: Although the congressional fight over the budget for fiscal year 2000 is nearing the end, another budget battle is already in its embryonic stages: the fight over who will succeed outgoing House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R. -Ohio) in January 2001, assuming Republicans retain control of the House. The early frontrunner is conservative Rep. Nick Smith (R.-Mich.), considered one of the House's premier authorities on Social Security. Also looking at the Budget chair are New Hampshire Rep. John Sununu (who is also pondering a bid for the Senate in 2002 if, as thought very possible, incumbent Bob Smith steps down) and Georgia's Saxby Chambliss.

* RICHARDSON & THE LAW: A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report released last week says that Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson would break the law if he became administrator of the new National Nuclear Security Administration. Because of leaks of U.S. nuclear secrets, Congress created that agency to put some separation between America's nuclear labs and the Incompetent Energy Department, but President Clinton, when he signed the new law, blatantly circumvented it by instructing Richardson to become the head of it while remaining secretary of energy and to fill other agency slots with Energy officials. The CRS report, requested by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R.-Tex.), says that the President must submit a nominee to the Senate.

* MCCAIN GAIN: Fresh polling from the Granite State shows the liberal media's favorite GOP presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.), bearing down on frontrunner George W. Bush. Down double digits last month, the Arizonan has cut the Texas governor's lead to 8 points, trailing Bush only 38% to 30% among likely Republican voters. The WNDS-TV Franklin Pierce College poll has a margin of error of 6 points. The same poll found Steve Forbes third with 11 %, Gary Bauer fourth with 3%, and Alan Keyes and Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) tied for fifth with 2%. On the Democratic side, Bill Bradley is up by 7 points, 43% to 36%, over Vice President AI(pha) Gore.