When Rep. Jim Leach became ranking Republican on the House Banking Committee two years ago, many observers wondered if he was up to the job. After all, the Iowa lawmaker was a well-known maverick who would rather lose in a blaze of glory than suffer through the process of compromise and coalition building that is usually needed to win.
Rep. Leach quickly proved the doubters wrong. While still willing to take lonely positions, he established himself as a strong leader of the Republican opposition, battling the President on issues ranging from regulatory consolidation to Whitewater.
Now, the stakes are being raised considerably for Rep. Leach. Following Tuesday's elections. he is in line to become chairman of the banking committee in January.
In the past. the Iowa lawmaker was known as the panel's chief capital hawk. Coming from rural America, Rep. Leach was intimately familiar with a class of banks that were required by the examiners to maintain very high capital levels.
Large banks, he thought, should have similar requirements particularly if they want to engage in new securities activities.
In his two years as ranking Republican, he also staked out positions in a number of other areas.
He was the key opponent on the banking committee of the administration's effort to merge the federal banking agencies, and he raised concerns about derivatives activities early on.
He also emerged as the primary opponent of the administration plan to pumpmoney into the Savings Association Insurance Fund.
A graduate of the London School of Economics. Rep. Leach is widely regarded as a thoughtful and intelligent lawmaker. A moderate, he was always known as a relatively nonpartisan lawmaker, at least until he raised Whitewater as an issue.
The partisan charges that followed seemed ironic to many who knew that Rep. Leach had resigned from the U.S. diplomatic service in protest of President Nixon's decision to fire the Watergate special counsel in 1973.
