The American Spectator

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Recall that Davis was in a three-way race to take over the chairmanship of the Government Reform Committee. Other contenders were Rep. Chris Cox of California and Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut. The battle was pitched, with Cox making perhaps the most persuasive case for why he should gain control: his leadership record, his seniority, and his vision for the committee. Shays, while holding a seniority edge on the committee, was a nonstarter owing to his rather liberal leanings. Or as a committee staffers put it, “There was no way in hell Speaker Hastert was going to hand that committee to Shays.”

Davis, though, after helping House Republicans expand their majority as head of the GOP congressional campaign committee, wanted the chairmanship as reward for a job well done. With Davis and Cox jockeying for position, Hastert determined that he would not make a decision until after the Christmas holiday, at which point both Davis and Cox would make their cases before Hastert and Republcians Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

In order to calm nerves on the reform committee’s staff, however, each man in the running showed up at the committee’s Christmas party and made little impromptu pitches for themselves. Davis pointedly told Republican staffers there that he looked forward to working with them and that they should go into the holidays without fearing for their jobs. Cox and Shays made similar comments. “We thought that the speeches were a bit much for a holiday party, but the message about our jobs was appreciated, ” says the staffer.

Staffers weren’t surprised when Davis won the beauty contest for chairmanship of the committee in early January. But they were surprised when he fired just about every Republican staffer and gave them only the weekend to clear out. “Democrats never acted like this,” says another longtime committee staffer. “It was just surprising coming from a fellow Republican. We expected more.”

p>Only now, two weeks later, are staffers beginning to find new jobs in House leadership offices and in the private sector. “It’s been a brutal few weeks,” says another former staffer. “It makes me wish we’d pushed harder for Cox when we had the chance.” br> /p>