Pubdate: Wed, 09 May 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: Politics
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: James Risen

IMPEACHMENT FIGURE IN LINE FOR DRUG ENFORCEMENT POST

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is expected to name Representative Asa 
Hutchinson, an Arkansas Republican with a long interest in drug issues, as 
the new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

Mr. Hutchinson, 50, who was one of the House managers in the impeachment 
trial of President Bill Clinton, is a former United States attorney in 
Arkansas who once prosecuted Mr. Clinton's brother, Roger, on drug charges.

Mr. Hutchinson's appointment has not been announced by the White House, but 
officials said it was expected soon. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. 
Hutchinson would succeed the acting agency head, Donnie R. Marshall.

Mr. Hutchinson, who had been rumored to be in the running for other senior 
positions in the Justice Department as well, would be leaving what appears 
to be a relatively safe Republican Congressional seat for the new post.

The appointment of Mr. Hutchinson, whose brother, Tim, represents Arkansas 
in the Senate, would create a vacancy in the House that would be filled by 
special election. Republicans say they are not worried that the contest in 
the state's Third Congressional District would shrink their five-seat 
majority in the House.

"This is a district that Bill Clinton lost in Arkansas in '96, and Bush 
carried it comfortably," said Representative Thomas M. Davis, the Virginia 
Republican who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee. "This 
is a pretty good mountain Republican seat. I think we are going to be fine. 
It has been a Republican seat for 36 years without interruption."

Mr. Hutchinson would be joining the Drug Enforcement Administration in the 
middle of a renewed national debate over the future of the nation's drug 
policy and how best to balance efforts to block drug trafficking with 
efforts to prevent drug use.

Critics argue that the United States has spent far too much on efforts to 
block drugs in Latin America and on law enforcement efforts in this 
country, while failing to provide sufficient money to help treat drug abusers.

The mistaken downing of a small plane carrying a missionary family in Peru 
last month has intensified the debate over whether the United States has 
over-emphasized interdiction and investigation rather than prevention. The 
plane was shot down by a Peruvian fighter plane involved in an antidrug 
program supported by the United States.

The expected appointment of Mr. Hutchinson follows President Bush's 
decision to name John P. Walters, a conservative who was critical of the 
Clinton administration's counternarcotics efforts, to be the nation's drug 
czar.

Mr. Hutchinson declined to confirm today that he had been selected to run 
the agency.

"There has been much speculation about my leaving Congress to accept a 
position in the administration," Mr. Hutchinson said in a statement. "While 
I have been in discussions with the White House about the position of 
D.E.A. administrator, an announcement of the intent to nominate can be made 
only by the president."

In Congress, Mr. Hutchinson, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, has 
shown an interest in drug issues, an aide to Mr. Hutchinson said.

Last year, he sponsored legislation to provide federal money to help 
reimburse local police forces for their efforts against methamphetamine 
laboratories, the aide said.

Advocates of treating the narcotics problem as more of a public health 
issue now see the new team that Mr. Bush is putting together as 
representing a fairly traditional law- and-order perspective on the drug war.

"It generally looks like more of the same," said Kevin Zeese, president of 
Common Sense for Drug Policy.
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