Why in the world would a powerful former committee chairman and current ranking Republican of a committee as powerful as Energy and Commerce want to throw away his House clout, only to become the most junior member of the United States Senate, ranking behind even Roland W. Burris and Al Franken?
That's the question that has Capitol Hill veterans scratching their heads as they read about Texas Republican Joe L Barton's possible interest in making a play for the U.S. Senate seat soon to be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has signalled plans to resign the seat to focus on her contest with Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the 2010 Texas GOP nomination for governor.
CQ Politics' Greg Giroux has one idea -- under Texas's quirky law on special elections for U.S. Senate seats, Barton could make the run without having to give up his House seat.
But that doesn't really answer the question of why Barton would want to leave the House for the Senate.
Unless ... unless ... unless one looks at Barton's history.
Barton was first elected to the U.S. House in 1984, filling the seat vacated by Phil Gramm when Gramm moved to the Senate.
Barton made his first run for the Senate in 1993, when he and 23 others competed to fill the vacancy left by Lloyd Bentsen's departure to be Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary. That race eventually was won by Hutchison, who has held the seat since.
The following year, Barton made a play to become chairman of the Texas Republican Party. He won the support and endorsement of outgoing state chair Fred Meyer, but he lost at the state convention to conservative leader Tom Pauken.
Clearly, Barton is a man who's never wanted to let grass grow underneath the soles of his shoes.
But maybe the most important reason Barton is thinking of making a play for the Senate is the hidden reason -- the one that makes his Texas colleague, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Pete Sessions, lie awake at night: The thought that Republicans aren't going to be back in the majority in the House for a long time to come.
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