Hyde re-energized by new role

This story, republished from our archives, first ran March 26, 2001.

WASHINGTON - Talk to Congressman Henry Hyde four months ago and you'd have found a man seriously mulling retirement.

"It very well could be my last term," the 76-year-old Wood Dale Republican said the day after winning his 14th term. "I have to do some thinking."

Consider the thought process finished. Hyde appears re-energized by his new role as chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Republican colleagues say he's entering the lofty arena of statesman.

"Henry Hyde is the archetypal patriarch. He has years of experience and wisdom that only elder statesmen have," said Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, who benefited from Hyde's early endorsement in 1998. "And he looks the part. He looks as though he's from central casting. That doesn't hurt either."

The new assignment in foreign affairs also provides Hyde, as he enters the twilight of his political career, with a chance to secure his place in history as someone more than just the guy who led the impeachment hearings against President Clinton.

Hyde demurs at that notion, saying only that he's had a long-standing interest in world affairs since serving a year-and-a-half in combat in the Philippines during World War II.

"You live one day at a time," Hyde said when asked if he was trying to cap his legacy with the latest chairmanship.

Hyde's opponent last fall, Lombard attorney Brent Christensen, said the new role owes more to the fact that House GOP term limits forced Hyde to leave his judiciary chairman post for another panel.

"I think he fancies himself a statesman and he's trying to pad his resume for the history books," Christensen said.

A look to his legacy

Generating controversy is nothing new to Hyde, who first gained national prominence for his fight against abortion during the 1980s. The Hyde Amendment restricts federal abortion funding.

But that paled in comparison to the attention Hyde garnered in 1998, when his job as House judiciary chairman meant he would be the one to preside over the Clinton impeachment inquiry and serve as lead prosecutor in the subsequent Senate trial.

In the electrically charged, partisan atmosphere of the impeachment investigation, Hyde suffered the embarrassing revelation that 30 years earlier, while in his 40s, he'd had an extramarital affair. He called it a "youthful indiscretion," providing fodder for the Leno and Letterman crowds.

At the time, Hyde said he was most hurt by the barrage of attacks on his integrity from Democrats who said his handling of the impeachment hearings was over-the-top partisan.

Have the wounds healed?

"Every day in every way," Hyde replies.

Although the saga no longer stings, he says, it obviously remains a big part of his life. On his office wall hangs an impeachment-era London Daily Telegraph story with the quintessentially British headline "They came in, two by two, to call for Clinton's head." Near it hangs a picture of the Senate rendering its verdict in favor of leaving Clinton in office.

The wounds also appear to be healing with colleagues like Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Springfield. The two clashed during impeachment but when asked about Hyde now, Durbin called him "one of the brightest members of the House."

For his part, Hyde said Clinton's agreement with prosecutors the day before leaving office - Clinton paid a $25,000 fine and surrendered his law license for five years for false testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case -"vindicated the effort we made to impeach him.

"The spin that we were a right-wing conspiracy is swept away by his admission and license suspension," Hyde said. "What we were doing was an effort to vindicate the rule of law."

Historical perspective

Hyde's new role as chairman of a foreign affairs panel that traces its lineage back to Benjamin Franklin is somewhat fitting. After all, Hyde has something in common with Franklin and other long-ago luminaries you read about in American history class: they're politicians who served their country in several different roles. That's a rarity in the modern era.

Hyde can approach the job from a historical perspective. A look at the walls of his office would provide a pretty fair picture book of the last 50 years. Photos of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Boris Yeltsin and even Bob Hope line the walls.

Hyde has previous foreign relations experience, serving on the committee during the 1980s. Congressman Mark Kirk, a Wilmette Republican and student of foreign affairs, remembers Hyde for his role in bringing about a democratic election in Nicaragua that toppled the Sandinistas from power.

But Hyde now is struggling with the same dilemma as just about every U.S. foreign policy expert: how to come up with a long-term vision of the country's international relations in the post-Cold War era.

"Despite our power, we must resist the temptation of believing we can fix every problem, indulge in every wish," Hyde said two weeks ago at a hearing with Secretary of State Colin Powell. "Part of our strategy must be to decide what we cannot do, what we choose not to do and to ensure that others take up their responsibilities.

"I raise this issue not because I have a ready solution to offer, but because I fear no one else does either," the congressman said.

Hyde lists increasingly distanced relations with Europe, the long-standing distant relationship with Mexico, and policies in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America as areas that need to be addressed. Hyde suggests using trade laws as the hook to bend foreign countries around to our way of thinking.

Not much has happened in the nearly three months of Hyde's tenure. Hyde did support President Bush's air strikes on Iraq last month, and even called for helping rebels against Saddam Hussein. Two weeks ago, Hyde took a hard-line stance against Communist North Korea on its nuclear capabilities.

But it is increasingly tough to bring the importance of foreign policy home to Main Street.

In fact, Christensen, who said he will run against Hyde if he seeks another term next year, suggests Hyde should have used his influence to become chairman of the transportation committee.

Hyde defends international relations as important to his district, which has companies that trade overseas. Beyond that, Hyde says, "war and peace couldn't be more fundamental."

Hyde also confirms he will not be retiring. He's likely to stay in Congress as long as he can remain chairman.

"Every time I think about retirement, I look around and I say, what will I do with myself?" Hyde said. "I have a lively interest. I feel I can be very productive."