The correlation of Republican forces in the House is lining up behind Dick Armey and Bill Paxon as the ticket to take over when and if Newt Gingrich steps down as speaker. Armey would be speaker, Paxon majority leader. ” There’s a certain symmetry to it,” says a Republican leader approvingly. Armey is from Texas, Paxon from New York. Armey is a policy wonk, Paxon a clever political strategist. Armey is strong with conservatives, Paxon has ties to moderates, especially those from the Northeast.
Why doesn’t Tom DeLay, the whip, move up? He’s from Texas, and Republicans won’t want two Texans as numeros one and two. He’ll stay on as whip. Why won’t Paxon, given his popularity among Republicans, run for speaker himself? He’s not ready (at age 42) and would probably lose to Armey anyway. And this way, he’ll have a few years to groom himself for speaker.
