HUTCHINSON STARTS COMMITTEE HEARING TODAY FOR DEA POST

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- An Arkansas congressman who prosecuted Bill Clinton's
half-brother on a cocaine charge and later pressed for Clinton's
impeachment is expected to easily pass a Senate committee review today and
eventually become the nation's top drug-enforcement officer.

"Unless I mess up real bad, I've got a shot at it," Rep. Asa Hutchinson
said Monday.

President Bush has nominated Hutchinson, R-Ark., to head the 9,000-
employee Drug Enforcement Administration. Hutchinson goes before the Senate
Judiciary Committee with the backing of 14 Democratic colleagues on the
House Judiciary panel.

The panel members wrote to Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt., of their "unqualified support" for Hutchinson, who is in his third
term as a congressman from northwestern Arkansas.

Leahy's committee takes up Hutchinson's appointment today. Arkansas' two
U.S. senators, Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat, and Tim Hutchinson, a
Republican and the congressman's brother, will speak on the congressman's
behalf.

"I think his chances are excellent," said Sen. Hutchinson, R-Ark. "The
Senate knew him from back in impeachment and both sides had a lot of
respect for him. Key members of the Judiciary Committee said they were
going to support Asa."

He said Leahy and another key Democrat even called him to say they would
back the senator's brother.

Asa Hutchinson says he will give up his congressional seat if confirmed.
His resignation will require a special election, probably this fall, to
pick a replacement for the rest of a two-year term that expires in early 2003.

The congressman spent part of Monday preparing for questions that might be
asked.

"It's easy to draw upon my experience, but I needed to look at what
different senators might be interested in," he said.

In 1999, Asa Hutchinson was one of 13 House members who went to the Senate
to argue for Clinton's impeachment over lies told in the Monica Lewinsky
affair. The Senate acquitted the president. Hutchinson said he doesn't
expect his service as a House impeachment manager to be a major factor.

"I haven't had any indication of any problem. Most of the senators,
Democrats and Republicans, and I have developed a good relationship," he said.

In the 1980s, as U.S. Attorney for western Arkansas, Hutchinson prosecuted
Roger Clinton on a drug charge, winning a guilty plea that Bill Clinton
later called "the best thing that ever happened" to his half-brother.

Asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee to list the top 10 "most
significant" cases that he handled, Hutchinson listed two drug cases,
including the one that included Roger Clinton's guilty plea.

"It was a significant case," Hutchinson said. "Even though the quantities
were not as large as some others, it was a major statement that cocaine was
not a socially acceptable drug."

If the Senate Judiciary Committee approves Hutchinson's nomination, it will
be sent to the full Senate. "I think he's going to be moving quickly,"
Lincoln said. "His history and experience all lead to this, point to
someone who is a natural for the job."