FALL, RISE OF ASA HUTCHINSON

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Asa Hutchinson has moved up another rung in his
improbable climb from political purgatory to national prominence with
his nomination to head the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration.

After passing over Hutchinson for a top Justice Department office,
President Bush tapped the former federal prosecutor to direct one of
the nationís top law enforcement arms. The DEA has 9,100 employees and
a $1.5 billion budget.

The president was looking for a someone with a high profile and law
enforcement know-how to run his war on drugs. Hutchinson fit the bill.

One Arkansas police chief remembered Hutchinson from his U.S. attorney
days as being "a real law-and-order guy, ... real tough on dopers,"
and the congressman emerged from the Clinton impeachment as a national
Republican spokesman.

Just five years ago, Hutchinson was an also-ran in Arkansas
politics.

He filed papers to run for the 100-member state House of
Representatives in 1996, after failed statewide races for U.S. Senate
a decade earlier and for attorney general in 1990. He had headed the
state Republican Party from 1990-1995, but was not a shoo-in for the
Arkansas House.

Then the political dominoes began falling his way.

Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat, grudgingly resigned following his May
1996 Whitewater convictions and Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee
ascended to governor, forfeiting his position as front-runner for the
U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat David Pryor.

Huckabeeís withdrawal from the Senate race left a void that
Hutchinson's brother, then-U.S. Rep. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., was
reluctant to fill. Republican leaders eventually talked him into
giving up his safe U.S. House seat to take Huckabeeís place as the
U.S. Senate nominee.

Tim Hutchinsonís decision left an opening for brother Asa to jump out
of a legislative contest and into a race for the U.S. House.

He defeated Democrat Ann Henry by more than 30,000 votes in staunchly
conservative northwest Arkansas that year and was not threatened in
two re-election campaigns.

Democrats put up no opposition in 2000 despite Asa Hutchinson's votes
to impeach President Clinton and his role as a House manager in
Clintonís trial before the Senate.

The congressman rose to national stature during dark days in
Washington. He won praise as a moderating influence during House
impeachment deliberations, and as one of the more capable House
prosecutors during the Senate impeachment trial.

Soon after Bush's election, speculation ran high that the new
president would name Asa Hutchinson to a high-level Justice Department
position, perhaps deputy attorney general.

The congressman responded diplomatically to being passed over for the
post in January, saying Bush's selection of Atlanta lawyer Larry
Thompson as Attorney General John Ashcroftís top deputy offered the
best of both worlds. The Justice Department was gaining a top-quality
deputy attorney general, Hutchinson said, and he would have the
privilege of continuing to represent the 3rd District.

Now, pending Senate confirmation, he will have the privilege of
leaving life as an elected official and entering life as an appointed
one.