Speaker Howell wrestles the GOP restless

Even before fellow Republicans blew smoke in his face over tougher controls on puffing in public, Bill Howell was reminded that, like Rodney Dangerfield, he sometimes gets no respect.

Despite a brief, embarrassing revolt, Howell ultimately steered his feisty and fractious caucus behind restrictions on smoking in restaurants, providing the glib but prickly House speaker and Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine potent talking points for November.

The episode is a reminder that the House GOP is not a caucus. It is a cluster of cliques -- some rooted in right-wing ideology, others in reliable districts -- and led by pretenders to the speakership: Morgan Griffith, Phil Hamilton, Kirk Cox and Clarke Hogan. Howell must beware of them better than Julius Caesar was his enemies on the Ides of March.

Even as an accidental speaker, Howell has something many of his presumed rivals lack: credibility with business, which continues steering checks his way despite distaste for a GOP rank-and-file that increasingly occupies the political fringe.

Howell wasn't looking for the job when he replaced Vance Wilkins after a 2002 sex-capade. And because Howell was handed the speaker's gavel rather than landed it, he has never amassed the chits that translate to loyalty.

The anti-smoking initiative may have been the easiest issue on which Howell, who is fond of cigars of Churchillian proportions, found common cause with Kaine. In doing so, Howell is supplying a fig leaf of relevance to Republicans seen as out of step with increasingly Democratic suburban voters.

But House Republicans were anything but cooperative on Howell's other big -- and unreported -- legislative objective: a perceived, and unsuccessful, assault on trial lawyers.

On Jan. 22, the House Commerce and Labor Committee killed a measure by its chairman, Terry Kilgore, carried on Howell's behalf. It would shield Crown Cork & Seal from liability from a shuttered asbestos-insulation plant sold by operator Mundet Cork three months after Mundet was acquired by Crown in 1963.

Crown, with operations in Suffolk and Winchester, never manufactured or sold asbestos products. But because of "successor liability" -- that through merger, a parent company inherits the legal headaches of the firms it snaps up -- Crown has been slammed with nearly $600 million in asbestos claims.

Crown, which has contributed $41,500 to lawmakers in both parties, including $3,000 to Howell's political-action committee, had an unlikely ally in its quiet quest for relief here: union machinists.

Committee action on the Crown legislation, inspired by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council and managed by seven top lobbyists, apparently recalled the Keystone Kops.

Tipped that the bill was imperiled, an annoyed Howell dashed to the meeting, where he pressed some of the five Republicans who had opposed the measure to reconsider. But it was too late.

Is it too late for Howell's speakership? Don't bet on it. Howell has opposition for his seat in Stafford, meaning he'll have less cash to sprinkle around the state. Howell and his GOP majority may have an insurance policy in low turnouts and artful redistricting -- not to mention sporadic Democratic infighting. But unlike Republicans, they try to quarrel in private.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 6496814 or . Watch his video column Thursdays on inRich.com. Listen to his analysis Fridays at 8:33 a.m. on WCVE radio (88.9 FM).