Gephardt out as House leader

WASHINGTON -- Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt intends to announce Thursday that he will not seek a new term as House Democratic leader, senior aides said.\nThe expected announcement would clear the way for a succession struggle among Democrats, who have been in the minority for eight years and lost seats to Republicans in midterm elections on Tuesday.\nGephardt has long signaled his interest in running for president in 2004, but it was not clear whether he would address that race when he announces his plans Thursday.\nTwo senior Democrats, Reps. Nancy Pelosi of California and Martin Frost of Texas, have already indicated they would run for party leader if Gephardt chose not to, and jockeying broke out even before word spread of the Missouri lawmaker's plans.\n"The country moved to the right yesterday and House Democrats won't win a majority by moving further to the left," said Tom Eisenhauer, spokesman for Frost, attempting to depict Pelosi as too liberal to lead the party back into power.\nSpokesman Brendan Daly responded for Pelosi. "It's not a matter of ideology. It's a matter of drawing a clear distinction between the Democratic and Republican Party on issues that the Democrats are united about and that the American people strongly support," he said. He cited education funding and Social Security as examples.\nRank-and-file Democrats are expected to meet next Thursday to pick the party's leaders for the Congress that convenes in January.\nGephardt flew to the capital from Missouri earlier in the day, and aides said then that he would spend his time making a decision about his plans. "If he chooses to run for minority leader we're confident he'll win," said his spokesman, Erik Smith.\nAt the same time, two members of the rank and file publicly prodded Gephardt to renounce another term as leader.\n"It is now clearly time for him to step down," said one, Rep. Peter Deutsch of Florida.\nSaid Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn.: "If Mr. Gephardt, or Dick, decides to run again, he should be prepared to face opposition. I think the caucus deserves -- the Democrats in the House, that is -- deserve to hear an alternative and deserve to hear another set of ideas and what another approach would look like." He spoke on CNN.\nGephardt, 61, was majority leader when the 1994 landslide swept the GOP into power in the House. He was elected minority leader several weeks later, and spent the next eight years attempting to return his party to power.