Ryan for Budget Committee Chair?

OpinionJournal's Political Diary is free today, and all I can say is: Ooooooo.

We're hearing that Rep. Bill Thomas of California, who now holds the lofty position of Ways and Means Committee chairman, will make a run for Budget Committee chairman next year. Rep. Thomas, the economic czar of the House, is one of the craftiest of all Republicans and a man who has an encyclopedic knowledge of budget and tax issues. But he also has earned a reputation for heavy-handedness. Ways and Means Committee members grouse that his management style is 'dictatorial' and 'iron-fisted.'

A Thomas power play for the Budget Committee chairmanship is guaranteed to ruffle feathers. Conservatives favor one of the younger, more reform-minded members of the Republican caucus to run the committee. Two names being pushed by Republican Study Committee members are Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Jeb Henserling of Texas. The two are cosponsors of the Family Protection Budget Act that would repeal the 1974 Budget Act, restoring the line-item veto and putting spending restraint back in the budget process.