HOUSE COMMITTEE BAN BLASTED BY TOP DEM

Aplan by House Republican leadersto dismantle at least five committees came under a scathing attack by a senior Democrat today. Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, the Democratic Whip, told reporters that the proposal to abolish the ethics committee "is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy" and hinted that the move was motivated by Newt Gingrich, the future House speaker, trying to hide his own ethical problems. Calling the GOP transition group the "extreme team," he warned of their conservative plans. Bonior's remarks are the first Democratic response to a plan by 30 GOP House members abolish committees such as Post Office and Civil Service, Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Small Business, Standards of Official Conduct and the District of Columbia. If adopted, the plan would signal the most most sweeping changes in House operations in a half century.