Bill Bennett's Firm Friends

By RICHARD ZOGLIN/

That funny noise you hear in Washington is the sound of Republican mouths clamping shut after the selection of former drug czar William Bennett as chairman of the Republican National Committee. When Bennett's name was first floated, many Republican leaders howled privately about Bennett's late conversion to the party (he was a Democrat until 1986) and his dearth of political expertise. Once President Bush named his man, however, the bashers suddenly became boosters. One prominent, now silent opponent, according to White House sources: Republican pollster Robert Teeter, a close Bush adviser. Teeter denies any outcry. "It's not true," he says. "Bill and I have been friends a long time."

With reporting by David E. Thigpen