ASHINGTON - Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire, who bid the Republican Party a scathing farewell last July, has made numerous overtures about returning to the GOP fold after barely 100 days as an independent, congressional officials said yesterday.
These officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Smith's gestures include attendance at a party fund-raising dinner and conversations with senior Republicans.
These overtures began well before Senator John Chafee's unexpected death Sunday, these officials said. But the process appears to be accelerating because the Rhode Island Republican's death created a vacancy at the head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee - a chairmanship Smith is eager to have.
Smith declined to comment on his plans earlier in the week, telling a reporter it was ''not appropriate'' to discuss political issues until after Chafee's funeral this weekend. However, he did not deny considering a return to the GOP, saying, ''I'm just not going to say anything right now.''
Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is in line for the chairmanship, holding the greatest seniority among the panel's GOP members. But several sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Smith wants to retain his seniority rights if he returns to the GOP, a move that would allow him to take the chairmanship.
While Republicans have publicly maintained that the issue will not be addressed until after Chafee's funeral services, sources said Smith and Inhofe participated in a discussion of the chairmanship issue at a closed-door meeting of several conservative Republican senators.
Smith, a conservative who had been seeking the GOP presidential nomination, quit the party in July with a blast of vitriol.
''We won the revolution on issues. We won the revolution on principle,'' he said in a Senate speech that retraced Ronald Reagan's rise to power and the GOP takeover of the House and Senate in 1994.
''But the desire to stay in power caused us to start listening to the pollsters and the consultants again, who were telling us for some inexplicable reason that we need to walk away from issues. ...''
''I want my party to stand for something,'' he said, contending that Republicans routinely ignored their party platform on issues such as abortion, foreign policy and gun control.
Smith said then that he would seek the presidential nomination of a third party. But shortly thereafter, his wife became ill. His presidential campaign has been invisible for months.
In the days leading up to Smith's announcement, a string of GOP leaders criticized him. Jim Nicholson, the Republican National Committee chairman, wrote Smith a letter that called the defection a ''serious mistake for you personally, with only a marginal political impact - and a counterproductive one at that.''
''It's petty and it's vindictive and it's insulting,'' Smith said of Nicholson's missive when he announced his switch in July.
In recent weeks, though, Republican officials have said Smith has talked with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and other senior GOP lawmakers about a return to the Republican Party. He also has spoken with Nicholson.
