WASHINGTON — John Boehner slides into a blue leather chair, tilts his head back, closes his eyes and paws at the air. “I'm still finding my way,” he groans to visitors from back home, who don't buy it at all.

        They know this is the John Boehner who roared into Congress as a Republican maverick and soared to the top of the GOP leadership as a first lieutenant to Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1994.

        But they also know that after he was shoved aside two years ago, he has come all the way back, today leading President Bush's attempts to reform education, the president's top legislative priority.

THE BOEHNER FILE

• Personal: age 51; lives in West Chester Township; married, two daughters.     • In his sixth term as representative of the 8th Congressional District of Ohio. The district covers all of Butler County and all or part of several rural counties to the north and east. Boehner     • On Jan. 4, Mr. Boehner was selected by House Republicans to chair the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the committee on which he has served since his first term.     • As a freshman, Mr. Boehner and fellow members of the reformist “Gang of Seven” closed the House Bank, uncovered abusive practices at the House Restaurant and exposed drug sales and cash-for-stamps deals at the House Post Office.     • In 1994, Mr. Boehner passed an amendment allowing school districts to use their federal Title I funds for public school choice programs, under which parents could choose which public school their children would attend.     • He was instrumental in fashioning the Contract with America, the 100-day agenda for the 104th Congress.     • He was House Republican Conference Chairman in the 104th and 105th Congress, the fourth-ranking Republican position in the House.     • Mr. Boehner was active in the fight to force Congress to stick to the strict spending limits in the Balanced Budget Act.     • He chaired the House Working Group on Financial Services Modernization, which in 1998 passed legislation in the House to reform America's Depression-era banking and financial laws.     • In the 106th Congress, Mr. Boehner led efforts for expanded health care access and HMO reform.

        The Ohio congressman's extraordinary bounce-back is a story of persistence and opportunity.

        To his constituents in Butler County and TV news viewers everywhere, Mr. Boehner is the congressman with the crisp suit, stylish tie, smooth tan.

        But after the midterm elections of 1998, he and other GOP leaders were rattled. Republicans looked for sacrifices after surprising losses that year, the elections in which they thought they'd finish off the Democrats tainted by President Clinton's scandals.

        Mr. Gingrich, the party's visionary, had become a caricature and quickly opted to resign. Mr. Boehner, who as chairman of the House Republican Conference was the party's fourth-most powerful House lawmaker, was replaced by Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts.

        Others hung on, only to watch, dumbfounded, as Mr. Clinton escaped from a sex and perjury rap with higher job-approval ratings than his conservative accusers.

        Insiders dished that Mr. Boehner, 51, would leave politics and cash in on the contacts he made within business and interest-group circles. He didn't exactly need a payday — he has money from Nucite Sales, a packaging company he helped build in West Chester Township. But he didn't need a demotion back to the herd, either.

        “I knew within a day or two what path I was going to follow,” he said. “I've watched people go through difficult times and fold up their tent and shrink. I knew that was not me. I was not going to do it.”

        Instead, he turned to issues over intrigue. He led Republicans on health care reform, arguing that a patients' bill of rights with an unlimited ability to sue over disputed medical decisions would be costly and could cause more people to lose coverage.

        He sought to give workers better advice about retirement savings and more access to stock options. He proposed that farmers receive a break from estate and capital gains taxes and get special tax-free savings accounts so they could put aside money to carry them through lean years.

        And he used his network of business contacts to raise more than $1 million for Republican candidates around the country through the Freedom Project, his political action committee.

        In January, Republicans made Mr. Boehner chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, the panel that will oversee Mr. Bush's education-reform package.

        The same traits that drive men and women to enter politics — philosophy, ambition, passion — can also persuade them to overcome temporary detours.

        “These things don't go away simply because he lost his leadership position,” said David Rohde, a political science professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., who studies congressional politics. “It can make a member reluctant to quit and do something else. You can work your way back.”

        Mr. Boehner's bounce-back was not universally popular. Some on Capitol Hill were alarmed that Republicans snubbed several moderates in line for committee chairmanships in favor of conservatives. Liberals saw the shuffle, which bypassed traditional seniority preferences, as proof that Republicans are guided by conservatives despite Mr. Bush's flirtation with the political center during the presidential campaign.

        Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., had seniority on the Education and the Workforce Committee and was interested in the chairman's job. But he lost out to Mr. Boehner, who has better connections within the party. Mr. Petri was publicly diplomatic about the slight, but his staff sent out a press release that complained their boss was “caught up in a purge of moderate Republicans.”

        The chairmanship would not have been available at all were it not for the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, engineered by Mr. Gingrich with lawmakers such as Mr. Boehner by his side.

        Mr. Boehner had been one of the “Gang of Seven” freshmen who hounded Democrats in the early 1990s about slippery ethics and entrenched power, exposing a check-kiting scandal among lawmakers at the House bank.

        After they took control, Republicans instituted a six-year term limit on commit tee chairmanships to prevent lawmakers from building their own kingdoms. The rule forced several veterans out this year and opened the coveted assignments to those who have the desire — if not always the seniority — to take charge.

        For practical purposes for people back home, a congressman becoming a committee chairman may make little or no difference in the way he represents a district. In fact, a chairman could become so occupied with a single issue that routine local concerns may be neglected or delegated to staff.

        But a chairman has great power in Washington, not only over the committee's jurisdiction, but also with other lawmakers and federal officials who understand the hierarchy of congressional politics. Influential chairmen often have the ear of the party's leadership and enhanced bargaining clout over legislation.

        “Your day is spread a lot thinner. You work more hours. But nobody gets into that role without understanding that,” said Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, the vice chair of the House Republican Conference. “You just have to have a crackerjack staff, which John does and always has had.”

        Mr. Boehner has not been challenged seriously since he was first elected in 1990 to represent the mostly suburban and rural district around Cincinnati and Dayton, where many voters are fiscal and social conservatives.

        Conservative on taxes and social policy, Mr. Boehner was one of the lawmakers behind the “Contract with America,” the manifesto that united Republicans as they took power in 1994. He thinks most Americans agree with the party on issues and that its biggest fault over the past few years may have been public relations.

        “He's a natural politician,” said Richard Forgette, an associate professor of political science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. “The institution needs leaders to function, and they tend to come from districts that are safe.

        “He's politically attuned. He's been concerned with agriculture, small business and regulatory policy,” Mr. Forgette said. “He's not the kind of member who only wants to bring home the pork to his district. It's not his style.”

        Mr. Boehner has sent out 1,500 copies of the Bush education package to educators in Ohio for feedback, an indication the chairman is interested in a robust debate.

        Mr. Bush has proposed annual proficiency tests for students in third to eighth grades and more decision-making power at the state and local levels. Parents also would be eligible for $1,500 for private-school tuition or tutoring if their children are stuck in failing public schools after three years.

        Democrats and many educators strongly oppose tuition vouchers because they say the money for parents would be diverted from the worst public schools, which would leave students who remain with even fewer resources.

        Mr. Boehner said people have to have accountability — some kind of “hammer” — for reform to succeed.

        “I don't think we have any choice,” he said. “At some point in our society, we have to intercept young people who are in trouble.”

        Mr. Boehner acknowledges he doesn't have close ties to educators or much history with education policy. He scheduled field hearings in Florida, Georgia, California and Illinois to collect opinions. But he appreciates the bottom line.

        “It's not my job to impose my will on the committee and the Congress,” he said. “My job is to move the (Bush) agenda.”

        Michael Resnick, associate executive director of the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va., said many educators have qualms about Mr. Bush's proposal and questions about Mr. Boehner's outlook.

        “His focus has not been on elementary and secondary education,” he said. “But he seems open to hearing ideas from the education community. I regard that, in this era, as an opportunity to work with a chairman.”

        People who have spent time with Mr. Boehner consider him a Republican partisan but open to other viewpoints.

        Dan Danner, senior vice president at the National Federation of Independent Business, was among the business and interest-group executives who used to meet weekly to discuss strategy with Mr. Boehner when he was conference chairman.

        “John is a great listener,” said Mr. Danner, who grew up in Middletown. “That is, in many circles, a lost talent. People trust him, and that's not the case with every legislator.”

        Mr. Boehner, who has ambitions of being House speaker one day, has agreed to work cooperatively with liberal Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee. He said he wants the committee to be judged by how successful he is at defusing the partisanship that often defined it in the past.

        However, in his first few weeks, Mr. Boehner has had to suppress a revolt from Democrats angry over his decision to move minority higher education to a new subcommittee that also will review juvenile crime and child abuse.

        Mr. Boehner said the change would bring more committee attention to minority education, but Democrats saw it a slight. They have threatened to boycott their subcommittee assignments in a symbolic act of defiance.

        “I've spent a career breaking china around here,” Mr. Boehner told educators recently. “I guess I'll have to break a little more.”

Family Services chief quits
Rival parks vying for most thrilling
Ohio a thrill-seekers' delight
Hospital may move to Warren County
Record to list abusive workers
Comair shows pilots offer
Freedom Center ups fund goal
Peebles Corner targeted in crackdown on drug deals
SAMPLES: Nominations
Surgeon to present findings on procedure to save knees
Boehner bounces back on Capitol Hill
Water tower bout goes to 2nd round
HOWARD: Neighborhoods
MCNUTT: City of Sculpture
Plea heard in sex case
Abortion foe to leave seat on fiscal court
AK Steel will pay to clean up Pa. creek
Burned man ID'd after four months
City tips cap to friends in D.C.
Defendant takes county to court with him
Dogs stolen for fights, some think
Eatery signs on for Port Bellevue
Ex-Gov. Rhodes hospitalized
Foundation gets money for grants in Appalachian region
Guard to face charge over fatal crash
Jail staff reviews security after escape of two inmates
Man awaits extradition to Ky. in missing-body case
More large dogs stolen
Portune: Drop home-loan rates in county
Survivor leaned on Bingham after fire accident
Townsfolk deplore media fuss
UK football probe finds violations
Va. attorney general to lead anti-drug force
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report