Rep. Howard Berman keeps a big Thermos behind his desk. That way, he never has to ask anyone to fetch coffee for him. The new House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman also picks up his own dry cleaning and drives his own car. It is a self-sufficiency that Berman has carefully nurtured over his 13 terms in Congress. Now that he has ascended to one of the most influential posts on Capitol Hill, succeeding the late Chairman Tom Lantos, he still rejects the trappings of power, and prefers to keep operating as a behind-the-scenes player. He even barred an Associated Press...