Rep. Pete Stark won't become interim chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Stark, D-Fremont, was the next-most-senior Democrat on the tax-writing committee after former Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., 79, who temporarily stepped aside Wednesday pending the conclusion of an Ethics Committee probe into his corporate-paid travel. House rules said Stark, 78, would automatically ascend to the chair unless he declined, or unless House Democrats voted to pass him over. But other Democrats on the committee reportedly were concerned about Stark's hot-tempered tendencies — which has included some eye-watering tirades and blunt speech on the House floor, in...
