 In one of the few occasions in the 20th century when any party division was recorded on the initial leadership organizing votes on the House floor, he voted for the former Republican leader, Bob Michel, and received two votes himself, causing Leach to take a distant third in the contest for Speaker of the 105th Congress behind Gingrich and the Democratic nominee, Dick Gephardt.Leach was a top critic of President Bill Clinton and played a leading role in the House's investigation of the Whitewater scandal.In the 1980s he had objected to political misjudgments that lengthened and deepened losses in the savings and loan industry.