When the Democrats took Congress, they threw a wrench into the political plans of New Jersey Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Smith.

    By far Congress' most vocal voice on international human-rights issues, Smith had been angling for the influential chairmanship of the House International Relations Committee, where he served as vice chairman.

    Instead, when the Democrats took power, Smith lost that bully pulpit - as well as the chairmanship of a key subcommittee on global affairs.

    He is one of many Republicans who saw high-profile power evaporate with yesterday's party changeover in Congress. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), for example, lost the powerful chairmanship of the Judiciary committee.

    In an interview yesterday, Smith said he had gotten over his disappointment and was determined to continue pushing his agenda.

    "Maybe if I hadn't been in the minority for 14 years I wouldn't have that sense, but you just make it work," Smith said.

    Smith has for years hopscotched the globe decrying conditions in Darfur and China, Northern Ireland and Romania. He commanded hearings on World Cup brothels and international adoptions. He has sponsored legislation addressing torture victims and human trafficking.

    While Smith has been able to travel to almost two dozen international hot spots, Democrats now have to approve his travel.

    He can no longer call hearings, only request them. And whether his bills get posted at all now depends on the opposition party.

    Smith said yesterday that if he hit a dead end on legislation, he would try to attach it to other bills. He pointed out that while in the minority party, he successfully won millions in federal funding for immunizations in developing countries.

    And he said he now had higher hopes in a Democratic Congress for a bill that would withhold security aid to the Ethiopian government unless it met accountability measures. The bill, he said, had previously been killed by GOP leadership.

    Rutgers political science professor Ross Baker said he thought many of Smith's bills would find more support in the new Congress. "It's ironic, but in some ways, for the things he cares about, he may find the Democrats much more welcoming than the Republicans," he said.

    And Democrats eager to demonstrate bipartisanship could use any support of Smith's human-rights measures as an example. Smith is otherwise a social conservative who is adamantly antiabortion.

    "I think the issues - aside from abortion - that Smith has championed are bipartisan issues," Baker said.

    Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said he now had more hope in a Democratic-controlled Congress for a bill Smith sponsored last year that would make it a crime for Internet companies to turn over personal information to governments that use it to suppress dissent.

    A cosponsor of the bill, Malinowski said, is U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D., Calif.), who won the coveted chairmanship of the the international relations committee.

    "Having control of Congress is not the same thing as controlling the agenda," Malinowski said. "There's a president in the White House who plays the leading role in foreign policy. For Congress to move the administration on international human rights issues, there will be a need for bipartisan cooperation."

    Smith represents parts of Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean Counties, and has burnished his reputation while leading dozens of missions abroad.

    During the Clinton administration, Smith garnered attention for managing to hold up State Department spending over his opposition to abortion. He pushed a measure that would have denied support for international family planning programs that used federal money to support abortion rights.

    Most recently, he traveled to refugee camps in Sudan's troubled Darfur region in 2005. He also was a leading voice in urging President Bush to appoint a special envoy to Darfur.

    Smith also chaired the subcommittee on Africa, global human rights and international operations, which will now be taken over by another New Jersey congressman, Democrat Donald Payne.

    A Smith ally, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R., Va.), who has traveled with Smith to China and Moscow on human-rights missions, said the lack of a formal title would not diminish Smith's power on the issue.

    Not only is Smith a "bulldog," Wolf said, he's also one of the few politicians unafraid of jeopardizing business deals with countries such as China.

    "So few people are speaking out on these issues... but Chris has never been afraid to - whether he's in the minority or the majority," Wolf said.