Here is the why and the ingenious how behind the move by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to block two new buildings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta from being named after Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

It’s this: Hastert was “infuriated” to learn that the Senate approved naming the buildings for the two living, still-serving senators in the pending labor, health and human services bill it was sending to the House.

The Speaker, according to an aide, very deliberately wanted to embarrass the two senators, and he found a high-road way to do it. Hastert engineered a measure for the House to call for the structures to be named for Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks.

On Tuesday, the House in a voice vote renamed the two buildings for the untouchable heroines in a resolution sponsored by Reps. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Anne Northup (R-Ky.).

Davis told me that he got a call Tuesday from a staffer for the Speaker asking if he would be a co-sponsor of the resolution. He immediately agreed. Davis said he knew what Hastert was doing and did not mind being part of the plan to thwart the Harkin and Specter naming.

Nothing personal, Davis said, but “I think the Speaker was correct in terms of naming the buildings. It makes far more sense to name them for two women icons who have done everything that you can possibly do to help humanity and move it forward. I certainly think it would be more appropriate than naming the building after two members of Congress. … I was pleased to do it.”

Hastert then wrote a letter Tuesday to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) asking him to “lead the effort” to “get this historic legislation enacted expeditiously” in the Senate. The letter, floated to the press, did not address how the Senate would have to backtrack because the provision was already in the labor-HHS legislation.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said “Obama hasn’t seen the letter” when I asked what Obama intended to do with the Speaker’s request. Obama helped handle the Senate end of a bill by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) signed by President Bush to place a statue of Parks in the Capitol.

Davis said Hastert’s maneuvering hardly puts Obama in a bind with his Senate colleagues.

“I think Obama is very astute, has a great intellectual mind, understands politics and will make a decision in his best interests and in the best interests of the country,” Davis said.

The House may well end up having to vote Wednesday on a labor-HHS conference report with the Harkin-Specter naming language in it. Somewhere along the way — before any sign is ordered — when it comes to naming rights, I bet Congress trumps Harkin and Specter with Rosa Parks and Mother Teresa.

• Hastert fundraising. Hastert on Monday traveled to New Jersey to keynote a funder for Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-N.J.). Last week, Hastert was the draw name on a funder held at the Capitol Hill home of Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) for Illinois secretary of state candidate Dan Rutherford, a state senator, though he could not actually attend. Last Thursday, the Washington offices of the American Gas Association hosted a reception for the Hastert for Congress committee.

Late last month, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman headlined a Chicago funder for Hastert.

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it