Commentary —

What Are Our Members Of Congress Doing Down There?

By William A. Collins

Pray ignore,

Each pithy quote;

All that counts,

Is how they vote.

Being a congressman from Connecticut is no picnic. Republicans must cohabit with a radical president and a House leadership profoundly out of step with Nutmeg values. Democrats are freer to bellow at the unraveling of American society, but still must assuage corporate bigwigs who donate to their campaigns. Lucky for them all that virtually every Congress member gets reelected anyway.

But other tribulations intrude. Chris Shays, for example, lost his vice chairmanship of the House Budget Committee due to his insufficient ardor in slashing social programs. Conversely, he retained a subcommittee chairmanship on security affairs because of his exuberant support of the war. Win some, lose some.

Rob Simmons had better watch it too. Not that he holds any important posts, but he has expressed both private and public doubts about the undermining of Social Security. You don’t get promoted that way, even if you’re otherwise painfully loyal. Meanwhile Nancy Johnson has solidified her party position as a major health leader. Alone among our lawmakers she swallowed hard and voted for the shameless shrinkage of jurisdiction of the San Francisco Federal Appeals Court. (The GOP felt it had gotten too liberal.) You could get invited to the White House for buying into that one.

On the Democratic side, John Larson likewise lacked the fiber to oppose a flag-waving resolution supporting the right of the military to recruit on campuses that don’t want it. Only Rosa DeLauro stood her ground in opposition.

All our folks, though, respond briskly to Connecticut’s militant women. Every one voted against the ban on late-term abortions. That unanimity was heroic, but unsurprisingly, doomed. (Don’t worry; Connecticut has its own protection.)

Much more partisan was the vote to weaken House ethics rules to let Tom Delay avoid investigation of his manifold improprieties. All Republicans supported the cover-up.

The coddling of corporations offers another useful yardstick for measuring legislator performance. In October Congress passed a huge windfall gift to companies, particularly those repatriating foreign profits. All three Republicans voted for it while both Democrats were against. More complex was the Senate. Our two Democrats normally stay pretty cozy with Wall Street, but Chris Dodd couldn’t sit still for this giveaway. Joe Lieberman could.

They split as well on confirming Alberto “Torture Man” Gonzales as attorney general. Lieberman went along, Dodd opposed. Both though, stood with the National Association of Manufacturers in shifting all victims’ class action lawsuits from state court to the more corporate-friendly federal courts. In doing so they incurred the ire of the Consumer Federation of America, but this will probably not cost them any sleep or many votes. Lieberman at least supported an amendment that would have let civil rights cases stay in local courts. Dodd opposed even that.

By now, we can see that each lawmaker’s record is a confusing tapestry of conscience and convenience. Public and private interests intertwine. Overall, here is how they rate with Americans for Democratic Action, a long-established liberal watchdog group: DeLauro — 100, Larson — 100, Dodd — 95, Lieberman — 70, Johnson — 35, Shays — 30, Simmons — 20. You can be sure that the American Conservative Union would rank them just the other way ‘round.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk.)