Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1993 TAG: 9301060295
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GOODLATTE GETS PRACTICE IN ART OF CUTTING DEALS
TUESDAY was Inauguration Day for the members of Congress. For the 6th District's new representative, it was a day of both pomp and politics.
Bob Goodlatte hadn't even been sworn in yet, and already the Roanoke Valley's new congressman was wheeling and dealing this week.
From the looks of things, he's got the hang of Washington. Just ask his mother, who was looking down from the House gallery Tuesday as her son took the oath of office as a member of Congress.
Her seat wasn't a congressional perk, mind you. It came courtesy of some old-fashioned congressional horse trading. The vote-swapping may come later; this week, Goodlatte was dealing inaugural tickets, and making some friends on the other side of the aisle in the process.
Forget all that high-sounding campaign rhetoric about reforming Congress; this is how the place still works:
On Monday, Goodlatte bumped into his political neighbor, Rep. L.F. Payne, in the congressional cafeteria.
Payne's a Democrat from Nelson County; Goodlatte's a Republican from Roanoke. But already the two have struck up a bipartisan friendship of the kind that yields curious results in Washington.
It began after November's election, when Payne invited Goodlatte to stop by for an introductory chat while they were both taking a vacation to Disney World.
That meeting never came off, but this cafeteria conference yielded more fruitful results for both sides, anyway.
Goodlatte casually mentioned that he didn't have much use for his office's allotment of tickets to Bill Clinton's swearing-in. Payne, who's been inundated with requests from Southside Democrats who want to visit Washington for the presidential inauguration, was delighted to find an extra cache of tickets.
Goodlatte also mentioned that, in return, he could sure use an extra ticket to the House gallery so his mother could witness his own inauguration Tuesday. After all, he had only been issued one, and that went to his wife, Maryellen.
Next thing you know, Payne offered to turn over his wife's gallery pass. After all, she's seen him in sworn in before.
So when Goodlatte encountered another inaugural-day crisis Tuesday morning - not enough floor passes to allow both of his children to stand with him as he took the oath of office - whom did he call?
Hint: Payne's kids have seen him sworn in before, too.
As Democrats go, Payne might be a good friend for Goodlatte to make: Payne was recently named to the Ways and Means Committee, a key money panel that will give him special influence during the Clinton administration.
Tuesday was mostly a day for ceremony on Capitol Hill. Congress won't get down to real business until after Clinton is sworn in Jan. 20.
Two busloads of supporters from Roanoke and Staunton made the trip to Washington to see Goodlatte inaugurated, although the closest the 100 Republican workers could get was to squeeze into Goodlatte's new congressional office and watch the proceedings on television.
Nevertheless, Goodlatte said, "they were a pretty excited bunch."
So, too, apparently was a Republican congressman from Pennsylania with the similar-sounding name of Goodling.
The House's main item of business Tuesday was the formality of a roll call vote to elect a speaker of the House. "When they called `Goodlatte,' he stood up and voted," Goodlatte said. "I laughed. I knew exactly what had happened."
When the clerk called for "Goodling," Goodlatte returned the favor.
That's something he's getting good at.
\ Contacting Rep. Bob Goodlatte\ \ In Washington: Phone: 202-225-5431. Write: 214 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515.
\ In Roanoke: For at least the next month, Goodlatte will be using the office that outgoing Rep. Jim Olin had in the former Coreast building at Church Avenue and 1st Street. Phone: 982-4672.
\ Goodlatte's staff: Tim Phillips, Goodlatte's campaign manager, will head his Washington staff. Steve Landes, a longtime aide to Augusta County Del. Pete Giesen and a prominent Republican activist, will move to Roanoke to head Goodlatte's district staff - the job Goodlatte himself once held under Rep. Caldwell Butler in the mid-1970s. One of Goodlatte's former rivals for the congressional nomination, former Rockingham County Del. Phoebe Orebaugh, a retired high school teacher, will run his Harrisonburg office. Goodlatte still is hiring staff for his offices in Lynchburg and Staunton.