THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512220402
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
Monday morning, just before driving back to Washington for another plunge into the meat grinder once known as the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Owen B. Pickett was asked the question on the lips of a lot of angry citizens.
``Just what in the name of God are you guys doing up there?''
Pickett, along with every other elected federal official, has heard the question in one form or another for weeks.
With the government in a nominal shutdown - one that inconveniences only the governed, not those who govern - and political leaders calling one another names in public that one should not call a rodent in private, Pickett could only shake his head and concede, ``The exercise we're going through right now is totally uncalled for.''
``Shutting down the government,'' he said, ``isn't any way to do business. It's a bad reflection on everybody. It's inexcusable and simply should not be permitted.''
Pickett, a Democrat who for nine years has represented most of Norfolk and Virginia Beach in Congress, said in a lengthy interview that he's hearing no small amount of anger from people in the district.
``They are cynical and upset,'' he said, ``and very severe in their criticism. They say things like, `What's wrong up there?' and `Why can't you settle your differences? Who's in charge?' ''
That last question - Who's in charge? - is at the crux of the Capitol's political meltdown and is not answered simply.
Pickett and his Democrat colleagues started the year overwhelmed by Republican revolutionaries who had promised a bouquet of reforms, the central flower of which would be a balanced budget.
Though the Republicans hold majorities in the House and the Senate, they generally are not strong enough to overturn vetoes by President Clinton. And Clinton, to date, has proved unwilling to roll over for the tax cuts and spending overhauls the Republican majority is demanding.
Pickett, for his part, is a member of the centrist ``Blue Dog'' faction that is pushing for a balanced-budget plan that pretty much splits the differences between the White House and congressional Republicans. It would offer less in tax breaks across the board, and would soften the cuts in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid spending.
The ugly, running battle over the budget is a political fight, Pickett said, not the fiscal Armageddon the public has been led to believe - although that could be the outcome, he said, if the issue isn't settled soon.
``There is an attempt to perpetrate the notion,'' he said, ``that the country somehow is in some sort of crisis, and that is simply not true. The country is as good a shape today as it's been in my lifetime.
``I'm convinced that if we are going to get to a balanced budget - and I support a balanced budget - that keeping the economy healthy is an absolute must.''
The public, Pickett said, ``sees it all as a game. But it has limits as to how far you can go, stopping the government. If there is a default on U.S. obligations, that could cause such financial apprehensions around the world that it could tip confidence and cause financial and economic disaster.''
Six hours after Pickett said that, the New York Stock Exchange closed with a loss of more than 100 points, its worst day in more than a year. Economists blamed the budget deadlock.
It's not uncommon for a member of Congress, back in the district, to argue that he's as chagrined as anyone that the other 434 members of the House just won't listen to reason. It's one of the few defenses available in a season when the goings-on in Washington appear so mean and childish when viewed from anywhere outside the Beltway.
That meanness, though, is very real this year. Pickett said the mood of the Congress is ``sour,'' and growing more so every day.
``There is a lack of civility,'' he said, ``a lack of communication among members, a lack of mutual respect.'' At its core, he said, is ``too much commitment to ideology and not enough to the country as a whole.''
Not unexpectedly for a five-term Democrat, Pickett lays the blame on House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the cadre of freshman Republicans elected in 1994 to push through Gingrich's slate of reforms. The stridency of that newly elected group is such that they even turned on their leader on Wednesday, accusing Gingrich of compromising too readily in renewing budget talks with the White House.
The rancor among lawmakers this session has been disheartening, Pickett said.
``One particular moment that comes to mind was when a Republican on the floor called the president `a bugger.' Then, to compound that, there was a vote challenging the use of the word and the Republicans voted to condone it.
``And that's the kind of thing that causes really long-lasting bitterness. Intemperate language has become the norm rather than the exception.''
To date, 32 members of the House and 12 from the Senate have announced they will not seek re-election. It has been 100 years since so many members of Congress had announced this far out from the election that they would not be back. Pickett said the foul mood, and a chaotic, unpredictable work schedule in the House, are contributing to the defections.
``And that ain't all,'' he said. Two to three times that many members of congress may give up their seats before the 1996 elections, he said. The word in the hallways of the Capitol, he said, is that scores of lawmakers have discreetly asked what their pension would be if they retired after next year. One congressional source placed the number at nearly 100.
``Now that doesn't mean they'll all go,'' Pickett said, ``but it is an indication of where their minds are.''
Newsweek magazine's political analyst, Joe Klein, described that mindset: ``The true nature of (the dropouts') message wasn't difficult to discern: frustration with the rudeness of the beast, the hyperpartisanship of their colleagues, the vulgarity of the press . . . And it's likely to grow worse before it gets any better, even if the long-gnawed budget deal is done.''
Regardless of the final number, the retirements will guarantee a heavy turnover in Congress.
``And I think that it's the country's loss,'' Pickett said, ``because notwithstanding the public's opinion of how trivial and how easy everything is up there, the lack of institutional memory and the lack of expertise is going to be reflected in poor policy decisions.''
Pickett, though, will run again in 1996, and as a Democrat. His answer to both questions was a firm, but simple, ``yes.''
If Pickett seems troubled by losing so many colleagues, it may be because a great number of the retirees in the House and the Senate come from the political center, thus strengthening the influence of the ideological extremes of the two parties.
Centrists who earned their stripes through the art of comprise often are disparaged as weaklings. The mechanics of government have shifted from the congressional committee structure, Pickett said, which involves a wider cast of players from both parties in hashing out legislation, to a political game plan hatched by the two parties' leaders.
``This phenomenon should not go unnoticed and should not go unreported,'' he said, ``because I can't imagine anyone worth his salt that would want to be there and have virtually nothing to say about the decision-making process, even in a small way.
``If the decisions are all going to be dictated out of the speaker's office, then maybe we ought to just elect a speaker and a minority leader and the rest of us just stay home and save the money.''
The budget debate provides a handy example. On Monday, as Pickett headed back to Washington, Clinton, Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole were negotiating a summit meeting in which the three of them and selected aides would try to grind out a deal.
The voting schedule for the full House of Representatives, meanwhile, listed such pressing legislation as the ``Anti-Car Theft Improvements Act of 1995,'' the ``Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center Act,'' and the ``Smithsonian Institution Susquicentennial Commemorative Coins'' resolution.
The latter carried an embarrassing irony: While the nation's legislators were voting to approve a commemorative Smithsonian coin, the doors at the museums themselves were chained shut due to the budget crisis. ILLUSTRATION: Color file photo
OWEN B. PICKETT, on Congress: ``Too much commitment to ideology and
not enough to the country as a whole.''
KEYWORDS: U.S. CONGRESS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES U.S. SENATE
BUDGET SHUTDOWN by CNB