Congress: Life Among the Ruins
In the wake of the House Bank scandal, the bad news got worse-and real work came to a halt
It was as if the House, never much in order, had finally imploded. Just days after truant check writers started jetting home to apologize, the House postmaster resigned amid a new money scandal. Republicans called the Democratic majority corrupt; Democrats accused their leaders of abandonment. One nervous member joked about outfitting Congress in "No Excuses" jeans. But there was no laughter when Illinois primary voters ousted Democrat Charles Hayes, one of the House's top check kiters.
The bad news just got worse. Attorney General William Barr took the bank matter out of congressional hands late last week, naming a retired federal judge to look into the mess--a possible first step to the appointment of a special prosecutor. A few contrite rubber barons admitted to floating checks unwittingly to their re-election campaigns. Then there was the House post office, where three staffers already have admitted to embezzlement. Last week, a federal grand jury--as well as an internal House investigation--began to examine whether the post office offered members some potentially illegal privileges: convenient, interest-free floats that allowed members to cash checks and wait several months before covering the sums; free cash withdrawals using vouchers ostensibly written to pay for stamps for "official" mailings. Sources also told U.S. News that more than 20 members with campaign post-office boxes off Capitol Hill may have used House postal employees to retrieve mailed contributions, a possible violation of federal law.
No more perks. As the charges and rumors exploded, the real business of government came to a halt. Democrats needed a strategy to put their issues--like middle-class tax cuts--back on the front page. Yet Topic A for the anxious and embattled House Speaker Tom Foley late last week was a package of internal reforms--including raising the $100 annual fee for the House gym and ending no-cost prescription drugs and free parking. "Why didn't we do this two years ago?" sniffed one member. At least Democrats could hope that the mea culpas of former GOP colleagues like Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and his fellow cabinet members Lynn Martin and Edward Madigan would defuse Democrats' culpability. But they fretted that party discipline would fall apart. "You can't count on votes when survival is the issue," says House Budget Committee Chairman Leon Panetta.
House Republicans had problems of their own. GOP Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia, who considers the scandal his party's best chance to root out Democratic incumbents, was furious at Bush's tepid early response. But the president lashed out at the end of the week, calling the Democrat-dominated Congress a bastion of "PACS, perks, privilege and paralysis." Lawmakers "cannot manage a tiny bank or a tiny post office," Bush said. Others predicted that troubled Republicans would be more likely than Democrats to lose seats over the bank scandal, since they represent the more unforgiving surburban and rural districts. The polls, meantime, show that half the nation's voters now disapprove of their own members. And the newest anger focused on an easy-money culture--run in a way that courted abuse, even fraud. It is, explains Texas Democrat Charles Wilson, who bounced 81 checks valued at $143,857, "an invitation to carelessness."
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