Show Freshmen Congressmen: Finding Their Place on the Hill By Allan more Dodds Frank than money or fame greatest benefit that of Congress is the intense varied education' that the job provides Holding one of the 435 House seqts or the 10Q spots in the Senate is die greatest training possible in the problems and promises of life And for freshmen members of the 96th Congress elected in 1978 and approaching their first fights perhaps the most unusual les- son of 1980 has been given to them indirectly by the FBI Operation Abscam the FBI undercover operation that used agents posing as Arabs to lure Congressmen suspected of corruption has become a case study for new members of “the world’s greatest deliberative body” "Freshmen and at least potentially that trust has been violated” Many young Congressmen admit to being disturbed by the FBI’s use of middlemen — who claimed to be public trust have to keep their noses cleaner than dean" "It’s not ideology that divides peo- ple it's inhere they come from" Representative James M Shannon constituents in order to get appointments with some at their colleagues and then Tried to offer them bribes The youngest freshman James M Shannon a Democrat from Lawrence Mass says that Abscam taught him “how vulnerable people in pub&c life are There were lots of Congressmen approached by people they drought were approaching them in good faith on legitimate Representative Thomas A Daschle None of the 75 freshmen CongressSenators men nor the 20 has been implicated in Operation Abscam but all have felt its impact on their work The public furor about die seven senior House members and one Senator named in Abscam has affected the entire Congress freshmen members say by increasing people’s first-ter- m suspicions of corruption “It makes freshmen just starting out aware that they have to keep their noses cleaner than clean” says Representative Thomas A Daschle a Democratic freshman from Aberdeen SD “Another lesson is that the image the perception of what has happened is more at issue than the actual deed None of these people has been tried yet but they really have come to feel full bore wKat public attention to this kind of issue is going to do We are dealing with the the cover Back row from left George Thomas (Mickey) Leiand James M Shannon James A Courter Mid(R-JJ Thomas A Daschle (DSOJ Front dle row Kent R Hance row from left Olympia J Snows William R Ratchford On s) projects" Noting that several Congressmen have said they went to meetings with the undercover Arabs then rejected bribe overtures Shannon says “Those guys went blindly thinking they were going to help their constituents It just makes you wary of strangers at getting drawn into something the full implications of "You know Washington is a fishbowl but sometimes you forget" Representative Mickey Leiand understand” But Abscam has made them though wary many freshmen feel they can hardly afford to close their doors to strangers who claim to be representing someone interested in promoting a project beneficial to their home which you don’t districts Representative George Thomas (Mickey) Leiand a Democrat from Houston Texas says “Abscam sensitized me to the failings of humanity and made me forever cognizant that I can't yield to my human frailties because somebody invites me to talk about a particular issue You know when you get here that Washington DC is a fishbowl but sometimes you forget Abscam has made me realize more than ever that the integrity of a member of Congress must be guarded on a basis” Leiand is critical of the FBI’s use of middlemen in an effort to set diem up for possfole bribe offers “It’s a shame that we have an agency that would prod or test the integrity at human beings who happen to serve in the United States Congress or any legislative body” he says “Some innocent people have been caught up in this thing and the publicity has destroyed their integrity for life” Congresswoman Olympia J Snowe a Repubfcan bom Auburn Maine moment-to-mome- nt "The public thinks we are here stuffing our pockets with money" Raprw ntotiw Olympia J Snow summarizes the “discouragement” she says many of her freshmen colleagues felt when die Abscam stories broke in February: “It obviously brought a shadow over the whole institution The public thinks we are here stuffing our pockets with money and that is not really the case at aB There are instances of scandal and wrongdoing sector but that’s just not the ry norm" Snowe and other freshmen do believe however that Abscam has demonstrated die need for Congress to expel its own members who are found guilty of wrongdoing Representative Kent R Hance Democrat from Lubbock Texas who served as the first president of the freshman Congressional class cosponsored a narrowly defeated resolution that would have removed the voting rights of Representative Charles C Diggs Jr after the Michigan Democrat was convicted of misappropriating his employee payroll Representative William R Ratchford a Danbury Conn Democrat who is the freshman-clas- s president this session explains the impa 13-ter- m tience of his colleagues for action against corrupt officials as very much a reflection of the time in which they came politically of age: “Our group grew up during the Watergate period "Imagine a school board with 435 members trying to hire a football coach" Representative Kent R Hance so they had the attitude that action needed to be taken when they got here” Representative James A Courter who earlier was 3 prosecutor in Hackettstown NJ says “The major lesson of Abscam is that Watergate did not do the trick of ridding the Government of at least die appearance of illegality the appearance of immorafity or of conflict of interest I was surprised that Abscam could happen then shocked and mad — really furious — because it left a Uadi mark an indictment against die House where I now serve” Courter adds that Abscam may produce a minor election backlash among voters this fall even against the freshmen who had nothing to do with it “There is a a Repubfcan first-term- er "I was surprised that Abscam could happen then furious" Representative James A Coulter by it growing group of people who have the philosophy that ‘I am going to vote in favor of whomever is not the incumbent’” Freshman Senator Max Baucus who entered Congress as a member of the 1974 House class that forced reforms says the current freshman class is “more conservative more Establishment and has more prior experience than my class had We ran because we were upset with Watergate” post-Waterga- te f continued 4 FAMILY WEEKLY JuM 1 WSO ) |