In assessing the carnage of last week, you can blame President Punching Bag. You can blame the Democratic Dawdlers, who delayed advancing a bill that should have been passed months ago. (They like free vacations, too.) But the real culprits–the ones who win the MoSt Likely to Succeed in Making Us More Cynical Award–are those members, mostly Republicans, who blocked legislation that they themselves supported. That’s right: last May, the Senate voted 95 to 4 to prevent lobbyists from giving meals, trips and other gifts to legislators and staffers. Last week 41 senators backed a filibuster that killed the same bill.
This was the pattern all across Capitol Hill. A bill to improve Superfund toxic-waste-dump cleanups,for instance, was not some enviro fantasy killed by principled conservatives. It was supported by the National Federation of Independent Business, the Chemical Manufacturers Association and dozens of other industry groups, as well as environmentalists.This is what legislation is supposed to be–a strong compromise that would have cut both the cost and time involved in toxic-waste cleanups. Right now, 80 percent of the insurance money intended for cleanups goes to lawyers. The bill would have encouraged arbitration, and cut attorneys’ fees by half a billion dollars. In his “Contract with America” (Or “Contract on America,” as Clinton called it), Gingrich solemnly stressed limiting the role of lawyers. Soon after, he helped kill this bill.
A similar dynamic was at work on the failed mining reform, though this time it was a few Western Democrats who joined the GOP in killing the bill. “These! guys keep talking about lowering the deficit and ending subsidies,” says California Rep. George Miller. “But the minute they have the opportunity to make a small nick in the gold companies [which under an 1872 law pay zero royalties to the government on hard-rock minerals] on behalf of taxpayers who own the land, they go nuts.”
Because hardly anyone in America knows much about Super-fund or mining royalties, obstruction carries little price. But lobbying reform is different. The best explanation of why the Republicans overplayed their hand here begins with the economics of TV entertainment. For 40 years, the surest way to lose money in prime-time TV was to air anything about politics. Then suddenly ABC’s “Primetime Live,” NBC’s “Dateline” and other shows discovered that if they used hidden cameras to catch members of Congress frolicking in the sun with lobbyists, politics became a ratings smash. So tens of millions of Americans–huge chunks of the American electorate–saw story after story about a craven Congress in the clutches of special interests.
Members were furious about this coverage, but they felt the wrath of the viewers/voters. Although nobody expected lobbying reform to clean up politics or even reduce the role of money, it was important to send a signal that Congress understood it was living under an ethical double standard. After all, Mike Espy had to resign as agriculture secretary for accepting the same kinds of gifts that are routine on Capitol Hill. The most familiar joke in Washington last week was that Espy simply forgot he was no longer a congressman.
For opponents, this was not some complex campaign-finance reform bill where the parties had differing interests. The equation was much simpler: find some “cover” to bloody Clinton and keep those free golf trips. Democrats, with seven Senate exceptions, didn’t succumb to this charade; Republicans, at the very moment they are asking the voters to expand their numbers so Congress can be “cleaned up,” went for the skybox seats.
To reverse course and defeat the lobbying bill, the began what Fred Wertheimer of Common Cause calls a “disinformation campaign.” At first, Speaker Gingrich (just trying it on for size) said that any lobbyists who didn’t register under the bill could go to jail. That was flatly untrue. Then the Christian Coalition said that the bill was a threat to religious lobbying, conveniently overlooking a clause that exempted religious organizations. Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh paired up to generate thousands of letters decrying the bill as a “gag order” on free expression that would require contributor lists to be filed with bureaucrats. Even Ross Perot’s group said it was no such thing. The bill did try to make sure that those who get paid for planting “grass roots” (“AstroTurf lobbying,” Sen. Carl Levin calls it) are identified as such. When even this provision was deleted and the bill still failed, the GOP’s motive stood naked.
The 103d Congress was not nearly as unsuccessful as portrayed. Major bills on crime, the deficit, education, trade, bankruptcy and other areas were approved. But by the time members fled Washington last week, partisan rancor was stinking up the joint. The voters can vent their own sour feelings by indiscriminately throwing people out, or by looking more closely at who talks reform, and who really means it.
