Commentary -

Congressmen’s Records? ...

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

By Bill Collins

If you promise,

Not to quote;

I will tell you,

How I vote.

In this magical electronic age, you might think it would be a snap to look up your congressman’s voting record. Well, think again. Members aren’t dumb. They prefer to control what you learn about them. Their newsletters recite votes and sponsorships, which they’re extra proud of, but their staffs are not allowed to post their whole record on the Net.

It is similar with committee bills and research reports. A lot of stuff is posted, but some of the juiciest amendments and data are held back. They are meant for lobbyists, not us. And when negotiations on a bill reach the corporate giveaway stage, why post it where everyone can see? This hiding of dirty linen is yet another reason why 98.5 percent of incumbent congressmen get reelected, and 90 percent of senators.

Many votes, of course, do get published. Some of the high-profile ones even appear in the paper. On that basis, Connecticut’s Hero of the Year Award goes to Sam Gejdenson and Rosa DeLauro. They voted against the sinister bill that allows banks, brokerages, and insurance companies to start merging again. Law had kept these units apart ever since the Great Depression. But all Republicans and many Democrats, including Senators Dodd and Lieberman, now fawn over the rapacious finance industry. Thus we are once more exposed to a new round of disastrous bank failures.

Behaving badly on finance, but heroically elsewhere, was Chris Shays. He shared leadership on campaign reform, earning the hatred of his fellow Republicans. He also voted one more time against the bloated defense budget. Even our Democrats lacked the nerve to do that. Aside from courage, it also shows the advantage of not having defense contractors in your district.

Many votes, of course, hew closely to party lines. Perhaps biggest this year was the goofy $792 billion tax cut which the Republicans forced through both houses. Largely because it proposed spending illusory money, even some conservative commentators scoffed at it. Nonetheless, Shays and Nancy Johnson voted for it, protecting their flanks against avid tax-cuts voters and donors. The president had vowed to veto the bill, so no real damage was expected, but Shays and Johnson earned terrible marks on principle.

Again following party lines, these two Republicans backed big business by voting to limit most class action lawsuits to federal courts. The vote was close, so the US Chamber of Commerce loved them. That may have been one of those bills they hoped we wouldn’t find out about.

On issues where the political parties lie low and megabusiness keeps its hands off, our delegation leans toward freedom and justice. All six House members supported closing the School of the Americas, our training ground for Latin American thugs. And five voted against the bill to overturn Oregon’s doctor-assisted suicide law. Only Jim Maloney caved in to the Religious Right. In the Senate, though, it’s worse. Both Dodd and Lieberman have announced that they too will vote against “death with dignity.”

In fact our senators have become quite a problem. It seemed truly fitting that Dodd recently married a wonderful woman from the export-import bank. It appeared to consummate his long and deep love affair with Wall Street. In that issue he double-dates with Lieberman. And to cap off their year of cuddling with corporations, both voted to enact a remarkably colonial relationship between the United States and sub-Sahara Africa.

Thus, aside from the braver Gejdenson, DeLauro, and (sometimes) Shays, our delegation seems to be made up mostly of once decent people, now corrupted by the system.

(Bill Collins, a former mayor of Norwalk, is a syndicated columnist.)