The third branch
McCarthy, Abigail
place of great importance in community life, and brought real help and comfort to their members. Nevertheless, he demitted from the ministry in 1931. The Sunday after the Japanese surrendered,...
...We are in debt to Congress...
...Never mind that his or her own qualifications for serving the public consist of the ability to read from a teleprompter and hair that is amenable to the blowdryer...
...That is why there was general national amazement at the caliber of the men on the House committee investigating Watergate when we watched them at work on TV...
...Could these articulate, well-informed, careful, and temperate men actually be typical members of the House...
...I do not make a case for this particular Congress -- in many ways its achievement was disappointing -- but I do not think we the public know enough about it to make informed judgments, and I think this ignorance is dangerous...
...In his later years, Thomas still used the term God "as a kind of personification of spiritual values in which I do believe and for which the noblest humanism seems to me to lack an equivalent...
...When the new Congress convenes it will face once again votes on the MX missile and aid to the anti-government rebels in Nicaragua...
...In populous states and circulation areas the latter can be numerous indeed...
...It would take another column -- in fact, a long article -- to detail the changes which have affected the effectiveness of Congress in the last twenty years...
...For, mused Thomas, " I cannot explain the beauty of the earth or the effect upon me of the starry heavens in terms of physics, geology, and astronomy...
...Even our prayers will speak of our exultation in power and the pride of our vengeance...
...I shall not be among there, although all sorts of memories and desires urge me to go . . . Where shall we look but to God, if He be good, now that science has wrested from Him so much of the secret of the force that holds together the atom and the universe...
...In the major metropolitan newspapers this went on day after day...
...He might have made a very good and valuable case if he had been allowed to develop it -- but his confreres on the show were too intent on venting their scorn to allow his going into such abstruse matters...
...Thomas rejected his earlier, almost automatic faith in a sure and desirable "far off divine event to which the whole creation moves...
...A dismal record...
...Often new members are ideologues, unable and unwilling to take part in the laborious compromises and the give-and-take essential to the crafting of good legislation...
...For, coupled with the scarcity of coverage, there has been a steady denigration of Congress in the media...
...It will have to face tough decisions on reducing the deficit by raising taxes and cutting defense spending...
...that if evil befalls me so does good, often far beyond my conscious desert...
...Many able members may be as philosophical as Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill who recently quoted his predecessor Speaker Nicholas Longworth i n an article in National Forum about the latter's ten terms in Congress: "During the whole of that time, we have been attacked, denounced, despised, hunted, harried, blamed, looked down upon, excoriated and flayed . . . . The only way for a congressman to be happy is to realize that he has no chance...
...Soon the church bells will ring and the little churches will be crowded with thankful worshippers...
...It must be even more frustrating for the incumbent candidate whose capsule characterization may be the only thing that has appeared in the paper about him in his last two years in office...
...To fail to understand the Congress and its workings can well mean that we will let the strengths of this third branch of governmerit disappear...
...As the strength of the parties has declined and reforms have weakened the power of chairmen and committees, more and more members of Congress are "free-lance" members owing nothing to party or leadership...
...Because, if God be omnipotent Power, I cannot praise His ordering of this war-cursed world...
...They hadn't passed this and they hadn't passed that...
...In 1982 the Congress also forced a realistic beginning of an attack on the deficit by passing a $98.3 billion tax bill...
...And that question stands even if one admits--as I do--that there is a goodness in the universe not easily explained without some ultimate...
...The House resisted the deregulation of the banking industry, whose profligate loans have put the whole economy in jeopardy...
...I should like a surer hope...
...He is currently chairman of the Workers' Defense League...
...Reporter Findlay Lewis was almost howled down on one show for venturing to suggest that the number of bills passed was not the real measure of what a Congress had done...
...they evidently feel a responsibility to all the citizens within reaching distance of their papers...
...This is no longer true, although, of course, most city newspapers with Washington bureaus keep reasonable track of their local congress persons...
...Still less can I explain by biology or tell how chemical and physical processes are transmuted into Beethoven's music, or Shakespeare's verse, or a mother's love for her child...
...Take the spate of commentary on the news talk shows when Congress adjourned this year...
...It is, however, coverage of the whole House and Senate that is weak, lacking in regularity and scope...
...In the last four years Congress, especially the House, has been the people's bastion of defense in a time when government grows ever more callous and bellicose...
...Says Robert Michel, the House Republican leader, "It is one thing to be out there on the s t u m p . . , and it's another thing to put something together...
...Some of the greatest talkers around here couldn't legislate their way out of a paper bag...
...The report was unanimous...
...First, there was the announcement of the presidential choice...
...He conceded that "There is undoubtedly a Power, not ourselves, behind the universe whom or which we may call God...
...Is this instinctive response denied because I cannot longer confidently affirm the catechism definition of Him as a 'spirit infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His b e i n g . . . ' ? I can still say with Tolstoy, 'God is the name of my desire.' " HARRY FLEISCHMAN (Harry Fleischman, former national secretary of the Socialist Party, is the author of Norman Thomas: A Biography-- 1884-1968, published by Norton...
...This I know: I walk in a world sometimes of pain and sorrow but a world of beauty and wonder...
...Consider just a few of its divisions: in the House, legislation must pass the scrutiny of the Democratic Study Group, the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, the Women's Caucus, the Republican "Conservative Opportunity Society," the House Conservative Democratic Forum as well as the regular Democratic and Republican leadership groups...
...They have been elected with the help of PAC money, political consultants, and the use of media advertising...
...Over the years the quality and intelligence of congressmen has generally been at least a cut above the people they represent, but Congress has also been drastically affected by the growth of factionalism in our society...
...The House also prevented further military aid to the contras in Nicaragua...
...The devil of the orthodox," he noted, "must have his moments of profound despair over the virtue and kindness that all man's weakness and cruelty cannot crush...
...Responsible decisions will require political courage and wisdom...
...Sorrowed by the death of his beloved wife, Violet, in 1947, Thomas wrote again of his deep longing for a belief in life after death: " I covet for myself a faith I cannot h a v e . . . More than I can tell, I wish that I thought such love as mine and Violet's could live not alone in memory and perhaps in influence...
...Is it wrong for me ever to say, 'Thank God' (when perhaps I should thank Fate or Fortune) or to steady my heart and mind by something akin toprayer...
...As parish minister, as political leader with many intimate contacts with the labor struggle, as a neighbor among neighbors, I have seen quite too much goodness and quiet heroism and capacity for mutual aid to accept any dogma of total depravity...
...They will also require legislative skill...
...Or how can He accept our adoration unless we bring to Him the sacrifice of a humble and contrite heart...
...The question is how far He works for righteousness...
...One has to feel, then, for the candidate who must make what use he can of a one-line recommendation such as "He knows Washington and speaks passionately for the environment" (New York Times...
...There was a time when the House Commonweal: 648 was much more regularly covered and most newspapers had reporters who were more or less House specialists...
...ABIGAIL McCARTHY 30 November 1984:649...
...The virtual wipeout of the members of the House of Representatives in the news columns is one of the interesting phenomena of the past twenty or more years...
...they knew the intricacies of its maneuvering, who was who among the effective members, and how they operated...
...Of several minds: Abigail McCarthy I THIRD BRANCH, BEST HOPE...
...The very word is a signal for a lifted eyebrow and a curled lip on the part of the lowliest local newscaster...
...And that we shall not offer...
...The pressure of the whole Congress had a good deal to do with the withdrawal of the Marines from Lebanon, where the purpose of their presence had never been clearly defined, and their dispatch seems, in retrospect, to have been an empty and costly gesture...
...The Sunday after the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II, Thomas wrote in his diary: "Nature rejoices with men...
...Although these endorsements are not 'as important to the candidates as they were in the pre-television era, they are often of great importance still to Senate candidates, especially those seeking to unseat an incumbent, and they can make the crucial difference between winning and losing for a House candidate...
...Congress is a deliberative body," he said...
...It would behoove us to pay more attention to Congress and to understand the measure of our dependence on it in the system of balances in our government...
...WE'D BETTER PAY ATrENTION TO CONGRESS I N THE LAST two weeks before the election this year the ritual began once again: the newspapers of the country -- and some of the magazines -began endorsing candidates and explaining their choices...
...Congress reflects its constituents...
...If He be love, how can I give Him thanks for the triumph of amoral force...
...Why not, then, church...
...The trends are already there...
...In the last four years a loose alliance of Democrats and moderate Republicans has saved the nation from some very bad choices...
...I suppose--no, I know--the thing to do is to keep on, to enjoy what can be enjoyed, to do the things one certainly believes should be done, and among the uncertain to make the choices which will best give human decency a chance to live and grow...
...Then followed the discussion of the pros and cons of the Senate candidates in the area, then the congressional candidates and so on...
...They discuss, therefore, the qualifications, in their view, of the candidates for the Senate from several states and most of the candidates for the House of Representatives...
...You could almost hear the nation asking itself this question...
...Although President Reagan backed the resumption of the manufacture of chemical weapons and it was twice voted narrowly by the Senate -both times with the help of a vote cast by Vice-President Bush -- the House insisted on eliminating chemical weapons from a defense appropriations bill...
...For the editors of the big metropolitan dallies this can take in a lot of territory...
...But too many others are leaving in discouragement...
Vol. 111 • November 1984 • No. 21
