Perspective

More civility in Congress, please

An effort by four former Senate majority leaders to restore comity on Capital Hill is a grand idea - but hasn't caught on.

By PHILIP GAILEY
Published October 21, 2007

Last March, four former Senate majority leaders set out on what some would call a fool's errand - restoring civility on Capitol Hill and promoting a bipartisan search for solutions to the nation's most pressing problems. Toward that end, the senators - Republicans Howard Baker and Bob Dole and Democrats George Mitchell and Tom Daschle - established the Bipartisan Policy Center to encourage both parties to rise above the din of partisan warfare and seek common ground on everything from Social Security reform to national security issues. They hold to the old-fashioned idea that our elected leaders in Washington should not only get along but also get things done.

More than six months after the center opened, no one is reporting an outbreak of civility in Congress or anything resembling principled leadership on either side of the aisle. Jason Grumet, president of the center, says, "When I tell people what we're up to, they say, "Good luck."'

Grumet said "our theory of change is that there is a great hunger" among lawmakers for greater comity in the House and the Senate. He believes the center can "provide air cover" for members of Congress who want to step toward the civil center away from the fierce partisanship raging on the fringes.

One way to do that is to help lawmakers build a political consensus on issues. The center has just completed its first policy project, on agriculture in the 21st century, and has others under way on the environment, energy, transportation and national security.

The center sees itself as an "incubator for policy efforts that engage top political figures, advocates, academics and business leaders in the art of principled compromise."

On the civility front, Grumet said the center has a working relationship with the Senate Common Ground Coalition, more than 20 senators from both parties who share the center's goals. The breakdown of civility on Capitol Hill, to a large extent, reflects the angry divisions and ideological agendas that have poisoned American politics. So the problem is bigger than just a brawling Congress.

Howard Baker, who also served as Ronald Reagan's White House chief of staff, talked about how the atmospherics in Congress have changed since he left the Senate in 1985 in an interview with the Ripon Forum, the bimonthly magazine of the Ripon Society, for decades a platform for independent-thinking Republicans.

Baker said there is nothing wrong with partisanship as long as it does not become a destructive force in the legislative process, as it has become in the past decade or so. "I'm a life-long and proud Republican," he told the magazine. "Unlike some, however, I don't believe loyalty to party precludes common sense decision and policy making. ... Differences between individuals should be civilly debated, but it is critical one never loses respect for a colleague's opinion."

He added, "Some of our nation's greatest triumphs have come when political leaders have not allowed partisan differences to deter their efforts to find solutions that are in the nation's interest. Throughout my time as Senate majority leader, I took pride in seeking and heeding the advice of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle."

Everyone can agree on the need to restore comity among members of Congress, but former House Republican leader Bob Michel argues that the institution itself needs overhauling if Congress is ever going to function effectively.

"I spent 40 years in Congress," he wrote in the same issue of the Ripon magazine, "and not in all of that time did I ever have the sense that the institution itself was incapable of handling the people's business. I believe that is the case now."

He explains: "Complex issues such as energy independence, long-term health care, retirement security, individual security, tax reform and homeland security have been passed over, glossed over and treated cosmetically for so long, they have taken on gargantuan and unmanageable dimensions. They have become chronic problems that defy comprehensive solutions. The legislative process can no longer handle the backlog of issues and problems that have been building for years - Social Security solvency, to name one. It merely shifts the demand for change from one Congress to another."

Michel has called on Congress to establish a Joint Committee on Structural Reform to come up with recommendations to modernize the workings of the legislative branch, starting with the committee system, which is where the power is.

Of course, if you believe that congressional leaders are going to run with Michel's proposal, you probably also believe that civility and principled leadership are about to come into fashion again on Capitol Hill.

[Last modified October 22, 2007, 09:16:35]