European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Congress needs to work Fost and love town s the Challenge that president Bush Laid Down to Congress a to move Forward aggressively on our Domestic front is one that it cannot afford to ignore. For a great Many reasons not least the fact that a highly acclaimed president is going to be on their Case the lawmakers need to do their work quickly this year1 a arts get out of town. As is his custom Bush ignored the Many commentators who urged him to convert his persian Gulf popularity into an ambitious Domestic Agenda. Instead when he spoke to a joint session of Congress on wednesday he gave Short shrift to Home front problems alluding Only briefly to the minimalist Domestic program he had outlined in january a state of the Union address. Still the issues he put at the top of his list a transportation and crime a arc two of the major concerns in be heard voters express in interviews from California to Massachusetts Congress can ignore his words Only at its peril for Bush clearly has signalled that he intends to keep the heat on Congress for action on his proposals. And a remarkable number of legislators in both parties have reason to feel that their own constituents Lave put them on probation. The evidence is Clear not just in All the talk about term limits but in the 1990 election returns. During the autumn Campaign there was a great Deal of talk in the press and on the airwaves about voter discontent with the political status quo. When the results showed that Only one senator and 15 House members had suffered defeats that seemed to suggest the press hid exaggerated the degree of anti incumbent sentiment but we did not. There really was an inclination to Send the incumbents a message a if riot to Send them packing. And there a every indication that the sentiment May resurface at least As strongly in 1992. A careful compilation by congressional quarterly a Rhodes Cook shows just How wide and deep that phenomenon was in 1990. Some 110 incumbents a More than one fourth of the House of representatives a recorded their lowest re election percentages since they first came to the House. It was not a regional or a partisan phenomenon the 110 chastened winners came from 30 states. Three fifths were democrats and two fifths republicans roughly mirroring their proportions in the House. They include some of the biggest names in the House a majority Leader Dick Gephardt d-mo., minority whip Newt Gingrich r-ga., three committee chairmen and the Heads of the democratic and Republican congressional Campaign committees. It almost seemed As if the More prominent and powerful a Mem her of the House was the More his constituents wanted to Cut him Down to size. 1 he Power of the constituents impulse was great enough to overcome even the tremendous imbalance in Campaign resources in these races. Looking Down the Anthony Lewis buted by King features Syndicate list of the 110 incumbents who saw their margins shrink you find Many cases where they outs Perit their challengers by 20-1 or More. A a the rest Veness in 1990 was linked by Many to the deluge of bad publicity Congress received for the protracted and frustrating negotiations that finally yielded a five year budget agreement. But the sentiment had been building even before that fuelled by a sense that Congress could find Money for savings and loan bailouts and other a special interest needs but not for Down Home concerns of average voters it May have been a bad rap but everywhere i went last autumn i heard rup Iblings that the Washington insiders had forgotten who put them in Power. At the moment the National mood has been lifted by the Success of operation desert storm. But already polls show the voters attention is swinging Back to Domestic issues a particularly to concerns about what the recession is doing to jobs and incomes. And neither party can feel secure in that situation. A new Washington Post Abc poll gives democrats a 45-to-38 percent advantage Over republicans among voters asked which party will do most to combat unemployment. But on the Broad question of handling the Economy the gop has a 4.9-to-32 percent advantage. Realistically no bold new initiatives Are going to come from this Congress or administration before the incumbents again. Face the voters. The budget agreement limits spending and forces offsetting cuts for almost any new or expanded program. Bush has made it Plain that he will not push for costly new policies. Given that reality the least that people can expect is that Congress will do its work with dispatch. Bush asked for passage of the transportation and crime Bills in 100 Days. That deadline is arbitrary a Gimmicky. But it is certainly possible for a conscientious Congress to finish its work for the year a and pass All the necessary funding Bills a Well in Advance of the oct. 1 Start of the next governmental fiscal year. That would give the lawmakers time to get hive and spend three months with their constituents. And Given the sentiments so Many of those constituents expressed last november the incumbents May really need that time to mend fences and convince the Home folks that they remember who gave them their jobs. A Short session a and a Long time at Home would be Good for Congress and the country. A. C Washington Post writers group More than any other people on Earth americans today Are free to think what they wish and say what they think. We owe the breadth of that Freedom in significant part to one Man a judge who is born in Boston 150 years ago. Oliver Wendell Holmes or. Was an sex figure in american history. He was a supreme court Justice who became a popular hero in his time because of his Dis scats on behalf of unpopular speakers a anarchists pacifists socialists. He utterly disagreed with their views but passionately believed in their right to express them. He was a scholar who believed in the nobility of War. He was a philosopher and a Cavalier a dashing figure who loved Quot uie and women. was appointed to the court in 1902, Hen he was 61 years old. He served for of years and at Quot the end he was As Liber Al de in spirit As at the beginning. Boe All. The Story of Justice Holmes shows the Power of rhetoric in our free system. A the evocative Force of his words be made the country and eventually the court see the True meaning of the first ensure our freedoms amendments command that Congress a make no Law. Abridging the Freedom of speech or of the the supreme court had reduced the Promise of the first amendment to virtual meaninglessness by interpreting it to allow punishment of speech that the majority of people disliked. During world War 1 speakers w to even mildly criticized official policy were jailed. Then in 1919, Holmes dissented in one of these cases Abrams is. United states. Three anarchists and a socialist had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for criticizing president Wilson a military intervention in Russia against the revolution. Holmes wrote. A when men have realized that time has upset Many fighting faiths they May come to believe even More to fun they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that Good desired is better reached by free Trade in ideas a that the Best test of truth is the Power of the thought to get itself accepted in the Competition of the Market. A that at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an Experiment As All life is an Experiment. While that Experiment is part of our system i think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to Check the expression of opinions that w e loathe and believe to be fraught with death. A Holmes fought in the civil War and was wounded three times. He spoke of War As a inevitable and rational a and he often used military imagery. When Franklin Roosevelt called on him in 1933, in the Depths of the depression Holmes said a form your ranks and but he dissented when the court upheld the denial of citizenship to an immigrant Rosika Schwimmer because she would not Promise to take up arms in defense of the United states. Holmes was is when he wrote a if there is any principle of the that More imperatively Calls for attachment than any other,1 it is the principle of free not free thought Lor those who agree with us but Freedom for the thought that we hate. �?o1 would suggest that the quakers have done their share to make the coun try what it is. And not supposed hitherto that we regretted our inability to expel them because they believe More than some of us do in the teachings of the Sermon on the mount Quot Justice Brandeis joined Holmes in these dissents and wrote his own in other cases. The Force of their rhetoric and their reasoning eventually won the Day. Today the entire court accepts their dissents As Law. On his 90th a birthday in 1931, Holmes made a Brief talk on the radio. A the riders in a race do not Stop Short when they reach the goal a he said. A there is a Little finishing canter., but the Canter that brings you to a standstill need not be Only coming to rest. It cannot be while you still live. For to live is to function. That is All there is in living. A and so i end with a line from a latin poet More than 1,51 0 years ago a death plucks my ear and says live a l am i he stoic message moved its listeners. What almost none realized was that the latin poem quoted by Holmes was a hedonistic verse entitled a the syrian Dane ing its theme was eat drink and be ferry for die. 1 he Cavalier had mocked pomposity. Of Jse York times
