European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 31, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday March 31, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Theo Lippman  keeps . Lawmakers bouncing Back a National poll asked voters a if your representative repeatedly bounced checks How would that affect your vote a one percent answered that they would be a somewhat More Likely to vote for the repeated Check bouncer four percent said they would be a strongly More Likely to vote for the repeated Check bouncer seem strange to you did to me. Then i got a news release from my congressman detailing his 12 bounced checks. I would classify 12 As  but after looking the list Over i decided that i probably would be at least a somewhat More and maybe even a strongly More Likely to vote for him. My representative is Weisi Mfume. This democrats bounced checks or a a overdrafts As he Calls them included the following �?o$414 to Baltimore orioles. $500 to a act Baltimore Branch donation. $100 Browne a memorial Church offering. $51.80 Dee Crowe Sun paper delivery a that a not a confession. Its a pitch for votes. How could any balt Morean vote against somebody this Loyal to the City a leading institutions i doubt if Mfume or Many other Check bouncers will suffer at the polls this november. The worst offenders will get beat but not even All of them. Why because the electoral process is controlled by the incumbents and their Campaign contributors not by the voters. Money As former democratic presidential candidate Paul Tsongas said is the mothers milk of politics. And if your mama is broke you can to get elected. Especially running against a milk fattened incumbent. Incumbents typically Are Able to outspend challengers by a Factor of 8, 10 or much More. As of dec. 31, House incumbents had $91.5 million in Campaign funds their opponents had $5.8 million. Incumbents like to say that their getting re elected proves they Are preferred by the voters. The implication is that they Are better lawmakers than their opponents in the eyes of voters. But All it proves is the value of expensive advertising campaigns. Compare an election Campaign to any other marketplace. The biggest advertiser usually wins the most sales. Recently the eight members of the Wall Street journals Atlanta Bureau which is known for its soft drink coverage performed a Blind taste test of the following cola drinks Coke $1.19 for a 2-liter bottle Pepsi $1.29big k 160 cent same a american Choice 78 cents and w pop 75 cents. Pepsi got two votes for Best All other Colas got one there was one Coke same a tie and two tasters could Tell no difference in any of the drinks. The tasters picking winners said there was very Little difference Between no. 1 and the rest. But Coke and Pepsi which outspend other Colas about the Way incumbent members of Congress outspend challengers account for More than 80 percent of the cola Market. Democracy in action us huh. C Tho Bult Moro Sun David by overtime for voters to Call lawmakers to account the House Bank scandal is one of those stories that seemingly requires no explanation. Everybody can understand penalty free Check bouncing. That a what makes it so damning a and so easily distorted. What a known at this Point strongly suggests that dozens of members of Congress have taken advantage of the laxness of operations at their checking and de posit service to float themselves Large interest free Loans. Its also Clear that scores of others Are facing embarrassment a if not worse a for sloppiness no More sinister than the kind of Check Book balancing errors most of us often make. The primary contests and november election will Tell us How shrewd the voters Are in separating the sheep from the goats in this mess. Meantime commentators Are using the scandal As a metaphor for everything they dislike about Congress. Like the $640 toilet seat that came to symbolize Pentagon waste the Check bouncing Story seems certain to become a shorthand Symbol of a Congress that is relentlessly undisciplined in far larger fiscal matters. The situation is both better and worse than its being made to appear. As scandals go this one is Penny Ante. There was no damage to National Security no breach of the Constitution and no significant loss to the taxpayers. Yet it is both phony and futile for members of Congress to insist that this was a a private matter that involved no misuse of Public funds and therefore should be of no concern to their constituents. The Bank was in the Capitol building which both symbolically and legally belongs to the nation and All its citizens. The clowns who ran it were on the Federal payroll supported by our taxes. Moreover the operation that speaker Thomas v Foley d-wash., finally and belatedly shut Down last year was not an anomaly. It might not reflect the a institutional corruption that minority whip Newt Gingrich r-ga., alleges. However it was certainly symptomatic of a legislative Branch that a in far More serious ways a has become dangerously Over indulgent of its individual members. That pattern a of individual self interest prevailing Over collective responsibility a is what a wrong with Congress. It is the end product of a political system that in almost every Way has exalted individual self aggrandizement Over party and institutional responsibility. Tommy Robinson the former Arkansas congressman who popped up on one list As the alleged bouncer of a record 996 checks was welcomed at the White House three years ago by president Bush when he switched from the democratic to the Republican party. No one in the gop Hierarchy was under any illusions about Robinson. He was an opportunist who jumped parties in return for a Promise of the gop gubernatorial nomination in 1990 against gov. Bill Clinton. In the end the Washington gop Power brokers were unable to deliver on their end of the Deal and Robinson fell in the Republican primary. But his Cavalier attitude toward his party affiliation is Only marginally worse than that of Many other members of Congress just As the number of his bounced checks apparently exceeded the Norm. Far too Many of today a House members Are individual entrepreneurs in political business for themselves and they Nave made the House a place which is run a like the defunct Bank a for the Benefit and convenience of its individual members not for any larger purpose. The House works a tuesday to thursday schedule so the members can conduct their constituency building business at Home four Days a week. It has expanded its staff a especially in Home District offices a to give its members a publicity and personal service operation that few challengers can match. It has spawned so Many subcommittees that almost any third term member can be called a emr. Chairman Quot enjoying additional staff and Perks even though this undergrowth of subcommittees interferes with the work of legislation. And of course it has developed the Art of individual fund raising to epic proportions. Gingrich is right in saying that this pattern of excessive individual self indulgence has grown under Long years of one party democratic Rule. But As the list of Bank offenders shows the exploiters of these advantages Are by no Means confined to democratic ranks. The politics of selfishness a in All its aspects a knows no partisan Bounds. Some say the answer to All this is term limits but rotating people in and out of office is no guarantee of higher standards a and certainly not of party and institutional responsibility. Far better for the voters to accept their responsibility to Deal with the flagrant offenders at election time. If they do everyone in Congress will understand that earning Back Public Trust requires that they not Only keep their Check books straight but also make the House once again an effective and accountable legislative body a not a personal plaything for its members. A Tho Washington Post