Word: caucus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There were 75 of us-new Democrats elected last year-and we were well aware that we represented a post-Watergate expression of public will. We carried this with us to the party organizational caucus last December...
Tenuously allied with Hays in a drive for power is California's equally ambitious and canny Phillip Burton, 48, the newly elected chairman of the Democratic caucus. While each keeps a wary eye on the other, both are maneuvering to succeed Carl Albert as Speaker of the House. Albert last week lent new urgency to this jockeying by refusing to confirm-or deny-a public report that he intends to retire when his current term ends. Blocking the path of both Hays and Burton, however, is Massachusetts' Thomas ("Tip") O'Neill, the House majority leader...
Hays' animosity contrasted with the reaction of the rejected Hébert. He had at first bitterly threatened to wage a floor fight to keep his chairmanship of Armed Services. This would have involved currying Republican votes to overturn a decision of the Democratic caucus. As party leaders, Albert and O'Neill announced sternly that if Hébert did so, he would be expelled from the party caucus and lose his seniority in the House, as well as his chairmanship. Hébert then not only abandoned the fight but sent words of thanks to Albert...
Another bright sign from the caucus came when they voted to unseat F. Edward Hebert as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, a post which he has held since 1971. During his tenure, he supported the bombing of Cambodia against the will of a majority of the House, and frequently endorsed and lobbied for defense projects so outlandish that even the Nixon administration opposed them...
These steps by the Democratic Caucus are, of course, significant mostly for symbolic reasons. Congress will have to take far more substantive measures, if social and economic conditions in America are to be at all improved. But it is good to see some Congressmen leaning in the right direction...