Word: congressmen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Some U.S. Congressmen had urged Bush to usher human rights to the forefront of the U.S. dialogue with China, as is the case with the Soviet Union. But White House officials acknowledged that Bush never raised the issue directly in his private talks with China's top leader, Deng Xiaoping, and Premier Li Peng. The Chinese did, though. Toward the end of a wide-ranging 90-minute conversation on Sunday afternoon, Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang told Bush that dissidents threatened to upset the social order, which would "provide a pretext for the turning back of ((economic)) reforms." American...
...Congressmen so chicken? The most persuasive answers do not fit any of the orderly models found in political-science textbooks. Instead they are rooted in the peculiar folkways of the small town of 435 residents known as the House of Representatives...
...Congressmen are not devoid of humility, and some legislators recognize that if it were not for a few lucky breaks, they would be back home peddling insurance. One Democrat ridicules a colleague from an adjoining district as "scared of his shadow." The explanation: "He knows that he's at the pinnacle of his life, and if he ever lost this job, he could never live like this again...
...Congressman, it is beguiling to run for re-election challenged only by a Trotskyite and a vegetarian. In 1988, 65 incumbents ran unopposed. Congressmen so blessed are reluctant to take a stance that might complicate re-election. "The risk they are averting is not the loss of their seat," explains Republican Congressman Dick Armey of Texas, "but that they have to go home and face a rigorous challenge." A House Democratic leader says colleagues sometimes complain, "If I cast that vote, I've bought myself an opponent next time...
...heart of what is so troubling about anointing legislators for life. "The issue is not that we need to defeat incumbents," contends Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause. "It's just that competitive elections are what democracy is all about." What matters, in short, is not the amount that Congressmen are paid, but whether the nation can again create a political system in which they earn...