Word: rostenkowskis
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Lost seats on Election Day aren't the only reason for the gloom in Washington. With voters also complaining about a do-nothing Congress -- a criticism that is not entirely deserved after the adoption of NAFTA and significant deficit-reduction measures -- much of Washington was concerned last week that Rostenkowski's plight would deprive Congress of a rare power broker who helped push through the 1986 tax-reform bill and NAFTA. "No capital ever has a surplus of politicians with those qualities," the columnist David Broder lamented last week in the Washington Post. "Seeing him brought down . . . is a citywide...
...dealmakers are dwindling. Former House Speaker Wright was famously willing to force House members into line on important votes. His courtly successor, Tom Foley, is more apt simply to gauge their wishes over and over again. The rising generation of younger lawmakers seems even less inclined toward Rostenkowski-style leadership, part back slapping, part arm twisting. The new crowd tends to be more attuned to polls and job preservation. "Dealmakers are willing to take risks, willing to be tough," says Tony Coelho, the former House Democratic whip who resigned in 1989 after reports about misuse of campaign funds. "They...
...Rostenkowski, 66, the son of a Chicago alderman, always knew how to do favors and collect them, two priceless gifts when it comes to getting legislation passed. The 18-term Congressman is one of the last Preston Sturges / characters in the House, a man with the face of a football coach and the guttural laugh of a guy who knows and enjoys the ways of an old pol. Since becoming chairman in 1981 of Ways and Means, which writes most tax legislation, he has seen the word powerful appear before his name so often it must seem like part...
...ability to sort out the conflicting needs of his colleagues is legendary. Ten years ago, when Connecticut Representative Barbara Kennelly was a new member of Rostenkowski's committee, she went to him for help in getting legislative changes that would allow the city of Hartford to issue bonds needed to pay for a new waste-treatment plant. Rostenkowski instructed his staff to draw up the necessary amendment. Just a day or two later, he came back to her with a request: to co-sponsor a controversial measure affecting Medicaid fee assignments for physicians. Though it would open her to political...
Clinton is hoping that Rostenkowski was not as crucial to the passage of health-care reform as he once supposed. Though he can regain his chairmanship if acquitted, Rostenkowski was compelled by Democratic caucus rules to hand over the post to the committee's ranking Democrat, Florida Representative Sam Gibbons, who has shown no special gift for horse trading. So the Administration is expecting its health-care point man to be majority leader Richard Gephardt. But like the rest of the House leadership, Gephardt is also more liberal than the crucial centrists whose support Clinton needs on health care...