Congress Assessed

A sampling of media analysis and editorial comment on the first session of the 105th Congress:

Baltimore Sun: "On the plus side, chalk up earlier in the year a balance-budget agreement (easily reached, thanks to a booming economy), approval of the Chemical Weapons Treaty, an overhaul of the drug-approval regulatory process and rescue package for Amtrack. Slim pickings. ... Lawmakers returning home may discover that they can't hoodwink constituents about Congress' slim list of successes" (11/18).

Boston Globe: "Congress this year can point to very few accomplishments that would justify the assessment from House Speaker Newt Gingrich that the first session of the 105th Congress was 'very successful.' ... Congress failed to act decisively on dozens of issues, including the highway bill, educational testing, census sampling, and Bill Lann Lee's nomination to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division--the last three for narrow ideological reasons" (11/15).

Charlotte Observer: "If the session of Congress ... is to be remembered, it will owe its legacy to one thing: After years of trying, it put into law a plan to balance the budget" (11/16).

Chattanooga Free Press: "It has been most fortunate that American voters had the wisdom to put the brakes on President Clinton by choosing Republican congressional majorities in the last two elections. We are thankful for those Republican majorities--but they have not been a total blessing. After getting off to a good start, many Republicans allowed their backbones to dissolve. Why have they surrendered to Clinton demands in so many cases? (11/16).

Dallas Morning News: "[O]verall, the work during the 105th Congress' first session was average. A `C' would reflect the term's ordinariness (11/17).

Minneapolis Star Tribune's Black, Hamburger, Gordon, Schmickle and Sawyer write: "[T]he list of big accomplishments for the past year was short. Congress adopted a five-year fiscal package that's supposed to eliminate the federal budget deficit in 2002. But Democrats argue that the real heavy lifting has been done by earlier, Democrat-controlled Congresses. Many of the most prominent agenda items--campaign finance reform and `fast track' trade authority to name two--were left until next year, their future uncertain" (11/16).

New York Times' Henneberger and Gray on the pay raise: "`They were so good I couldn't even speak, so they had literally silenced me and I realized I could stand there 'til hell froze over,' said Linda Smith (R-WA). ... After a slow-motion rendezvous with realty, even the most ideologically pure in the class have come to the conclusion that it takes more than heart and a can-do attitude to upend Washington" (11/15).

St. Paul Pioneer Press: "[Congress] completed a few big tasks without any major screw ups" (11/16).

USA Today: "When Congress returns from vacation early next year, it will face renewed partisan battles over the same issues that dominated this year's agenda: taxes and spending" (11/17).

Washington Post's Dewar and Yang: "At year's end, Democrats were once again divided along old fault lines, while Republicans concentrated more on underscoring their divisions with Clinton than on trying to find common ground to pass legislation" (11/15). Yang: "The year ends with Gingrich a changed man, both physically and mentally. `I think I'm more disciplined, I think I'm more experienced, probably in some ways wiser, although I don't mean that in any political sense,' said Gingrich, 30 pounds lighter than he was in January after a regimen of diet and exercise. `I've learned that hot stoves actually burn, ending a lifetime series of experiments. I'm probably in some pretty profound ways happier'" (11/15).

Washington Times' Lambro: "Despite a long list of GOP legislation passed this year--from tax cuts to a balanced budget bill--[Don] Hodel gives the GOP Congress a passing grade of `C/incomplete.' 'As usual, it's a mixed bag,' Mr. Hodel said" (11/16). Times' Roman: "The GOP agenda is long, but conservatives and liberals alike agree that Congress' giving families a $500 tax credit for every child and other tax breaks were the biggest accomplishment of 1997. Cutting taxes further with a long term goal of abolishing the Internal Revenue Service will be the top issue of 1998--all the more critical because that is critical to the Republican base--not to mention wildly popular with the general public" (11/15).

Pundit Takes

Wall Street Journal's Gigot: "Ideologically, I'd say it was probably a draw. "Republicans got a tax cut, they got the president's signature on a budget which they wanted. On the other hand, they had to give up any pretense that they were really cutting the government, or changing the nature of government, or reforming the government. So, ideologically, the Republicans didn't get everything that they wanted. Politically though, they seemed to help themselves. Their approval rating went up 10 points" ("NewsHour," PBS, 11/14).

Bob Novak: "They abandoned almost all their revolutionary things and at the very end the Republicans got their morale up because they got a few things such as school testing. They got a compromise on the census. But I think it was a very disappointing year, a year of retreat for conservatives and Republicans." Pat Buchanan: "Speaking as a conservative Republican ... it was a deep disappointment. ... I mean, when you consider the hopes we had had for the Congress of the United States when Republicans took over, it is a profound disappointment" ("Cap Gang," CNN, 11/15).

Rush Limbaugh, asked his view of the GOP performance since '94: "I'm a little disappointed. ... I really am. I'm -- and I've tried to figure out and explain to people why it is that things have eventuated the way they have. I take it back to 1994 -- actually, 1995. The budget bill of 1995." Asked if he's unhappy with Speaker Gingrich: "You know, it's a tough thing. I respect Newt Gingrich immensely. ... I've got a tie to Newt Gingrich. I feel thrilled to have been able to know him and gotten to know him. And, yeah, I hurt for him when I think he does something wrong" ("Evans & Novak," CNN, 11/15).

Michael Barone on Speaker Gingrich: "He has helped the Republican Congress win positive ratings in the polls" (National Review, 11/24 issue).