Retreat Set Stage For Giant Step Forward
Two brief speeches by two men whose utterances normally command attention in Washington have gone unremarked - perhaps because they did not fit the stereotype of scandal and conflict that shapes so much news from the capital.
On March 13, Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., rose on the floor of the House of Representatives to say that the previous weekend had seen measurable progress on “one of the most difficult and complex” challenges facing members of Congress: How to debate and legislate with sufficient respect for each other that the inevitable differences do “not become so separating … and so divisive that it becomes … impossible for us to do the nation’s business.”
He was followed by Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., who said, “I rise to second the thought that the speaker just made about the bipartisan retreat that happened this weekend in Hershey (Pa.). It was a historic event, the only time that I know that members from both sides of the aisle and their families have had a two-day period to understand how we could better work together to solve the problems that we are all sworn to try to solve for the American people.”
Those statements came from rival party leaders who had barely spoken to each other during the previous Congress, let alone set an example of civility for the House. The bipartisan weekend retreat of which they spoke was a reaction to the bitterness of those 1995-96 battles. It did not originate with the leaders. Credit Reps. David Skaggs, D-Colo., and Ray LaHood, R-Ill., for starting the project. But Gingrich and Gephardt embraced it and, with their encouragement, nearly half the House members and their families participated.
One weekend does not offset a decade or more of rising enmity and poisonous partisanship. But despite the cynics, its effects are already being seen. Two weeks after the Hershey weekend, the House on successive days debated a fiercely fought piece of labor legislation that was passed by a 12-vote margin and the “partial-birth” abortion ban that presents one of the most agonizing moral dilemmas imaginable.
Notable in both debates was the near absence of the too-familiar slurs on the motivation of opposing speakers. Indeed, Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., made the point early in the consideration of the latter bill that “because it traumatizes most people to debate this issue,” it was particularly important that “we do it in a civil manner, in an intelligent manner and in a bipartisan manner.”
The weekend retreat was (sensibly) closed to the press, but listening to many of those who attended, it is clear that it was a mind-changing experience. Many came back clamoring for follow-up steps, and some will be taken. Skaggs and LaHood have visited each other’s party leadership meetings, and there is talk of Gephardt and Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, addressing the opposition caucuses.
No one wants the change more than the members’ families. Their presence, by all accounts, was one reason Hershey worked. Skaggs commented that “having the children there forced us to act like adults.”
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said the “most dramatic” moment for him and others came when one of the spouses spoke of the sympathy notes she and her husband received when his father died, “and she wondered why it had taken a death in the family for people to rally together.” Foley said her honesty and tears prompted his “incredibly diverse” discussion group to acknowledge how much better the House would be “if we can somehow break down the barriers of partisanship and realize … that every time you make a mean or negative comment (about a colleague), a family member has been hurt.”
In a moving keynote speech, historian David McCullough said personal enmities and partisan passions can be overcome - with great results. He quoted John Adams’ letter to his wife complaining that in the third Continental Congress, “there are deep jealousies. Ill-natured observations and incriminations take the place of reason and argument.” A few months later, that Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. “Don’t ever forget the great history of your institution,” McCullough instructed.
Those who went won’t. All of us may benefit.
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