Why is Congress so disliked? Consider Exhibits A and BSen. Stevens, Rep. Mahoney personify arrogance, bad judgment. One reason Congress has such an abysmally low approval rating (14% in a Gallup Poll this summer) is the perception that once politicians go to Washington, they join an elite that believes the rules don’t apply to them. In truth, most members of Congress are dedicated public servants who work long hours and play by the rules, but there is no shortage of members who justify the stereotype. Recent days have offered up two prime examples, one a Republican senator and the other a Democratic House member: At age 84, Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens is an icon in his home state and a force in Washington, where his 40-year tenure and perch on the Appropriations Committee give him enormous power to dispense billions of dollars every year. Stevens has described himself as “a mean, miserable SOB,” and those who watched him spar with prosecutors at his federal trial this month on corruption charges wouldn’t disagree. Asked at one point why he accepted gifts, Stevens shot back: “You’re not listening to me. I answered it twice.” At another point, he snarled at the prosecutor: “Is that a question? I thought it was a statement.” As of Thursday, the jury was still out on whether Stevens committed a crime. But his own testimony revealed that he’s already guilty of the sort of arrogance and poor judgment that cause many voters to hold him and his colleagues in such low esteem. Stevens is charged with seven felony counts for allegedly covering up about $250,000 in gifts and other freebies from favor-seeking friends, which prosecutors said he failed to disclose on his Senate financial disclosure form. Some of the trial revolved around whether a friend whose oil services company allegedly benefited from Stevens’ Senate power deliberately under-billed the senator for renovating Stevens’ chalet in Girdwood, Alaska. Prosecutors said Stevens knew the work was worth much more than the roughly $160,000 the senator and his wife paid. If that was murky at times, some of the other evidence seemed clearer: a series of gifts Stevens received from this man and others but never disclosed, including furniture, a sled dog, a sculpture and an expensive gas grill. Stevens’ explanations strained credulity. For example, he insisted he never disclosed a $2,700 Brookstone massage chair he received from one man because he considered it a loan, not a gift. Right. He was given the chair in 2001 and still had it in his home seven years later. In the House, meanwhile, first-term Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fla., is also fighting for his political life. In 2006, Mahoney won his seat by pledging to restore honor and decency after the incumbent, Republican Mark Foley, resigned. Foley had been confronted with sexually suggestive messages he allegedly sent to teenage male House pages. The one thing Mahoney should have known to avoid was a sex scandal. Oops. Mahoney admitted this month that he had “multiple” affairs, one with a female staffer he paid nearly $62,000 (with another $60,000 to her lawyer) after she threatened to sue him for sexual harassment. Mahoney is under investigation by the House ethics committee, his wife is filing for divorce, and the FBI might be looking into whether he violated any law by hiring his mistress to work in his office. Mahoney’s self-made troubles hardly need comment, except to note that his campaign slogan —”Restoring America’s Values Begins at Home” —now seems awfully hollow. The scandal makes him perhaps the only House Democratic incumbent likely to lose to a Republican this year. Perhaps without members such as Stevens and Mahoney, Congress could double its approval rating. That would bring it all the way up to President Bush’s level. |
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