Politics and Guttersnipes

A good rule of politics is, if you throw mud, make it stick. But the Republican National Committee picked the wrong target on the wrong day, and now it has considerable mud all over its own face. Even President Bush said he was disgusted. Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater has apologized and the author of the memo attacking Speaker Thomas S. Foley of Washington state has resigned.

Apologies are fine, but of course they always come after the smearing has been done. In this case, the memo was so ludicrous it will be only a small-type footnote to the history of the downfall of Speaker Jim Wright of Texas. But the episode is a squalid base line for bad taste and disrespect of a congressional leader who deserves much better.

The GOP memo went out just as Foley, a widely admired and respected man, was taking over a severely strained House from Texan Jim Wright and calling on his Republican colleagues to put away bitterness, division and hostility. Foley recognized that his new role as Speaker means that he must serve all House members, Republicans as well as Democrats. The new Speaker offered an olive branch and what did he get? Zapped with poison ivy in the form of the memo entitled “Tom Foley: Out of the Liberal Closet.” The memo claimed that rather than being a moderate, as he is portrayed, Foley really is a liberal or ultra liberal in the mold of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

The author of the memo, Republican committee communications director Mark Goodin, protested that its purpose was misconstrued and that at no time did he intend to damage anyone’s reputation. But how could anyone misunderstand such a crude message? Barney Frank is an acknowledged homosexual. There is no mistaking the meaning of “out of the closet.” Foley is a decided moderate compared to Frank’s voting record. He comes from a relatively conservative district in Eastern Washington that routinely votes for Republicans for President.

GOP Chairman Atwater, the master of the political stiletto and chairman of George Bush’s 1988 campaign, started the year by declaring his primary goal was to bring down Jim Wright. The man who helped make Willie Horton a byword of American politics professed innocence of the Foley memo, saying he did not know about it until it came out. Goodin, another Bush ’88 aide, took the fall by quitting. The White House, which indignantly denounced the attack in one breath, declared in the next that the case was closed.

Perhaps. But as President Bush seeks to work cooperatively with Congress, the White House would be well served by keeping Atwater & Co. at the Republican committee on a tight leash. There’s nothing wrong with the GOP pursuing legitimate financial ethics allegations against Democrats, or seeking to win control of the House. But petty attacks like the one against Foley do not serve anyone in the political system well. Opinion polls demonstrate that the system itself is on trial in terms of public credibility. The beginning of Foley’s speakership offers the entire House an opportunity to regain some of that credibility, primarily by getting on with the people’s business.