Chicago-Style Fight Instinct Drives ‘Rosty’

In many respects, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski never left Chicago and its political folkways, despite spending nearly 36 years in Congress and achieving a lasting national legacy for his role in helping to overhaul U.S. income tax laws in 1986.

A towering bear of a man who could intimidate his colleagues, Rostenkowski’s brusque style reflected the blunt, take-no-prisoners politics practiced in his hometown.

“You might as well kick a guy’s brains out if he’s not for you,” the Democratic congressman once said in a typical bit of Chicago street talk.

So the aggressive “Rosty” was doing what comes naturally when he decided to go to the mat with federal prosecutors rather than holler “uncle” and accept a plea bargain.

Rostenkowski, who dominated the House Ways and Means Committee as its chairman for more than a decade, earned top marks as a legislative achiever. Driven by a passion for political power, the 66-year-old lawmaker hoped to climax his career by playing a leading part in passage of health care legislation that would add to his reputation for accomplishments against the odds.

Instead, his dream has soured as he has spent much of this year trying to retain some measure of dignity in a Washington world where he has never seemed fully at home.

As Ways and Means chairman, he was one of the most powerful men in government, shaping policy on taxes, Social Security, Medicare, welfare and trade.

Probably his proudest accomplishment was passage of the 1986 tax law, which reduced the top income tax rate to 28% and eliminated many tax preferences for business. As part of that campaign for tax fairness, he appeared on television, urging viewers to “write Rosty” if they favored the plan.

On the downside, Rostenkowski’s reputation suffered because of his unashamed appetite for perquisites, including steak dinners at lobbyists’ expense and invitations to free golfing trips at some of the nation’s top resorts.

“In my hometown of Chicago they call politics a blood sport,” he once said. “I don’t apologize for getting in the arena and I’ll be damned if I apologize for winning.”

He was also true to his roots on another issue. In a motto coined by Chicago ward boss Paddy Bauler more than a half-century ago and handed down through the political generations: “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.” Neither was Rostenkowski.

While other lawmakers pretended that they did not want a pay increase, Rostenkowski came out for a system whereby a House member could, within limits, set his or her own salary. Naturally, Rostenkowski said that he deserved the highest rate of pay because of his committee chairmanship as well as his ability to deliver benefits for his constituents.

Rostenkowski bristled at Congress’ increasing requirements for financial disclosure, limits on members’ speaking fees and proposals to curb free meals and golfing trips financed by lobbyists.

The Chicago congressman had few peers when it came to taking free trips to make speeches before special interest groups at locations conveniently close to a golf course.

During the five years ending in 1991, for example, the veteran politician took 167 trips at the expense of corporations, universities and charities--an average of 34 expense-paid trips a year. His reelection campaign once paid $1,600 in “consulting fees” to five golf professionals who attended fund-raising events with Rostenkowski on the golf links.

In the 1992 election cycle, Rostenkowski charged his campaign treasury for $28,422 worth of meals at restaurants and country clubs, mostly in the Chicago area. At the same time, he was a leader on the paid lecture circuit, collecting more than $1 million in speaking fees in a two-year period, keeping the maximum amount allowed under House rules, about $50,000, and donating the rest to charity.

Growing up in the Great Depression in what now would be called a disadvantaged neighborhood, he learned directly about free-and-easy machine politics as the son of a Chicago alderman and ward boss who presided over a Polish-American fiefdom on the city’s northwest side.

With his father’s clout, it was easy for Rostenkowski to become the youngest member of the Illinois Legislature at the age of 24, the youngest Illinois state senator at 26 and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at 30. Chicago’s Democratic Party selected nominees who breezed to election in the one-party town, assuring a safe House seat for Rostenkowski for decades.

Although in recent years the machine has began to sputter, Rostenkowski--whose possible indictment was the subject of wide speculation in the press--got help when he desperately needed it from ward organizations in last March’s primary election. They assisted him unquestioningly and overwhelmingly and he won renomination to another term.

When he first went to Congress in 1958, Rostenkowski and his wife, LaVerne, tried living in Washington but she missed Chicago and moved back to their old neighborhood, a stone’s throw from the Kennedy Expressway that knifes through the city’s northwest side.

As a result, Rostenkowski became a member of the “Tuesday-Thursday club,” commuting from Washington to Chicago and spending long weekends at home unless the House was considering legislation on Mondays or Fridays.

On Capitol Hill, he focused at first on the internal politics of the House, gradually building friendships that might help him later, keeping Chicago’s needs ever in mind. He became known as “Mayor Daley’s man in Washington,” although other Democrats in the city delegation had more seniority.

He brought home the bacon to his city and state with such regularity that even Republican Gov. Jim Edgar endorsed Rosty’s reelection this year when he was in the toughest race of his political life.

In 1965, Rostenkowski was rewarded with a seat on Ways and Means, then under the forceful leadership of Rep. Wilbur D. Mills (D-Ark.). For a decade, until Mills departed after a scandalous encounter with an exotic dancer from Argentina, Rostenkowski acquired seniority and familiarity with the arcane tax code.

He chafed during the tenure of Rep. Al Ullman (D-Ore.), a knowledgeable but ineffectual leader, and took over the committee’s helm in 1981, passing up a chance to take the third-ranking House leadership post as majority whip.

With newly elected Republican Ronald Reagan in the White House, the rookie chairman made what he later conceded was a serious mistake, engaging in a “bidding war” to see who could cut taxes the most. Reagan won, the federal government’s revenue base was seriously reduced and Rostenkowski learned a political lesson the hard way as the House voted with Reagan by a large majority.

Working with Reagan and the Republicans, Rostenkowski helped to preserve the solvency of the Social Security system by making tough choices to raise payroll taxes to assure that retirement benefits would be paid to baby boomers in the next century.

As a result of his strong hand, Rostenkowski brokered the complex deals behind the major tax bills of the 1980s and ‘90s. But he experienced some embarrassing defeats as well.

In 1991, for example, six Democrats on Ways and Means joined with all the Republicans to push through a cut in capital gains taxes that Rostenkowski fought, both in his committee and on the House floor. Only hard-nosed tactics by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) blocked it from becoming law.

Even worse, legislation that Rostenkowski championed to provide catastrophic health insurance coverage for senior citizens, along with a surtax on them to pay for it, produced such a strong backlash that the law was repealed.

As Rostenkowski increased his power on the committee, he began to run the panel like a Chicago ward boss, disbursing benefits and demanding loyalty in return. Under his system, committee Democrats caucused frequently to develop a consensus, pledging that each of them would support the resulting compromise. Rosty took names of defectors, placing them in his own version of political purgatory.

At times, Rostenkowski’s reputation as a domineering chairman was fostered by committee members who could tell advocates for special interest groups that they had tried to persuade the chairman to support a legislative provision but got only a scowl in return.

“He was the designated bad cop on occasion,” said one aide, contending that Rostenkowski’s image as a rough and gruff taskmaster distorted his efforts to build a consensus without bullying tactics.

As one expert on Congress, Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, described his legacy: “To be sure, at times he has been too partisan, at times too gruff or crude, at times too much of a dealer or logroller. But he has stood out as a leader of men, women and policy development in this country--stood out in a way that few members do at any time.”

Profile: Dan Rostenkowski

Background on the congressman:

* NAME--Daniel D. Rostenkowski.

* AGE--66.

* EDUCATION--St. John’s Military Academy, Delafield, Wis.; attended night classes at Loyola University, Chicago.

* EXPERIENCE--Served two years as a private in the Army in Korea; elected to the lower house at age 24 and to the Senate of the Illinois Legislature two years later; elected to Congress in 1958 at age 30, its youngest member.

* FAMILY--Wife, LaVerne; daughters Dawn, Kristie, Gayle and Stacy Lynn.

* QUOTE--”You want something, then you give.”

Source: Times wire reports

Timetable on the Case

Tuesday’s indictment dates back to a 1991 investigation of irregularities in the House post office by then-U.S. Atty. Jay B. Stephens of the District of Columbia. Stephens obtained office expense records from Rep. Dan Rostenkowski and two other members of Congress to determine if persons there had used expense accounts to obtain cash fraudulently from the postal unit. This series of events then developed:

* February, 1992--Four former employees of the House post office are charged in federal court with embezzlement. All plead guilty.

* March, 1992--Robert V. Rota resigns as House postmaster.

* May, 1992--At Stephens’ request, a federal grand jury subpoenas six years of office expense records from Rostenkowski and Rep. Austin J. Murphy (D-Pa.) and former Rep. Joe Kolter (D-Pa.), who was voted out of office.

* September, 1992--The grand jury charges that there was a broad conspiracy between House post office employees and others to defraud the government. The indictment names only one defendant--Joanna G. O’Rourke, former chief of staff of the postal unit--but says she conspired with others. O’Rourke pleads guilty to two misdemeanor counts of embezzling government property and misusing funds.

* October, 1992--Rostenkowski begins using political campaign donations to cover expenses of defense lawyers representing him in the grand jury probe.

* December, 1992--Records of Rostenkowski’s office are revealed showing unusually large transactions in postage stamps running into tens of thousands of dollars.

* January, 1993--Rostenkowski’s bank records are subpoenaed in a sign that the federal grand jury investigation is widening.

* March, 1993--Stephens, a holdover from the Bush Administration, says his investigation of Rostenkowski’s affairs has nothing to do with partisan politics.

* July, 1993--Rota, the former House postmaster, pleads guilty to embezzlement charges for helping members of Congress trade postage vouchers and stamps for thousands of dollars in cash. He had initially denied to investigators that such exchanges took place, but his admission indicates he has damaging allegations against Rostenkowski in particular. Rostenkowski claims Rota’s charges are “baseless” and says he is retaining Robert S. Bennett, one of Washington’s top defense lawyers.

* October, 1993--Eric H. Holder Jr., named by the Clinton Administration to succeed Stephens, decides to present the Rostenkowski case to a new grand jury so that investigation can be expanded.

* January, 1994--On advice of his lawyer, Rostenkowski repays the government $82,000 charged to his official House account for what he describes as personal items and gifts.

* March, 1994--Rostenkowski wins the Democratic congressional primary in his Chicago district.

* May, 1994--Holder presents an outline of the case against Rostenkowski to his Justice Department superiors. Rostenkowski decides against pleading guilty to any offenses and says he will contest all charges in court.

Source: Times Washington Bureau