Disillusionment Marks 103rd Congress : Government: As midterm elections near, lawmakers say the praise they expected at beginning of session has grown into a chorus of voter discontent.

Not quite two years ago, Bob Filner was swept into the House of Representatives on the largest wave of newcomers in half a century. A San Diego Democrat, he was part of a freshman class that arrived in Washington ready to shake up the old order, to prove to the nation that congressional gridlock was gone and legislative boldness was back.

Had things turned out as congressional Democrats had hoped--and as many had led voters to expect--this last big recess before November’s midterm elections would have been a victory lap, a time for boasting about their accomplishments and planning how to build upon them next year.

Instead, as House members end their three-week break and return to Washington this week for the final few weeks of the 103rd Congress, Filner says he feels “a real sense of tragedy” about the legislative record of the last two years.

“We have lost a once-in-a-great-while opportunity to make some major changes,” he said.

As he made the round of his constituents during the recess, Filner said, he tried over and over again to explain why things fell apart on health care reform and other issues. He talked about the power of special interests, the pettiness of partisan politics, the factionalism of his own party. But ultimately, the 52-year-old former city councilman acknowledged bluntly:

“I’m not sure why it happened, either. I’m as confused as they are. You can try to explain the reasons, but it comes down to this: We didn’t get it done.”

The dismay and disillusionment expressed by Filner appear to be shared by many lawmakers, particularly Democrats, who went home to make their best case for voters to return them to Washington next year to try again. Instead of the approval and praise they once thought they would receive after two years of congressional activism, some say the climate is even worse than before the 1992 election, when the House was battered by scandals involving its post office and private bank.

“This has been truly the most difficult year I have gone through,” sighed one veteran House member.

Health care reform--the issue that was supposed to have been the crowning achievement of one-party governance--is stalled, and even a heroic resuscitation is likely to produce little more than incremental improvements.

Major initiatives to clean up congressional fund-raising practices and rein in special interests have yet to materialize. Last year’s budget victories are a distant memory, and the steadily improving economy has not seemed to produce a general sense of well-being.

Anti-crime legislation clearly ranks as the Democrats’ biggest accomplishment this year, but the fight to pass it turned so ugly and partisan that it is not producing the political bounce that party leaders had anticipated.

Democrats insist that voters will blame both parties for the mess in Congress. Republicans--who have far fewer vulnerable seats at stake--say their position could hardly be better going into the elections.

The enduring message of this session is that “this is a Congress that is not to be trusted. They spent the entire two years flexing their ideological muscles against the grain of American opinion,” said Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.), a member of the Republican leadership. “Certainly, people are more aware than I’ve ever seen them that you’ve got to change Congress if you want to change government.”

Privately, many Democrats blame their own leadership for failing to enforce congressional discipline, and for being deaf to the larger political themes resonating outside Washington.

The near-death of the crime bill on a procedural vote crystallized those doubts for many Democrats. Their leaders, whose job it is to count noses, had gone into the vote confident they had the number they needed.

When House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) proposed saving the bill by abandoning its assault-weapons ban--in essence, a Democrats-only strategy that would have preserved spending that Republicans had branded as “pork”--their rank and file were horrified.

Ultimately, it was up to White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta, a House veteran, to rescue the bill by negotiating a deal with a handful of Republicans.

Under Foley and Gephardt’s leadership, younger Democrats complain there is little incentive to vote with their party on difficult issues.

Indeed, those who hold out until the last minute often find themselves with significant leverage, and are rewarded with special breaks. Even committee and subcommittee chairmen have been willing to break party ranks on crime, the budget and other issues.

Originally, the Democrats had staked everything on health care. Now, in hopes of having something more to show for the past two years, they are turning their attention to other items that remain on their agenda.

“We have to go home with something. The crime bill will not be enough,” said Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), a member of the House Democratic leadership.

Among the possibilities: revamping the Superfund law for the cleanup of toxic waste sites and approving a global trade pact and a telecommunications bill.

As evidence of their commitment to reform, many would also like to pass campaign-finance and lobbying bills to curb the influence of special interests. They conceded, however, that pending legislation in those areas would be far less sweeping than originally hoped.

As one Democratic freshman put it: “I’m not telling you that those bills are heroic, but they’re bills.”

But with only about five weeks left to adjournment, Congress may have little opportunity or energy to accomplish much else.

“We put so much into health care, and raised expectations so high,” said Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento). “We’re left with very little, because so much time, energy and just emotional capital had gone into the health care issue.”

Ironically, given the effort invested in health care reform this year, lawmakers are finding little concern about--or even interest in--its demise. Many House members said they were surprised by the intensity of the indifference toward an issue that has consumed practically every powerful interest in Washington. In that sense, the recess has been something of a reality check.

Matsui said that in five days of meeting with voters in his district, “not one person said that they were really upset. . . . Generally speaking, people were probably more relieved that we weren’t moving ahead.”

Efforts continue to salvage at least part of the health care bill, but even a modest effort could be a hard sell with voters. Most Republicans and some Democrats argue that Congress should scrap the entire effort and try again next year.