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Past Voices of Civility Back New House Effort

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Times Staff Writer

They were the leaders when comity last reigned in Congress, and Wednesday, former House Speaker Thomas S. Foley of Washington and former House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois returned to their old stomping grounds to endorse a new effort aimed at restoring civility to Capitol Hill.

“Ours was a different time,” said Foley, who was speaker from 1989 through 1994, when Democrats last controlled the House. “It’s more rancorously partisan now, and that’s unfortunate.”

Michel, the GOP leader from 1981 through 1994, agreed. “At one time it was fun, actually enjoyable, to be a member of the House,” he said.

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But these days, rancor rules -- and has since January 1995, when Republicans took over the House and intense partisanship, epitomized by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, became business as usual. To remedy this, two congressmen who met in the House gym are trying to show Congress how to disagree without being disagreeable.

Calling themselves the Center Aisle Caucus, Reps. Timothy V. Johnson (R-Ill.) and Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) hope to develop a legislative agenda, on issues like veterans’ affairs, that members can embrace across the aisle that separates Republicans from Democrats on the House floor. They are talking about holding bipartisan legislative briefings and seeking changes in House rules that reduce debate to sound bites.

That’s not to say there won’t be disagreement, Israel noted. But it doesn’t have to be mean-spirited.

“It’s not because we believe civility is better, but because we believe civility is necessary if the House is going to operate better,” he said. “We’re not going to hold hands in a wide circle singing ‘Kumbaya.’ ”

Johnson and Israel are well-aware that previous efforts have failed. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and former Rep. David E. Skaggs (D-Colo.) teamed up in 1997 to start “civility retreats” for members of Congress and their families, only to find interest lag after a few years amid grumbling that the only concrete result was souvenir T-shirts.

Although they are, so far, the only two members of their new caucus, Johnson and Israel report considerable interest in their proposal from colleagues -- what Israel called “a real thirst” for teamwork.

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One potential member is Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank). Elected in 2000, he defeated James E. Rogan, who had managed the impeachment trial against President Clinton.

Schiff said that while he knew campaigning would be contentious, he expected that serving in Congress would be less acrimonious.

“Our constituents want us to get things done,” he said.

During his first committee meeting on the Hill, Schiff said, he was shocked when a fellow Democrat accused the Republican chairman of the House International Relations Committee of racism for including Egypt in the subcommittee on the Middle East, rather than the one on Africa.

“That was my introduction to a partisan Congress,” he said.

He was also surprised upon arriving in Washington to find that the California delegation -- with 32 Democrats and 20 Republicans, it’s the largest and by many accounts the most fractious in town -- rarely met as a group. He welcomed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s scheduled meeting with the delegation today as a rare exception, and noted that one of the last occasions to bring the California legislators together was Vice President Dick Cheney’s briefing on energy policy at a time when “all the lights were going out” in California.

In their embrace of the new effort, popularly known as the Civility Caucus, Foley and Michel demonstrated one attribute that could explain why Congress is no longer a place of fierce battles during the day followed by friendly outings in the evenings. Unlike many current members of the House, each willingly admitted to having made mistakes.

Foley said that he voted against the first Persian Gulf War, while Michel voted for it, and “in retrospect Bob was probably right.”

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For his part, Michel said he initially opposed C-SPAN’s live broadcasts of House floor action, and still regrets that the media spotlight has politicized debate, but now is glad the show is on the air.

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