September 24, 2007

Seeking Common Ground
by Martin Evans
Newsday

WASHINGTON - On an autumnal evening last Monday, a handful of members of Congress trooped down to the Hunan Dynasty restaurant on Capitol Hill, leaving their party leadership behind them.

What they sought, beyond spicy beef and shrimp in garlic sauce, was a way to bridge a Democratic-Republican gulf that experts say has left Congress more divided than at any time in more than 100 years.

A featured guest at the dinner - a former congressional staffer who had left to work in Baghdad - told the assembled members how difficult it was for Iraqis fleeing death threats there to win admission to the United States.

And one by one, Democrats and Republicans there realized they all wanted to do something to help Iraqis endangered for having worked with the Americans.

"If I hadn't gone to the dinner, I would not have known there was agreement between us on the refugee crisis," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington). "If all you hear is the debate on the floor, all you hear about are the disagreements."

The diners were members of the Center Aisle Caucus, a bipartisan group Israel co-founded two years ago with Illinois Republican Tim Johnson. The 50-member coalition hopes that by building personal relationships away from the rancor of the House chamber, they can find common ground on issues that have divided partisan Washington, including the war in Iraq.

"Nothing can happen in the House unless you can reach 218 votes," Israel said. "And to do that, you need to build relationships." Relations between the two major parties are at their most strained since Theodore Roosevelt was president, according to a review of congressional voting. Speaking about the caucus, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute think tank said, "Yes, they're for real. The problem is, the rest of Congress is surreal."

Redistricting, low voter turnouts and the increased role of money in political campaigns has boosted the influence of extreme views on such issues as universal health care, gun control, immigration and war, said George Washington University political science professor Sarah Binder. That has weakened the role of political moderates and ramped up rancor in Congress.

Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.), a member of the caucus, acknowledged that the group has no trophies to show for its efforts thus far. But he said several actions the group has taken, including holding a joint conversation with Iraq's ambassador and talking together about their common interests during a C-Span broadcast from the House floor, is showing new possibilities to an electorate tired of political discord. The group will appear together next on C-Span Oct. 2.

"Did it end the war? No," Gilchrest said of the C-Span appearance. "Did it demonstrate to the American people there is a new coalition of centrists? Yes."

By the end of the evening at the Hunan Dynasty, individual attendees had agreed to take on one of four projects.

Some planned to set up town hall meetings in their districts and invite colleagues from the opposite party. Others agreed to organize a bipartisan examination of the War Powers Act, the Vietnam-era provision that allows the president to make limited war without congressional approval. Still others agreed to press party colleagues to support the caucus' views on Iraq.

Whether the caucus' fledgling effort can break the bitterness that poisons Congress remains a long shot, political observers say. Several Republicans known for their willingness to seek accord, including Minnesota's Jim Ramstad and Illinois' Ray LaHood, will not seek re-election. Ohio Republican Paul Gillmor died Sept. 5.

And with a presidential election year looming, leaders of both parties, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader John Boehner, may increasingly reject compromise in favor of developing wedge issues that would energize their respective party bases.

Of five headlines on Boehner's congressional Web page Friday, three attacked Democrats as "hypocritical" and "slanderous." The other two referred to Republican accomplishments. Of three top items on Pelosi's Web site, one attacked the president's "recipe for an endless war."

"We may see an even sharper divide," Ornstein said.