Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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Keynote Breakfast
Bipartisan group talks lawmaker civility
Scramble to fill J.C. Watts’ spot brings interesting
conversation to Keynote Breakfast
By Tom Blount
ASNE members and guests went to breakfast to hear one congressman —
a rising star Republican.
They didn’t hear from him.
They did hear from four others, though, about "the Spirit of Hershey"
and a "greater degree of civility, mutual respect and, where possible,
more bi-partisanship’’ in Congress.
Good timing, given a display of incivility that took place that very
day on the House floor.
U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., was the scheduled speaker for the Keynote
Breakfast. He had to bow out the afternoon before because of complications
with his wife’s surgery the day before, leaving ASNE Program Chairman Tim
McGuire without a keynote speaker.
That’s when U.S. Reps. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., David Skaggs, D-Colo., Amo
Houghton, R-N.Y., and Tom Sawyer, D-Ohio, came to McGuire’s rescue.
They were among some 200 members of Congress — Republican and Democrat
— and their families (a total of some 600 people) who got together for
three days in early March at the Hershey Conference Center in Hershey,
Pa. That conference, a mixture of substantive working session and social
activities, was designed to find common ground.
Apparently it did.
McGuire noted the congressmen wanted something from ASNE in return for
their visit.
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They want to know if there is a role for newspapers in maintaining a more
respectful dialogue.
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They want to know if we all can work together to "resist catchy sound bites
and headlines and thus increase stability and the quality of public discourse.’’
LaHood pointed out that, "You come to Congress to try to use the institution
to better the society that we live in. But the class that I came with,
I think, was different from that."
He also noted that, "Many of us live in our districts; our families
live in our districts; we come here on Tuesday; we leave here on Thursday.
... There are no opportunities for members to get to know one another.
"Hershey was not the answer. It’s not the solution, but it’s the beginning,
the beginning of building a friendship and relationship that I believe
will last way beyond many of our congressional careers.’’
Skaggs, to whom LaHood gave the credit for suggesting the Hershey conference
to him, said, "We were concerned, I think, primarily, with our responsibility
to the country. We weren’t getting very much done.’’
He said of Hershey, "For me, it was an absolutely transforming event
in my life, political or otherwise.’’
Skaggs told the editors that journalism was a subject of discussion
at the conference. "It would be healthy for us (members of Congress and
journalists) to have a discussion about this relationship.’’ He said he
talks about coverage "in terms of the journalistic analog to the Hippocratic
oath, trying to serve the democracy and enlighten public discussion.’’
Sawyer followed with emphasis on history and its importance.
"I think we came to understand that we were more like one another in
our views, regardless of our politics, than we were unlike one another.’’
He noted this was not the first time that Congress had undergone periods
of deep division. It was the first time Congress had done something like
this to attack the problem.
"We came to understand something that is very important to all of us
and that is that we are engaged in an undertaking in which we have to live
with unfinished business, sometimes dangerous business, and what are almost
always tentative answers. In doing that, we must trust one another.’’
Houghton explained, quickly and simply, why the Hershey conference was
important. "As in any organization, things tend to get separated and then
you have to pull them back.’’
His assessment of the conference: "It’s been a wonderful experience.
I come at this thing very simply. I am 70 years old. I spent 35 years in
business. I don’t have a lot of time here in this Congress, and I want
to make something happen.
"The heavy lifting has to be done by both parties.
"One party cannot do it on its own.
"You must be able to work both sides of the aisle. That’s what we weren’t
doing. That’s what the whole point of the Hershey conference was."
One representative stated what appeared to be the consensus: They’d
encourage "having the controversies, that is the disagreement about issues,
covered and covered fully." They’re worried that the media "cover
the fight and who’s landing the punches ... as opposed to the underlying
issues facing the country and how we engage on those.’’
It appeared, from the attentiveness of editors and questions asked,
that a little of the Spirit of Hershey rubbed off.
Blount is editor of the High Point (N.C.) Enterprise.
