EMERSON SPEAKS PLAINLY: DON'T PLAY POLITICS

Republicans in Congress are still nursing black eyes over attempts to use disaster relief as a way to get some other goodies past President Clinton. The ploy failed. Clinton vetoed the legislation, further delaying much-needed assistance for areas of the national stricken by high waters earlier this year.

Although Republicans are the focus of the negative attention this bit of political maneuvering produced -- after all, the GOP is the majority party right now, it must be pointed out that Democrats played the same games with the same bill, tacking on pork-barrel items that had no bearing on disaster aid. One example was a $1.2 million appropriation for a parking garage.

It is bad enough that the congressional leadership and the president had to duel over such nonsense. It is ever worse that so much time and effort is being spent in spitting matches between Republicans and Democrats.

One of the newest faces in the hallowed halls of Congress has seen all of this and pronounced both sides equally guilty. "Stop playing politics," says U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau, particularly when people are in need of help and waiting for government to act responsibly.

The important point here is that Emerson, a Republican, isn't willing to sink to the partisan level that has become so predominant in today's politics. This is an era of government by bickering, and any taxpaying citizen knows how ineffective this gnashing of teeth has been in addressing crucial issues that fact the country.

Instead of working in the interests of wage-earning Americans to lower taxes, keep Social Security and Medicare in good financial shape and balance the federal budget in an orderly way, Congress fiddled with spending limits and census sampling -- both a part of the federal relief bill -- instead.

Why is it that the clearest sense of leadership among our national legislators seems to be coming from some of the newest faces on Capitol Hill? Emerson was elected only last year, following the death of her husband, the late U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson. Others who have been elected in the past couple of years also have demonstrated a degree of intolerance with leaders in both parties who continue to use bluster and thunder -- certainly time-worn tools -- instead of common sense and a sense of purpose that will make a difference to Americans.

Hooray for Jo Ann Emerson's let's-not-mince-words approach. If those who hold the reins in either party are listening, they will do well to heed what she and others are saying.