WASHINGTON WATCH: REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS ACT SWIFTLY

WASHINGTON -- It took more than 14 hours and lasted till 2:30 in the morning, but in a blizzard of legislative reforms the first Republican House of Representatives in 40 years fulfilled all its first-day promises to the American people. Passed were rules applying the laws of the country to Congress itself (which also requires Senate approval) and several items that apply only to the House:term limits for committee chairmen and the speaker, a requirement for a three-fifths majority vote for any income-tax increase, a one-third cut in committee staffs, a ban on proxy voting, the elimination of three standing committees, the implementation of zero-based budgeting and an opening of meetings to the public.

Altogether, in the busiest first day in the history of the House, the Republicans guided 29 revolutionary reforms to passage, all but two with the majority support of Democrats. This bipartisan support is significant because it exposed minority whip David Bonior's high-profile attacks on the Republican agenda as nothing but television histrionics. While he was crying foul to the cameras, his Democratic colleagues were voting overwhelmingly with the Republicans. Is it any wonder several conservative Democrats have decided to form their own caucus?

Partisanship or fair play?

Sadly, Bonior's attacks were in part successful in what they were meant to accomplish:cloud the feeling of New Beginning that buoyed much of the first-day ceremonies. All of the nightly news programs featured "business-as-usual, partisan bickering" within their assessments of the opening of the 104th Congress. Only the constant TV drumming of Connie Chung's interview with Newt Gingrich's mother lacked greater perspective. Notwithstanding the jaundiced view of some within the media, the kickoff of the new House was marked primarily by cooperation and fair play. Remarks to the House by new Minority leader Dick Gephardt and Speaker Gingrich exemplified the mood. As the new speaker, Gingrich's remarks were particularly significant. Challenging both parties, he called for a new kind of debate where partisan caricatures of ideas are set aside so that serious thought and honest deliberation can flourish. He called upon both Republicans and Democrats to step outside their boxes and think courageously.

"I want to commend every member on both sides to look carefully," said Gingrich. "I would say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you can't believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that, as long as business is making money, we can walk by a fellow American who's hurt and not do something. And I would say to my friends on the left who believe that there's never been a government program that wasn't worth keeping, you can't look at some of the results we now have and not want to reach out to the humans and forget the bureaucracies.

"If we could build that attitude on both sides of this aisle, we would be an amazingly different place and the country would begin to be a different place."

Local people

The capitol was flooded with Republican well-wishers Wednesday, and an energy akin to a presidential inauguration was in the air. Many from Missouri made the trip, with the greatest number present to cheer on former governor and new senator John Ashcroft. The most visible Show Me State Republican, however, was the congressman from Cape Girardeau, Bill Emerson. Emerson not only played an active role in House floor debates, he was one of a handful of congressmen who stood in for Newt Gingrich at the speaker's podium. Emerson, who is renowned on Capitol Hill for his knowledge of political lore, was also an early-morning guest on Good Morning America. He was invited to appear as the only Republican congressman working in the capitol the last time there was a Republican speaker. Of course then, Emerson was just a congressional page.

Perhaps Emerson's most significant role in Day One activities, however, was his organization of a bipartisan morning prayer service at St. Peter's Catholic Church on Capitol Hill. The service was attended by many Democrat and Republican congressmen, including most of the GOP leadership. Afterwards, members from both sides of the aisle praised the 8th District representative's leadership in encouraging Congress to seek guidance from a higher power. One person who seemed particularly moved by the service was Speaker Gingrich, who a couple hours later closed his speech to the new House by harkening Emerson's words at the prayer service.

"I want to close by reminding all of us how much bigger this is than us," Gingrich said, referring to the task before the 104th Congress. "Beyond talking with the American people, beyond working together, I think we can only be successful if we start with our limits. I was very struck this morning with something Bill Emerson used. It's a fairly famous quote of Benjamin Franklin at the point where the Constitutional Convention was deadlocked and people were tired and there was a real possibility that the convention was going to break up.

"Franklin, who was quite old and had been relatively quiet for the entire convention, suddenly stood up and was angry. And he said, 'I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth:: that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?'

"At that point the Congressional Convention stopped. They took a day off for fasting and prayer and then, having stopped and come together, they went back and they solved the great question of large and small states and they wrote the Constitution, and the United States was created.

"If each of us -- and all I can do is pledge you from me -- if each of us will reach out prayerfully and try to genuinely understand the other, if we'll recognize that in this building we symbolize America writ small, that we have an obligation to talk with each other, then I think a year from now we can look on the 104th as a truly amazing institution and without regard to party, without regard to ideology, we can say:Here America comes to work and here we are preparing for our children a better future."

Altogether, it was a stunning beginning to the 104th Congress.

Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.