Abstract

Beltway Bandits

The article discusses several issues related to politics in the United States. Senator Bob Packwood must be the loneliest man in town. After Congress recessed for the year, many members rushed back to their home states. Packwood cannot return to Oregon, for whenever he appears there demonstrators enraged by his social manners mark his presence. So a stiff-faced Packwood was recently spotted attending the National Symphony Orchestra's presentation of an all-Mozart program at the Kennedy Center during a week when few legislators were in town. A breath shy of recess, the House of Representatives finally approved a campaign finance reform bill. It is a version of the mediocre bill that passed last year, and in some important respects is even weaker. This despite the fact that a self-described fan of campaign reform now occupies the White House Office, and that public irritation with fools on the Hill has grown.