Category: Spring 2007 Newswire
GOP Moderates Make Strides Despite Party’s Minority Status
MODERATES
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
4/20/2007
WASHINGTON, April 20 – Although the curtain fell on their party’s majority last November, many Republican centrists now say they are more integral to Congress than during the 12 years their party played the lead, despite their early fears of being shoved off stage by the new Democratic-led cast on Capitol Hill.
After only four months since the Democratic majority took control in January, Republican moderates already say they’ve been able to vote in favor of issues they could not support under their own party’s control.
“A lot of the legislation we passed early on – ethics reform, strengthening the civil liberties board, expanding stem cell research, increasing the minimum wage – these were all things championed by moderates,” said Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, now New England’s lone Republican House member. “And some of the bills were actually our bills.”
“They’re in the minority of the minority but they’re closer to the majority,” added former Rep. Nancy Johnson, who lost Connecticut’s 5th District seat in November to Democrat Christopher Murphy. “They give the majority the power to go down a centrist route, despite their extremists.”
Many points on the Democratic leadership’s agenda during Congress’s first 100 days focused on issues that moderate Republicans tried to address in previous years, Shays said.
Implementing the remaining security recommendations of the 9/11 commission was one area, he said, where moderate Republican members could not succeed under their own party’s control. In 2006, Shays co-sponsored a bill to implement the remaining recommendations almost identical to the one passed by the House earlier this year, but it was never voted on.
“The Republicans didn’t understand the importance of dealing with an issue like that and so they didn’t do it,” said Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican who retired in 2006 after 13 terms in the House. Like Shays, Boehlert proposed legislation in the last Congress similar to the bill passed this year to raise the minimum wage, but the then Republican majority did not approve it.
“It looked like the Democrats were taking the moderate Republican agenda and making it [their own],” Boehlert said of the first 100 days legislation.
Traditionally defined as fiscal conservatives who can lean to the left on social issues, most Republican members of Congress who are considered moderate belong to the Republican Main Street Partnership, a Washington-based organization comprised of 48 members of Congress, two governors and several former members of Congress that promotes “centrist values” and the “Republican ideals of fiscal responsibility and limited government.”
“We’re not moderate in our passion,” Shays, a member of the partnership, said of his faction of Republican centrists. “We’re simply not at one edge of the political ideology. Moderates tend to be people who bring others together. We tend to work with both ends of the political spectrum and say, you know, ‘Can we meet in the middle?’”
Among the 35 congressional seats lost by the Republican Party last November, seven or eight belonged to moderate members, according to former Rep. Charlie Bass of New Hampshire, a six-term incumbent who lost his seat last fall and is now the president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Although the challenges are greater representing “the minority within a minority caucus,” Bass said, the role moderate GOP members play in congressional processes is “just as significant as it was before.”
Although the partnership lost some key members following last year’s midterm elections, Bass said, some new moderate members who were elected helped to fill their vacancies. “There’s a very incremental loss, but it’s not significant,” he said. “Moderates are more united in terms of interpersonal relationships than they ever have been.”
Despite Bass’s optimistic assessment, the Republican Party suffered some significant blows last fall. The traditionally liberal bastion of New England moved even further to the left, with Democrats taking 21 of the region’s 22 House seats and also picking up a Senate seat in Rhode Island.
Connecticut, with three of the region’s hottest House races, emerged from the midterms as the only New England state not awash in a sea of blue. Reps. Johnson and Rob Simmons, both moderates, were ousted in very close races, making Shays the only New England Republican who returned to the House..
“The state lost two extraordinarily good legislators,” Shays said of the midterm election results. “I lost two of my best friends. It has given me leverage in my own party to point out we need to be a party that is listening to people, looking to solve their problems and we need more people like Rob and Nancy, not less.”
“A lot of good Republicans were caught up in that firestorm,” added Chris Healy, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party. “I’m very confident that Chris [Shays] will be there as long as he wants to be. He’s doing everything he needs to do.”
After being targeted last fall by Democrats and constituents who disapproved of the Republicans’ handling of the war in Iraq and the general corruption in Washington, Boehlert said, the moderate members who survived the election could return to a much less stressful environment on the Hill.
“I think the moderate Republicans have a much more enjoyable experience,” he said. “Although they don’t like being in the minority, a lot of the pressure is off of being charged with all the sins of a majority. And there were a number of sins.”
The legislative leeway many moderate members encountered following their party’s fall to minority status is “far more a liberation than anything else,” according to Norm Ornstein, congressional scholar and co-author of “The Broken Branch,” an in-depth analysis of Congress’s evolution over the past several decades.
“The moderate Republicans were really in a series of difficult boxes,” Ornstein added. “They had to walk the plank frequently on votes; frankly none were rank and file conservatives. [Now] they have more freedom when it comes to casting votes, and more freedom to be engaged in the policy process.”
The new Democratic majority in Congress is by no means overwhelming, and with such narrow margins, the Democrats need to be conscious of moderates across the aisle, according to Paul Weinstein, chief operating officer of the Democratic Leadership Council and a former member of the Clinton administration
The Democrats hold a 31 seat advantage in the House and a two seat advantage in the Senate, because independents Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont caucus with the Democratic Party. “There’s going to be some tight votes they will need them on,” Weinstein added.
“Right now this is a very partisan place,” Shays said of the House. “The speaker is as partisan to the left as Tom DeLay was to the right, and because she is focused on how to increase her majority, she’s not reaching out to anybody right now on the Republican side of the aisle. But eventually I think she will have to.”
Bills to raise the minimum wage and relegate federal funding to expand stem cell research were two that already drew support from centrist Republicans in this Congress. Defecting Republican moderates were critical in giving House and Senate Democrats the majorities they needed to pass the controversial war spending bills that include timelines for troop withdrawal from Iraq as well.
“Some votes you will need those Republican moderates,” Weinstein said. “You’ve got to govern from the center out. You’ve got to start in the center and move left.”
“You do need to be able to build coalitions across party lines,” added Johnson. “If they are smart enough to work with the moderate Republicans, they can free themselves.”
For many centrist members in the minority who represent evenly divided districts like Shays, voting in favor of certain Democratic bills shows their constituents they’re listening to the concerns of their districts, Boehlert said.
“They actually get to work on and vote on issues that they favor,” added Thomas Mann, congressional scholar and co-author of “The Broken Branch.” “Matters that were often time kept from the floor while their own party was in power. That’s the most satisfying part.”
Despite the changes brought by the new Democratic leadership, Shays said, the remaining Republican moderate members will still continue to endorse legislation they believe will strengthen the center.
“We get it done in the majority or minority, but some things are easier for me now than they were under my own party,” he said. “Moderates are always going to be relevant, and we’re always going to be in the thick of the battle because we’re basically dealing with the issues the constituents are concerned about.”
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Courtney’s Chief of Staff Feels Privileged to Work on Capitol Hill
GROSS PROFILE
New London Day
Renée Dudley
Boston University Washington News Service
April 12, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 12 – When freshmen members of Congress arrive in Washington they must start from scratch: they have to hire staff, learn how to vote and how to navigate Capitol Hill, and organize furniture and computers left by previous inhabitants – and it is the job of the chief of staff to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
Jason Gross, chief of staff for Rep. Joseph Courtney (D-Conn.), says managing his boss’s office is a demanding job – made all the more challenging since Courtney has been in Congress less than four months.
“My job is like an air traffic controller,” Gross said during an interview in the 2nd District congressman’s office last month. But before he could explain more, Rep. Courtney burst into the office.
“Are you going to Dodd’s thing in the morning?” Courtney asked his 37-year-old chief of staff.
“Yes,” Gross replied.
“We need to talk about where that is,” Courtney said, laughing.
“How about – I’ll come pick you up?” Gross affirmed reassuringly, before the congressman darted to his next meeting.
Gross, like his freshman boss, is still discovering the nuances of his new job – although he is no stranger to politics.
“The responsibilities are incredible. The first month was mind-blowing,” Gross said, explaining that under normal circumstances, a freshman congressman’s first month in office is mostly ceremonial, giving the staff “a chance to catch its breath.” But the Democratic congressional takeover during last November’s election could hardly be considered normal circumstances.
“What we were then facing was a whole legislative agenda that had been pent up because the Democrats hadn’t been in power for 12 years,” Gross said. “The problem was that we didn’t have a full operation to deal with it.”
Courtney, who has known Gross for about 10 years, said he chose his chief of staff in part because of his experience both on Capitol Hill and in the district. “There are just so many potential pitfalls that a new person not understanding the process can fall into – but with him, there wasn’t going to be any learning curve,” Courtney said. “Of course it didn’t hurt that he went to Tufts,” said the congressman, a fellow alum of the Boston-area university.
Having received his masters degree from the London School of Economics, Gross was serving as a foreign policy expert in European affairs for the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, when a friend introduced him to then-Rep. Sam Gejdenson’s chief of staff. Gross was hired and served as a legislative assistant for four years to the Democratic congressman – who represented the 2nd District for 20 years before losing the 2000 election to Republican Rob Simmons.
Although Gross had not previously worked in the district, he quickly learned its towns and people, Gejdenson said. “The entire office depended on his leadership,” he added.
Gross became more familiar with the district as he campaigned in the Groton area for Gejdenson in 1998 and 2000, and for Rep. Courtney in 2002 and 2006. “When Sam lost in 2000, the Democrats in Connecticut thought Joe was the person to turn to,” Gross said. “I wanted to help out Joe in any way I could.”
In Courtney’s office, which looks as though it hasn’t been lived in for very long, interns still complain about deficient computers inherited from the office’s previous inhabitants, and over who has to lead the next tour of Coast Guard cadets and contend with hour-long waits to enter the Capitol building.
“We’re starting from scratch,” Gross said. “When we got here, there were computers set up, kind of working; and there was furniture, kind of.”
Gross said it is his responsibility to “get a schedule going” and set a tempo for the office.
“My job is to make Joe as productive as possible” by organizing constituent events, briefing the congressman on current legislation on the House floor, corresponding with staffers from the district office, and preparing for committee hearings – Courtney is a member of the House Armed Services and Education and Labor Committees. “You can hardly fit it all into one day.”
“My job is about giving things fair balance, but prioritizing: knowing what has to happen right now, what has to happen in four hours; what has to happen by the end of the week, what has to happen by the end of the month,” he said.
Beverly Bell, executive director at the Congressional Management Foundation, said having an effective chief of staff is important to any congressional office. “The chief of staff is the chief operating officer to the member’s role as chief executive officer,” she said.
And what happens when Gross disagrees with his boss’s priorities? “It’s his name on the door, it’s his name on the ballot – in the end, all we can do is give him our best advice,” the chief of staff said.
But Gross, who said he normally comes into the office before 8 a.m. and leaves after 8 p.m., is also responsible for Rep. Courtney’s most basic needs. “Sometimes it’s my job to make sure he’s eaten that day – he can’t function if someone didn’t get him a sandwich,” Gross said.
Brian Farber, Courtney’s communications director, said Gross also is responsible for motivating the rest of the staff. “Jason runs a tight, but very responsible ship so that Congressman Courtney can best address the needs of the residents that he was elected to represent,” Farber said.
Another part of Gross’s job is carving out personal time for Rep. Courtney. “He’s separated from his family while he’s here [in Washington], and this is new for them,” Gross said of the congressman’s wife and 16- and 12-year-old children. “They have to have some time to themselves.”
Gross lives in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington and commutes to work either by subway or car, depending on his daily activities. His schedule is so crowded that he apparently hasn’t yet had enough time to decorate his Capitol Hill office, which is neat, but almost entirely devoid of personal effects.
But Gross admits that even after a long, exhausting day, he feels privileged to work on Capitol Hill – and is especially reminded of this privilege when he steps onto the House floor and when he leaves his office late at night and sees the Capitol dome lit. “Those moments will fill you with energy and get you going to the next day,” he said. “There’s just this energy – if you don’t feel it, you’re really working in the wrong place.”
And working for a member of Congress has other perks, too. Gross, who likes to read non-politically themed books in whatever spare time he has, particularly revels in his access to the Library of Congress. “Having this nation’s history of books which staff and members can check out is a great resource,” he said.
While studying political science at Tufts University, in Medford, Mass., Gross also served as the school-wide coordinator for former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis’s 1988 presidential campaign. But Gross said that he had been interested in politics long before that. Growing up in a Washington, D.C., suburb, he said “the city itself nurtures you.”
Gross said his parents, both retired economists who worked for the federal government, nurtured the “ideal of public service around the dinner table” which “got me involved in politics at a young age and made me respect how important it was.”
From 2000 to the start of his current position, Gross was managing director of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, a group that raises awareness about American engagement abroad. Given Courtney’s membership on the House Armed Services Committee, Gross said his background in national security and defense has been useful.
Gejdenson said he hopes Gross eventually runs for public office. “He would make a spectacular senator, congressman, governor, president, or whatever he decides to do,” the former congressman said.
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Kerry and Gingrich Debate Climate Change Solutions
DISCUSSION
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Danny Lauridsen
Boston University Washington News Service
4-10-07
WASHINGTON, April 10 – U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and former Speaker of the House Newt L. Gingrich disagreed Tuesday over strategies for combating global climate change..
Their debate took place on Capitol Hill under the auspices of the New York University’s John Brademas Center.
While Mr. Kerry argued that climate change is a pressing issue that requires congressional attention and regulatory legislation, Mr. Gingrich said the free market can solve the problem through incentives for companies that reduce emissions.
“Economic growth really matters,” Mr. Gingrich said.
But Mr. Kerry argued that the crisis was too severe to give the market time to solve the problem and that immediate action nationwide would result only from legislative action.
In the first half of the 21sts Century, Mr. Kerry said, global warming could cause problems on a scale “equal to great wars and economic depression.”
“That’s why this is urgent,” he said. “That’s why you can’t say, ‘Let’s let the market respond.’ That’s like saying let’s let Barry Bonds go investigate steroids or Enron regulate pensions.”
Mr. Gingrich, who was speaker from 1995 to 1999, said he was in “clear agreement that human activity has helped increase global warming” but
did not think the problem required government regulation.
A plan that does not encourage China and India to reduce emissions would not be adequate in solving the global crisis, Mr. Gingrich said.
“We’re not going to coerce these countries into a regulatory regime,” he said. “You ask them to choose between science and economic growth, they’re both going to pick economic growth.”
But Mr. Kerry said China has said it is willing to work toward a solution. “They now are aware it’s a major problem,” he said. “They’re concerned. They are going green now. They are doing green building in many ways more than we are.”
Mr. Gingrich said incentives, or prizes, for companies that met certain emissions levels were he best way to let a free market solve the crisis of climate change on its own without imposing regulations that might slow the economy.
“We can move very rapidly if we’re moving there as consumers, he said. “Those of you that have cell phones are living proof. Those of you that have BlackBerries are living proof.”
Mr. Gingrich did not contest the urgency of the issue, saying, “We’re arguing whether the market can move faster than bureaucracy,” which he said it can “if you incentivize it.”
But Mr. Kerry argued that the companies leading the way in reducing emissions, and those that would be most affected by legislation, would prefer legislation to incentives.
“They all say we need an economy-wide [emissions] cap in order to make clear the rules of the road,” he said, stressing the need for everyone to follow the same standards instead of simply rewarding the ones who meet certain marks. “That’s the only way the market will respond,” he said.
“I start with economics to get to the same end,” Mr. Gingrich said, but Mr. Kerry argued that his own solution is just as driven by economic needs.
“Whoever develops the best technology is going to be the winner,” Mr. Kerry said. “That’s the American economy at its best.” He added, “There is no environmental crisis that has ever been solved voluntarily.”
Mr. Gingrich said Mr. Kerry’s solution would create pain great enough to cause companies to adapt, whereas his own solution would create pleasure great enough that “to get the pleasure they’ll build the plant.” Mr. Gingrich acknowledged that Mr. Kerry’s solution was one answer but argued that his answer was more creative and would be more effective, especially among conservatives with economy-first philosophies.
“This is a very challenging thing to do if you’re a conservative,” Mr. Gingrich said. “The environment has been a powerful emotional tool for bigger government and higher taxes. I think there has to be a green conservative.”
At one point Mr. Gingrich held up a copy of Mr. Kerry’s new book, This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future, and said, “I would agree with about 60 percent of this book.”
“We’ve been through catastrophes,” he said. “I think what we need to have is optimism. The human race has an enormous ability to adapt.”
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Kerry and Gingrich at Odds over Affecting Climate Change
CLIMATE
New Bedford Standard-Times
Valerie Sullivan
Boston University Washington New Service
Tuesday April 10, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 10 —Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich disagreed Tuesday over ways of dealing with global climate change, with Sen. Kerry advocating government regulation and Mr. Gingrich calling for voluntary change encouraged by government incentives.
While most government officials now acknowledge global climate change caused in part by human activity, the debate today is about how to approach the problem.
“It is a problem. We should address it,” Mr. Gingrich said.
“Even if we could stop all the emissions [of so-called greenhouse gases] tomorrow, and we can’t, and we know that, damage will continue…. That’s why this is urgent,” Sen. Kerry said.
The two spoke at a Capitol Hill meeting sponsored by New York University’s John Brademas Center.
Mr. Gingrich said the solution must be a partnership between environmental interests and economic interests, with economics playing a key role. He called for “rewarding entrepreneurship, reshaping the market and investing in technology.”
But Sen. Kerry compared such actions to asking Barry Bonds to investigate steroids or letting Enron handle pensions. “You can’t just say, ‘Let the market regulate itself,’ ” he said.
Mr. Gingrich acknowledged the conflicting interests. “If you ask [countries] to choose between the environment and economic growth, [countries] are going to choose economics,” he said.
“I would agree you would get more change more rapidly with an incentivized market” rather than a laissez-faire approach, he added.
He said that his proposal would offer “pleasure” to businesses and countries to encourage them to act in a way that is positive for the environment and that Sen. Kerry’s plan would offer “more pain” to force countries to act..
Sen. Kerry reminded the audience that there has been “no single environmental crisis” in the history of the United States that has been “resolved voluntarily.”
Mr. Gingrich said that Sen. Kerry “wants to impose [a standard] by government coercion” and that his approach would be unlikely to attract China and India. “No strategy which does not bring in China and India” will work, he said.
The environment, Mr. Gingrich said, is “a powerful, emotional tool for bigger government and higher taxes.”
“This is a very challenging thing to do if you’re a conservative…. Even if you know it may be the right thing to do, you end up fighting it” to avoid higher taxes and bigger government, Mr. Gingrich said.
Mr. Kerry said he appreciated Mr. Gingrich’s “candor” in “acknowledging the conservative dilemma.”
After the debate Sen. Kerry said, “Massachusetts used to burn whale oil for fuel, then it transitioned to wood, then to fossil fuels, and now our state is slowly beginning to use renewables. But it can’t begin and end there.”
“Unless we make significant reductions in our energy consumption and fuel use, our summers will be warmer and longer, the sea-levels will rise, greatly increasing the risk of coastal flooding in places like New Bedford and the rest of our state’s shoreline,” he said. “These are not just possibilities for some far away place – but for right here in Massachusetts.”
Despite their differences, Sen. Kerry and Mr. Gingrich predicted a successful end to the climate change challenge.
“It’s very important to recognize the adaptability of humans,” Mr. Gingrich said. “I think that we have to have optimism…. The human race has an enormous ability to adapt.”
Added Sen. Kerry, “The American genius will meet this challenge and we will do what we need to do to pass this planet on to your kids in better shape than it was given to us.”
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Sununu Assistant Chosen Cherry Blossom Princess
PRINCESS
New Hampshire Union Leader
Alyssa Marcus
Boston University Washington News Service
April 6, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 6 – When New Hampshire State Society president Michael McBride called Crystal Dollins to tell her that she was chosen as this year’s New Hampshire Cherry Blossom Princess, it was “a very happy moment,” Dollins said.
“Being from New Hampshire, and going to school in New Hampshire and growing up there, I thought I would be a great person to represent New Hampshire,” she said of the reasons why she applied to be the Granite State princess.
The princess selection committee at the state society agreed with her. “We felt that Crystal was above and beyond what we were looking for and she was a good fit for the role,” said Stephanie DuBois, secretary of the New Hampshire State Society.
Dollins grew up in Bedford and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2005. She now works as a staff assistant in the Capitol Hill office of Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.).
The princesses, of which there are 47 this year, participate in all of the activities of the week-long Cherry Blossom Festival, which starts this weekend.
Some of the events are a sushi and sake tasting, a dinner cruise, and a Japanese street festival. The biggest is the Congressional Ball on April 13, where a queen will be chosen by the spin of a wheel. The Cherry Blossom Queen gets to spend 10 days in Japan representing the United States, just like the Japanese Cherry Blossom Queen will be doing here during the festivities.
The tradition of the Cherry Blossom princesses first came about in 1939. It’s sponsored by the National Conference of State Societies, and each state society chooses its princess.
The Cherry Blossom Festival itself began in 1912, when Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gave Washington a gift of 3,000 cherry trees to celebrate the friendship between the two cities.
Dollins also says that she’s hoping to make friends in the competition. “I’ve noticed that a bunch of the other girls… are living here in D.C., are kind of in the same situation as I am, working here either in Congress or representing their state somehow,” she said. “I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of people who are similar to my situation.”
Each princess gives a present to each of the other princesses. Dollins collaborated with the New Hampshire State Society to decide what their state gift would be. “We were thinking of ideas of what to give… we just shopped around New Hampshire and found cute little bottles of maple syrup that we thought would be the best way to represent New Hampshire,” Dollins said.
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Cherry Blossoml Festival Lacks Connecticut Representative
CHERRY
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
4/5/07
WASHINGTON, April 5 – When the 47 princesses of this year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival gathered in the nation’s capital Sunday to begin their week of luncheons, congressional receptions and meetings with foreign embassy officials, a representative from the Nutmeg State was nowhere to be found.
“We decided maybe this was not the year for a princess,” said Brian Mahar, president of the Connecticut State Society, the organization responsible for selecting the state’s princess. “I don’t think any of our board members were going to be able to put in the time or energy to work with the princess and participate.”
This year, Connecticut is one of 12 states that are not represented among the states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and international embassies eligible to participate in the program. But this is not the first year Connecticut has not sponsored a cherry blossom princess. In fact, the last time a Connecticut resident participated in the program was in 2003, according to Suzanne New, the Cherry Blossom Princess chairwoman.
In years when the Connecticut State Society sponsored a participant, however, their princesses were often at the forefront of the festivities. In 2002, Connecticut princess Elizabeth O’Connor, then an aide to Sen. Chris Dodd, was crowned U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen, and in 1999, Connecticut princess Shannon Kula also received the crown. But because of a decline in its membership, Mahar said, the state society decided not to participate in recent years’ festivals.
“We’re in the midst of starting up a membership drive,” he said. “We’re trying to get more people involved, to put together more events for people. For this year, it was a decision the board made that we couldn’t put the effort in that was needed to make it a success.”
There are a number of reasons why a state society might not sponsor a princess, New said, and because New England state societies are typically smaller than those of other states, they probably have a smaller number of applicants to pick from. Inability to pay the program’s entrance fee is another reason some societies choose not to participate, she added.
“We hope for all 50 states,” she added. “If we know that there are interested parties, we put them in touch with the state society, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”
The National Cherry Blossom Festival began in 1935 as a celebration to commemorate the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C., from the Mayor of Tokyo. In 1948 the princess program was added to the festival, New said, as “a cultural and educational program for the girls.”
“I do think the princess program is very important,” New said. “To meet people from other states, to meet international people is huge cultural experience. It truly is an opportunity to open the possibilities they have in their future careers.”
The week-long program includes a series of special events for the princesses to attend and culminates with the crowning of the U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen, who is chosen each year by the spin of a wheel. “It’s not a beauty pageant,” New said. “It’s not a contest at all. It’s a week of networking, camaraderie and building lifelong memories.”
After she’s chosen, the queen rides down Constitution Avenue in the final Cherry Blossom Parade the next morning and begins her year-long reign, which includes a good-will trip to Japan, where she attends events as a special guest of the Japanese government.
Although none of the members of the Connecticut State Society’s all-volunteer board could commit to “the action packed” week of events this year, Mahar said, they hope next year will mark the state’s return to the program.
“It is definitely something we’ll consider for next year, especially if someone is interested” in being the princess, he said
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Maine Native Shares Glimpse of Military Care
SOLDIER
Bangor Daily News
Carlene Olsen
Boston University Washington News Service
4/05/07
WASHINGTON, April 5 – Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Levensailor’s new iMac computer remains untouched next to the older PC model on his desk, which features a slideshow of combat photos rotating across its screen.
“I don’t know how to use these things,” Levensailor, a native of Guilford, Maine, says as he points to the sleek, white monitor sporting the apple logo. “But they put one in every room.”
Upon first glance, Levensailor’s living space at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington could be mistaken for an orderly, college dorm room outfitted with a kitchenette, couch and flat screen TV. A Miami Dolphins blanket covers his twin bed and a model tank rests on the nearby desk.
But Levensailor, 44, is no college student: Just one month ago, he lived amidst mousetraps and mildew in Building 18, the hospital’s infamous, now-closed outpatient ward.
“Yes, there were mousetraps on the floors [of the room], but when you’re used to living in tents in combat zones you’ve seen much worse,” Levensailor says of his former residence..
Levensailor, a member of the Maine Army National Guard, lived in Building 18 for three months before a series of articles in The Washington Post revealed the ward’s poor living conditions, causing him to relocate. When the patients in the building were moved, their new rooms were outfitted with flat screen TVs and the Mac computers. But the conditions in Building 18 were just a minor detail of a larger problem, Levensailor says.
When combat wounds both mental and physical cut Levensailor’s 24 years of military service short, his battle with the health care system had just begun. After a year and a half in military care, Levensailor has yet to receive a disability rating for his service. A disability rating is a measure the Pentagon assigns to wounded veterans after they are discharged from medical care that affects how much disability payment they receive.
“I don’t want to leave here with nothing,” he says from his room at Walter Reed. “We served our country and now we have to fight the Army system to defend our rights; it’s just not fair.”
Living the Dream
Levensailor, born June 18, 1962, wanted to be a soldier for as long as he can remember. As a child, he played with model tanks and watched clips of the Vietnam War on the evening news in Guilford.
“Some boys will build model airplanes,” Mary Owens, Levensailor’s mother, said in a telephone interview from her home in Chesapeake, Va. “Brian built tanks and Army equipment models and used hundreds of Army men to do strategies.”
Military fever runs in Levensailor’s family. His grandfather, biological father and step-father were war veterans.
“I cannot remember wanting to be anything other than be a soldier,” Levensailor says dressed in camouflage. “All my life, that’s the only thing I’ve wanted to do.”
When Levensailor met the woman of his dreams during high school in Guilford, Merrilee Mitchell knew marriage meant life as a soldier’s wife. Two years after high school, in July of 1982, the couple said “I do” at an Army base in Germany
“You have to learn to survive on your own,” Merrilee Levensailor said. “You have to be strong yourself and be able to do everything because you know he’s not going to be around that much.”
Merrilee Levensailor and the couple’s daughters, Nicole, 21, and Vanessa, 19, have not seen Levensailor in more than 15 months. The family cannot spare the time or funds needed to make the trip from their home in Guilford to Washington.
“We do communicate by phone and Internet, but it’s hard,” Merrilee Levensailor said. “The girls would say, ‘we always knew we had you, mom,’ even if they wondered where their father was.”
Military Life
Levensailor joined the Army in 1981, fresh out of high school. He then spent 13 years on active duty where he worked on M-60 tanks and served three tours of duty in Germany.
In 1993 Levensailor got caught in the post-Cold War “draw down,” the federal government’s attempt to cut military spending and reduce the Army by two-thirds.
“We had the option to take voluntary separation [from the Army] or wait a year and get kicked out,” he says. “You chose to take separation because at least you get the severance package, but it wasn’t really a choice.”
Levensailor then joined the 181st Air Traffic Control Detachment Unit of the Maine Army National Guard on Jan. 1, 1994, where one of his jobs included a security stint at the Bangor International Airport.
In May of 2003, Levensailor’s unit received a mobilization order – an instant ticket to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“When I stepped out of the plane [in Kandahar] I thought I was walking into the exhaust, but it was just the hot air outside,” Levensailor says with closed eyes. “We were later told temperatures at the base reached 128 degrees that day.”
First Sgt. Steven Craig led Levensailor’s squad unit in Afghanistan and knew him previously from their time in the Maine National Guard.
“Levensailor was a super troop,” Craig said. “He was all soldier.”
But rocket attacks and lifting heavy equipment in Kandahar left Levensailor with physical and mental scars.
Injuries
“The [rocket] attacks would always come when the air was heavy with dust,” Levensailor said. “We could never see it coming.”
In one rocket attack he was injured, adding to the injuries sustained when a beam fell on him during construction of a bunker. His mother said he has some brain damage from the attacks.
“People look at him and think nothing is wrong because he’s not missing a limb, but there are neurological things going on,” Owens said. “It’s very frustrating.”
In Afghanistan, Levensailor had to be instructed to seek medical attention because he was determined to work despite his injuries.
“He always put the other troops ahead of his own personal needs,” Craig said.
Levensailor said he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD for short, memory loss and poor balance in addition to back, shoulder and leg injuries.
“Brian’s frustration level is very close to the surface,” Owens said. “Part of it is PTSD and part of it is the run around he gets on a weekly and monthly basis” at Walter Reed.
Medical Care
Levensailor’s unit left Afghanistan Nov. 28, 2003, enabling him to spend Christmas with his family. Then the medical battle began.
Levensailor spent a year receiving medical care at the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta before he was mobilized to Fort Irwin in California in December of 2004, where he worked at a museum on the military base.
After a year and half at Fort Irwin, Levensailor was put on medical hold for six months because of pain from previous injuries. He was then told he needed to transfer to Walter Reed for care since he was a member of the National Guard, which the base hospital does not service.
“The Army rarely lies; they just don’t tell you the whole truth,” Levensailor says of his medical delays.
Levensailor arrived at Walter Reed and moved into Building 18 on Pearl Harbor Day—Dec. 7—of last year.
“The room wasn’t all that bad,” Levensailor says, “We’re all soldiers; we’re used to living in much worse conditions.”
Now, regular inspections are performed at the outpatient facility to monitor room conditions.
“Right now everything is under the microscope,” Levensailor says as an inspector enters his room, opens each cabinet drawer, checks the stove burners and asks if there are any additional concerns.
Beyond Walter Reed
“It was a rough day for me to realize I could not keep being a soldier without being a burden on other people,” Levensailor said. “I’ve been a soldier my whole life.”
Levensailor’s physical and mental limitations make finding what he calls a “civilian job” difficult. But Levesailor is still waiting for his disability rating, which can be a long and ongoing process.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) visited Levensailor at Walter Reed in early March and said his experiences helped her evaluate the medical bureaucracy that exists within military facilities.
“Brian said there were no advocates for the soldiers and we need to really act upon that,” Snowe said in a phone interview. “It’s disgraceful to hear that the overwhelming, but complex [disability rating] process is a means by which to deny those serving our county the benefits the government promised them.”
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Meehan Office Loses Staff, Presses on Until July
OFFICE
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Danny Lauridsen
Boston University Washington News Service
4-04-07
WASHINGTON, April 4— The House Democrats’ majority will be one vote smaller this summer and fall after U.S. Rep. Martin T. Meehan steps down to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. But residents of Mr. Meehan’s 5th District won’t be without the services that members of Congress traditionally offer.
Mr. Meehan will vacate his seat on July 1, largely, he says, to be able to spend more time with his family. Until his successor is sworn in, probably by late October, Clerk of the House Lorraine C. Miller will, in effect, run the office. And the office staff will continue to provide constituency services, under the clerk’s supervision.
During that time, the office will function normally, with some staff staying on to manage constituent services.
“Generally what happens is staff are asked to stay, if they so choose, during that transition period,” said Mark C. Miller, associate professor of government and director of the Law and Society Program at Clark University. “A lot of activity generally would continue.”
He added: “A big part of all congressional offices is serving as a liaison between citizens and the federal government,” a function that should not be affected, though the legislative processes would cease.
“Obviously, staffers can’t go to the floor and vote,” noted John Santore, a spokesman for the House Rules Committee, in an e-mail message.
As Mr. Miller put it, “The legislative function might suffer, but the constituency service, which is really the key, will continue.”
The last special election in Massachusetts took place in 2001, after U.S. Rep. Joe Moakley died in office, and U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Boston) replaced him a few months later.
Kevin Ryan, chief of staff for Mr. Lynch, had been Mr. Moakley’s chief of staff, stayed on through the interim and reapplied for his job once Mr. Lynch was elected.
Mr. Ryan said that during the time the office was without a member, he worked very closely with the clerk of the House in answering to constituents.
“We were not allowed to take any position on an issue,” Mr. Ryan recalled. “We definitely had constituents calling, and we were there, frankly, to do what we could do. Any time we had any kind of question, I would sit down with the clerk and say, ‘This is what we got.’ ”
A spokeswoman for the clerk added: “It works just as when the member was there, as sort of acting as a liaison.”
The Clerk of the House is an official elected by the majority party of the House at the start of each Congress and handles all legislation, sending bills to committee when they are introduced and certifying the passage of laws. The clerk also manages the office and staff of any deceased, resigned, or expelled member until a successor is elected.
Neither the Massachusetts delegation nor the Democratic Party will view the temporary loss of a vote as a major setback, according to David L. Schaefer, a professor of political science at the College of the Holy Cross.
“It’s unlikely that the absence of one Democrat is going to alter the outcome” on the House floor, Mr. Schaefer said. “It would be different if a senator’s seat was vacant.”
Mr. Ryan said that when a new member is appointed, he expects the rest of the Massachusetts delegation to be very forthcoming, offering assistance in adjusting to Washington.
“They’ll need it,” he said, adding that the new member will have to get up on the issues very quickly while hiring a full new staff to run the office. “It’s a difficult situation with a member coming in because he’ll be coming in the middle of a session,” he said. “The fortunate thing is he’s walking into a great delegation.”
But before Meehan walks out, he and his staff are still focused on getting as much done as possible, which, aside from cataloging files from Mr. Meehan’s seven-plus terms in office, includes passing an overhaul of lobbying issues in the House, examining the war in Iraq in the Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which he chairs, and moving to a hearing his bill to repeal the military’s policy on gay servicemen and women.
To meet these goals, he’ll need the help of his staff, many of whom are already seeking other jobs.
“People are eager and determined to figure out the congressman’s priorities,” Meehan’s legislative aide Kate Lynch said, “and to go out with a bang.”
Ms. Lynch, whose family is from Massachusetts, will be leaving the office shortly to work on the campaign of Niki Tsongas, the Lowell Democrat and widow of former Sen. Paul Tsongas, who will be running for Mr. Meehan’s vacant seat.
“That seat is very heavily Democratic,” Mr. Miller said. “Probably the winner of the Democratic primary would have a very good shot at winning the general election”
This, he added, would make it easier for members of the Meehan staff to keep their jobs long-term.
“He has a very, very good staff that has an excellent reputation, so I would assume that they would have numerous job opportunities,” Mr. Miller added.
Peter Lau, Mr. Meehan’s district director in Lowell, has already signed on to manage the Tsongas campaign.
Mr. Meehan’s press secretary, Bryan DeAngelis, a Lowell native and Boston College alumnus, will leave this month to manage press in New Hampshire for the 2008 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn.
His chief of staff, Robert Letteney, left earlier this year to work for U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. He changed jobs, he said, because of his deep interest in transportation policy.
These moves have left Mr. Meehan running at half-staff.
“Everyone’s jumping ship,” Mr. Meehan joked, adding that he’s been forced to look for temporary staff to fill vacancies long enough to keep his office running until July.
That may not be much of a problem. “Washington is not short of people eager to have jobs as congressional staffers, even if only for a few months,” Mr. Schaefer said.
“In an ideal world, a member would want a full staff,” Mr. Miller said, “but we never live in an ideal world; so members will function quite well in a less than ideal situation.”
“He’s always sad to see people go, but he’s always happy when folks go on, especially to continue with their education,” said Chris Hickling, Mr. Meehan’s legislative director in Washington.
But most of the office is geared to the present. “For us it’s still the same everyday hours that we’re used to working, just as though he was going to be here for another 15 years,” Mr. Hickling said. “There’s no slowing down.”
Which is fine with Mr. Meehan.
“I suppose in many ways I’m a lame duck,” he said, “but there’s plenty for me to keep working on.” But, he allowed,, “I’m a tired lame duck.”
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New Regulations Ease Restrictions on Special Education Testing
DISABILITIES
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
4 April 2007
WASHINGTON, April 4 —The Bush administration announced Wednesday that it wants to increase the number of special-education students qualified to take easier disability tests, creating more flexible regulations for assessing students than those set under the original No Child Left Behind Act.
Currently, around 1 percent of the students tested under No Child Left Behind are allowed to take an easier alternative test because of significant disabilities. The new regulations would allow another 2 percent of the students—those with less significant disabilities, such as some forms of dyslexia—to take an easier test.
“We’re talking about a small group of kids where time is basically the determining factor,” Deputy Education Secretary Raymond Simon said in a telephone press briefing. “The regular grade level assessment is too difficult, yet the alternate grade level assessment is too easy.”
The new test would be easier than the test regular students take but would be harder than the standard alternative test. For example, a multiple-choice question might have only two possible answers instead of three or more.
“The achievement standards can be less challenging,” Simon said. “The regulations don’t permit content standards to be modified.”
Under No Child Left Behind, test results from special-education students are included in the determination of a school’s yearly progress. Schools may face sanctions if yearly goals are not met. Some states have called for increased flexibility in special-education testing in order for schools to maintain meeting their yearly goals
Catherine Reeves, director of special education for school administrative unit 29, said that while special-education scores could bring down a school’s overall grade, their test scores may also rate at “proficient,” aiding a school’s grade.
“Schools have always been attuned to students with disabilities,” she said. “We’ve always had to be aware of the progress they’re making and doing, but we now have to do it in a different way.”
According to Reeves, there always has been some flexibility for teaching students with disabilities, though she said more accommodations for students, such has having a teacher read a test to a reading-disabled student, are needed.
Reeves also recommended permitting out-of-level testing—such as allowing fourth grade students who are reading at a second grade level to have access to fourth grade curriculum while testing at second-grade level.
Reeves said the danger lies in applying blanket standards and tests to all special-education students, and requiring teachers to sacrifice their time compiling detailed portfolios of special-education student’s progress.
She also cautioned against classifying special-education standards as “dumbed down” versions of normal requirements. “If we are designing the curriculum to asses and meet the child’s needs, then that is appropriate assessment,” she said
To determine whether a student can be tested under the modified achievement standards, states would be required to create an individualized education program team, which would include a student’s parents and teachers and would ensure that disabled students are appropriately assessed.
Simon said the administration plans to provide $21.1 million in competitive grants to
help states develop new guidelines required by the individualized education programs. Monthly teleconferences and a nationwide meeting planned for July would provide further assistance to states implementing the new regulations.
No Child Left Behind, originally passed in 2002, is up for reauthorization this year. The new disability regulations were included in the reauthorization blueprint the administration sent to Congress.
“[The regulations] are very appropriate,” Simon said. “They strike a very good balance between students, teachers, parents, kids.”
“Special ed kids get tested all the time,” Reeves said, who also said there is a risk of setting the standards too low for special education students. “It’s hardly fair.”
According to Simon, if the regulations are correctly implemented, they will provide unprecedented information to teachers and parents to “make sure these children are taught and tested, truly, to their ability.”
“They will give the teachers and the parents the information they need to really guide instruction,” he said.
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New Hampshire Participates in Congressional Art Contest
ART
New Hampshire Union Leader
Alyssa Marcus
Boston University Washington News Service
April 3, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 3 – When Victoria Bouchard, a student at Manchester Memorial High School, traveled to the nation’s capital for the first time last year, she was more than another tourist -- she arrived as an artist helping to decorate “the people’s House.”
As one of the winners in an annual art contest for high school students sponsored by the House of Representatives, Bouchard got to see her work gracing the halls of Congress – an experience other New Hampshire high schoolers could share this year.
Since the contest, “An Artistic Discovery,” was started in 1982, more than 650,000 students have participated in the competitions that are held in congressional districts nationwide every spring. The deadlines for entries in this year’s competitions in New Hampshire’s two congressional districts are in April.
The winning entries from each district are displayed for a year in the tunnel that leads from the Capitol to the House office buildings before being sent back to the artists.
“We walk those halls all the time, and I know we discover new things about the incredible art that our young people are making,” Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) said. “Each showcase is such extraordinary talent.”
In addition to having their art displayed on Capitol Hill, each winner is eligible for a scholarship form Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Although the $5,000 scholarship is contingent on the student’s applying to and being accepted into the college, it’s renewable all four years for a total of $20,000, according to Erin Banks, the college’s
director of scholarships.
Banks said the contest is “a wonderful way to identify the most talented art students. It’s a good way for us to find students who might be a good fit for the college.” Many students also are eligible for other tuition discounts, she said.
According to the Web sites of Reps. Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, eligible media for the competitions are paintings, drawings, collages, prints, mixed media, computer-generated and photography. In the 2nd Congressional District entries can be no larger than 32 inches by 32 inches. In the 1st Congressional District the dimensions can be no more than 30 inches by 30 inches. The deadline for entries is April 6 in the 1st District and April 25 in the 2nd District.
Harry Gural, Shea-Porter’s chief of staff, said that entries for the 1st District can be sent to the Manchester office. For the 2nd District, entries can be submitted to the Concord office, the Keene office or the Nashua office. Students in the North Country, Rep. Hodes said, should call his Concord office at 603-223-9814.
Bouchard’s winning entry from the 1st District, done in pastels, is entitled “Math and Me.”
“I had never experienced something like that before,” she said of her trip to Washington last May. “It was brand new. It was great.”
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