Nader's Biggest Raid

Late in June, an interviewer called the office of North Carolina's Democratic Senator Everett Jordan to seek an appointment. "The Senator just doesn't have any time on his schedule between now and August," he was told. "Fine. How about an appointment in August?" "He hasn't started a schedule for August yet, so that's impossible."

Another interviewer submitted a questionnaire to California's Republican Congressman H. Allen Smith. "The Congressman never answers questionnaires; he refuses to answer yes or no questions." "But these questions are not yes or no. They provide for explanation and reasons." "Mr. Smith doesn't have time to answer that type of question."

Those catch-22 evasions are some of the ways in which about 50 nervous or hostile members of Congress are refusing to cooperate with the most massive and potentially significant survey Crusader Ralph Nader has undertaken. Working through the summer to pin down precisely how Congress, as well as each of its 535 members, actually rather than theoretically functions, about 800 eager, mostly unpaid Nader's Raiders are stalking their prey in Capitol corridors, Washington offices, state capitals and home districts. One major aim is to produce a profile of roughly 20 pages each on about 490 members* in time to help voters make up their minds about their Congressmen in November. There will also be exhaustive studies of how each congressional committee operates and of such broad topics as parliamentary rules, the seniority system and the need for reform.

Hope. Never has Nader taken greater care in planning and staffing a study. All of his questions and procedures were analyzed by an advisory board of scholars. The vast team's "field packets" of material were tested for four months in trial interviews and mailings. More than 1,000 people, mainly graduate students, young professors and instructors, applied for the low-paying (at most about $500 for the summer) key research jobs. About 400 took written tests and 80 were selected. To avoid any charge that the study might be biased by relying for funds on tax-free foundations or other financial sources, Nader is meeting the $200,000 cost entirely from his own income, which is derived mainly from speaking engagements and writing.

Most members of Congress assume, of course, that any Nader study starts from a critical perspective, and they worry about the findings. Nader is trying to reassure them that he is sympathetic. "Most Congressmen," he says, "work their ass off." Moreover, he finds Congress far more amenable to improvement than either the Executive or Judicial Branches of the Government. "Nothing remotely compares with the Congress as the hope of reclaiming America," he insists. He wants to analyze the "internal and external pressures" that have made Congress what he calls "a continuous underachiever." The aim is to help it "live up to its potential."

Help? That is hardly the way some of Nader's congressional critics see it. "This is a great imposition that will benefit only one person--Nader," fumed Representative Joel T. Broyhill when he was presented with the group's demanding 96-page questionnaire containing 633 questions. It asks for policy statements on 37 topics ranging from drug abuse and abortion to conflict of interest. It asks how the recipient would rate the effectiveness of Congress in dealing with such matters as foreign policy, taxation and the environment.

The Nader staff contends that a Congressman's aides can handle most of the essential responses and does not insist on answers to all of them. Amazingly, nearly 90% of the members of Congress have cooperated with the young investigators. The holdouts include New York's Senator James Buckley, Michigan's Senator Robert Griffin, Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater Sr. and his son California's Representative Barry Jr., and Colorado's Representative Wayne Aspinall.

Others have been eager to help. Illinois Republican Senator Charles Percy beat everyone else in returning his questionnaire, saying it took six hours of his own time and a day's work by an aide. The Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton, took seven hours to fill his out completely.

Florida Democratic Representative Dante Fascell found the questioning of the Georgia coed assigned to him so interesting that he spent twelve hours with her, including lunch and dinner. Massachusetts Democratic Representative Thomas P. O'Neill invited his interviewer to spend an entire Saturday with him, even helping him wash clothes at a Laundromat. Washington's Democratic Representative Lloyd Meeds termed the Nader questionnaire "the best I've ever seen" and said he actually enjoyed the "chance to ponder what I'm doing here."

Whatever the study finally suggests about how Congress can become more responsive and efficient, it is the particularized looks at their own performances that give most members the jitters. The project's director, Robert Fellmeth, 27, a graduate of Harvard Law School, observes without a smile:

"We will show the incumbent's record fully and completely. Nobody should be afraid of that."

*Omitted will be members who are retiring or have been defeated in primary elections.

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