Nader's Bird Watchers

Attacking the U.S. Congress is a venerable enterprise. Back in 1906 David Graham Phillips wrote a series of savage attacks titled The Treason of the Senate. The series was so outrageous and inaccurate that it inspired President Theodore Roosevelt to decry it as "muckraking"; thus another word entered the American vernacular. But as bad as Phillips' articles were they played a major role in bringing about the constitutional amendment that provided for the popular election of Senators.

Whether Ralph Nader's much heralded study of the Congress will accomplish similar and much needed congressional overhauls remains to be seen, but the first segment of the study, published last week as a $1.95 paperback titled Who Runs Congress (Bantam Books), bears a distressing resemblance in its tone and quality of research to Phillips' tirade. The tract revels in recounting every instance of bribery, influence peddling and even criminality in the congressional history books, but it is neither explicit nor persuasive in presenting its view of the problems that short-circuit congressional progress.

Nearly everything but Nader's intent is wrong about this book, the first of several to come out of the study (the next: profiles of every Senator and Congressman). It is tendentious, hostile and superficial, and contains nary a footnote to indicate its sources. Hastily edited, the book is flawed by a number of factual errors and incorrect data. Examples: the book refers to "former Congressman Clem Long"; presumably Maryland Democratic Congressman Clarence Long. It cites Missouri Congressman Richard Boiling for putting his wife on the congressional payroll; she works in his office but is an unpaid volunteer. Senator Mike Mansfield, the book says, served in the House until 1955 (wrong); it adds that he was elected to the Senate in 1952 (right).

Nader stoutly defends the project, on which he has spent $200,000 and employed 1,000 paid writers and volunteers. His hope is that the effort will spur Congress to hold a special session next year specifically devoted to its own reform. Congress, he says accurately enough, has abdicated its constitutional power to the Executive Branch, and the process is quickening at a "geometric rate." He asserts that the U.S. is in the throes of a "devolution of the three-part system of Government" as a consequence. He admits that it will be hard to rally wide public support for his latest crusade. "We do not have to get 200 million people interested in Congress," he says. "But perhaps we can make Congress as interesting as bird watching." When a wiseacre reporter asked him how many bird watchers there are, Nader answered. "Roughly 400,000," he said. It was a too facile riposte: The number of dedicated bird watchers in the U.S. is generally estimated to be at least 3,000,000.

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