Absence of A Quorum

"THE FRESHMAN-CLASS REVOLT," CALIFORNIA REPUBlican aspirant Tom Huening called it in September, when he invited prospective new members of the House of Representatives to a post-election conclave in Omaha, Nebraska, to plot the overthrow of the seniority system. Although 170 candidates accepted the invitation, only 14 Republicans (out of a freshman class of 110) showed up last Monday in Omaha, where they endorsed term limits and other G.O.P. reform proposals. Huening, who lost his race by a wide margin, went to Omaha anyway to lend moral support. But House Speaker Tom Foley had deftly defused the incipient uprising by flying to Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago to schmooze with freshman Democrats. For them, the best advice may still be that of Sam Rayburn, the Speaker when Foley first got to Washington 31 years ago: "To get along, go along."