The Public Eye

By MARGARET CARLSON

Why are good people reluctant to serve in government? All the civics student needs to know can be found in the saga of the nomination of Sam Brown. In September 1993, Bill Clinton asked the former head of ACTION, the agency that oversees the Peace Corps, to be U.S. ambassador to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), a 52-nation organization in Vienna that mediates conflicts in the former Soviet republics and promotes human rights. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on Nov. 18 and approved the nomination, 11 to 9, on March 22. Brown, nonetheless, is a man without job or home. Last week he and his wife and three children were camped in a friend's spare room.

It may be naive in this age of payback politics to presume that a President's nomination will be approved, barring a serious impediment. But when Brown appeared before the committee last fall and no Republican Senators asked any questions, he thought it would be prudent to put his house in Berkeley, California, up for sale in January. Despite the sluggish market, a buyer miraculously appeared. Brown negotiated a four-month leaseback, but the family had to move out before confirmation. They no longer have meals together in their eat-in kitchen because there is no kitchen. School tuition is paid on a per diem basis. Every book, picture album, game and bicycle is in storage. Even if the new owners hadn't moved in, Brown couldn't go home again. In preparation for his new post, he divested himself of his real estate business.

The personal tribulations of a nominee may be of little concern to Brown's two Senate antagonists, Republicans Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Hank Brown of Colorado. But still one has to wonder what happened between the November hearings and now. The first volley was fired on Feb. 14 when Brown received several dozen questions from the two Senators; by April 20 the number had exceeded 100 and ranged from travel in Azerbaijan (he has never been there) to concern about his dropping a requirement that Peace Corps volunteers be instructed in the menace of communism (the archaic provision was no longer being observed). He was also asked whether he had thrown any objects, "including human feces," at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Brown was at the suit-and-tie end of the antiwar movement and was inside the convention handling Senator Eugene McCarthy's delegates, nowhere near the Yippies. But the question is a classic of negative politics: I know you didn't do it, but I can't wait to hear your denial.

No one understands why Hank Brown has decided to make Sam Brown his nemesis. The Senator insists it is because Sam Brown isn't qualified and has no military experience. But other CSCE ambassadors had no military experience either. Some think Hank Brown simply wants to zing the President, refight the Vietnam War and triumph over an old rival. (Sam Brown was treasurer of Colorado; Hank Brown was a member of the state legislature.)

Brown could win a majority for confirmation if not for a Republican filibuster, which requires 60 votes to break. Last week cloture failed 56 to 42. The President has the option of sending Brown to the CSCE without ambassadorial rank, but that would hurt American credibility. So another vote will be taken after the Memorial Day recess. In the meantime, an aide to Senator Brown called the Browns' old phone number the day after the vote and happened to get Brown's wife, who was moving a few last boxes. She stood in her kitchen, now gutted by its new owners, and listened to him tell her that the Senator's opposition was nothing personal.