Integrity--At A Price

Welcome to Hell. Or, to be more precise, the Hell for Fallen Incumbents. This is where those candidates are sent by their constituents, virtual St. Peters at the gates of Heaven, when they are not readmitted to that Eternal Paradise, known as the U.S. Congress.

Or so it must seem to our representatives, many of whom are willing to do virtually anything to win re-election. This past election presented one notable exception: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (D-Penn.), whose recent election loss seems to stem from her exercise of the one characteristic politicians are accused of lacking: integrity.

Margolies-Mezvinsky, a one-term Representative, was defeated in a bid to retain her seat in Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District. Emerging victorious, was her Republican opponent and perpetual politician, John Fox.

Fox has made a habit of climbing from office to office in his trek up the ladder to political nirvana, running virtually every year for the past 15. His favorite tactics are somewhat unorthodox: he joked during the primary about wanting to mud wrestle with his Republican opponent, State Rep. Ellen Harley.

It's not the fact that Margolies-Mezvinsky lost her bid for re-election to a Republican that sets her apart in the scheme of a greater Democratic bloodbath. It's the fact that she had within her power the means to make her re-election much more likely. And she decided on principle not to use it.

"It" is known in the 13th District as "The Vote," which designates Margolies-Mezvinsky's vote on President Clinton's budget package. Though she had promised her constituents--many of whom are wealthy Republicans--that she would vote against any tax increase, the congresswoman voted for the Clinton budget. Although the plan achieved significant deficit reduction, it was widely opposed by her constituency because it would raise income taxes for the rich and for affluent Social Security recipients.

"The Vote" was no less than political suicide in a district where the very mention of a tax increase amounts to political suicide. As the first Democrat to serve since World War I, Margolies-Mezvinsky would have had no prayer of being elected in 1992 without a promise to vote against any tax hike. Keeping that promise was her only hope of winning re-election in 1994.

No one was more keenly aware of that than the representative herself. What Margolies-Mezvinsky didn't count on were the circumstances surrounding her budget vote. The first of these was the bill itself, which necessitated the inclusion of certain tax increases to enable it to accomplish its goal of deficit reduction. On balance, Margolies-Mezvinsky felt this bill was a necessary measure to help put our economic house in order.

Margolies-Mezvinsky certainly didn't count on the budget vote in the House of Representatives coming down to a 217-217 tie, with her vote needed to determine the outcome. More than just the Clinton budget or her re-election bid was on the line. The entire Clinton presidency hung in the balance. If the budget failed to pass, President Clinton would have been relegated to the status of a lame duck.

Unwilling to vote against a plan she supported and enfeeble the first Democratic president in 12 years for the sake of her own re-election, Margolies-Mezvinsky voted according to conscience.

In an age in which the electorate has decided the politicians care about nothing but their own re-election and pandering is the rule, Margolies-Mezvinsky has proven the noble exception. In an era in which political commentators bemoan the crisis of leadership paralyzing our Congress, MMM, as her supporters call her, provides the shining example of what politicians should be.

And she lost. The electorate sends mixed messages indeed.

In her Nov. 17 speech at the Kennedy School, ABC News commentator Cokie Roberts decried voters' desire to attach "electrodes" to their representatives, in order to shock them whenever they ponder voting the "wrong" way.

Roberts went on to quote Edmund Burke, who in his 1774 Speech to the Electors of Bristol asserted, "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion."

As Burke argues, we must allow our elected officials the latitude to decide the merits of each piece of legislation independently. That's why we elect representatives in the first place. By creating a system in which we require our representatives to make absolute promises (such as the popular prohibition against ever raising taxes), we assure that we'll never have anything other than a system composed of pandering fools.

Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky chose to lose her seat rather than earn such an ignominious distinction. In a twisted way, the system worked. Margolies-Mezvinsky broke her promise and the voters of the 13th district of Pennsylvania rather unceremoniously booted her out of office.

And now that the voters have made their bed, they will have to sleep in it. Let's all hope, for their sakes, that Congressman John Fox doesn't snore too loudly.

Debra L. Shulman '97 is a resident of the 13th district of Pennsylvania.