Ready for Speaker Richard Gephardt?

Want to know why President George Bush really went back on his “read
my lips pledge” and raised taxes? The devil didn’t make him do it, as
some have suggested. He wasn’t pressured by liberal members of his own
party to do it. The real reason can be summed up in two words: Richard
Gephardt. William Federer, the man who is trying to unseat Gephardt,
who would become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives if
Democrats regain control of the lower chamber of Congress in the year
2000, says that the blame lies, not with Bush, but with the man he is
trying to defeat.

Federer, a well-known historian, author and speaker, has Bucky Bush,
George Bush’s younger brother, serving as co-chairman of his finance
committee. Federer says that the younger Bush told him, “My brother has
to live with the reputation as the one who raised taxes, when it was
Dick Gephardt, behind the scenes, twisting his arm to do it.” Federer
met with the former president last month and the two men talked about
Gephardt. Federer says that when Bush had the troops in the Middle East
and was trying to get the money for Desert Storm, it was Gephardt, as
Majority Leader, who kept those funds bottled up until the president
agreed to the tax increase. Mr. Bush told Federer, “I do hope you get
rid of Gephardt. He was such a pain to me when I was president.”

Many see the Gephardt-Federer race in St. Louis as the most important
congressional battle in the next election. If Republicans do manage to
regain control of the White House, they believe a Gephardt-controlled
House would be able to kick the legs right out from under needed reforms
that otherwise would be possible under a Republican president.

A new Zogby poll shows that if the election were held now, control of
the House of Representatives would be a toss up. Presently voters are
more likely to vote for a Republican congressional candidate than a
Democratic one, but only slightly. While 33.1 percent said they would
vote Republican, 31.8 percent said they would vote for a Democrat, which
is within the margin of error. The large number of undecided voters
means anything could happen.

If Democrats win back control of the House, why would it matter
whether Gephardt becomes the speaker or one of his lieutenants like
David Bonior or Barney Frank? It’s a matter of perception. Gephardt is
thought by many to be a moderate. He appears to be “Mr. Clean-Cut,”
“Mr. Nice Guy.” He is a lot like Bill Clinton, in that he is a
super-salesman with the ability to win an audience, to make the most
extreme programs or ideas seem reasonable.

Part of Gephardt’s moderate image is tied to his past. When he was
first elected to Congress from Missouri’s Third District in 1972, he was
pro-life, pro-small business, pro-senior citizen, pro-educational choice
and pro-tax reduction. “We liked him,” explained Herman Kriegshauser,
who, at that time, was one of Gephardt’s staunchest supporters. “We
thought he had strong conservative family and community values.”

Kriegshauser, who was elected to the board of Mid-Continent Small
Business United, met regularly with Missouri’s senators and
representatives seeking tax and regulatory relief in order to keep small
businesses open. On his meetings with Gephardt, he said, “We would
discuss legislation that Congress should pass, but Dick never did
anything. I closely followed his voting record and I realized that my
‘friend’ had betrayed me.” Kriegshauser now is working to elect
Federer. “Dick soon betrayed all of us for his own career in politics.
We no longer mattered. He didn’t need us.

Kriegshauser said that Gephardt began to change in the mid ’80s, when
he starting looking at running for president. “To be the Democrat
candidate and to get the party leaders’ support, Dick had to do what
they dictated. He fired his Missouri staff and hired ‘political pros’
that would help him gain the power he so desperately desired.” It was
at that time that Gephardt turned his back on his pro-life views and the
conservative wing of his party.

Just how far has Dick Gephardt traveled to the left? About as far as
you can go. Last week he promised Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the only
self-proclaimed socialist in the House, a seat on the powerful
appropriations committee. This is not as far-fetched as you may think.
Sanders, who is listed as an Independent, always votes with the
Democrats. In fact, the Democratic Party’s unholy alliance with the
Democratic Socialists of America, the principal U.S. affiliate of
Socialist International, need to be fully explained to the American
people.

The group’s website, lists 21 current
House Democrats as members of its Progressive Caucus. “Progressive” is
the euphemism for socialism in this country. Among the 21 Democrats are
three ranking committee members: John Conyers, Lane Evans and Nydia
Velasquez. These representatives would chair the House Judiciary,
Veterans’ Affairs and Small Business committees if Democrats regain
control. However, that is just the beginning. Last year, there were
seven ranking committee members. George Brown, who was the Ranking
Member on the Science Committee, passed away. The other three simply
dropped off when they were exposed, but their commitment to the
socialist’s agenda has not changed.

While Gephardt is extremely popular among members of his party in the
House of Representatives, he is not nearly that popular with the folks
back home in St. Louis. Federer, the author of “America’s God and
Government: Encyclopedia of Quotations,” now in its seventh printing,
surprised everyone in the 1998 election by holding Mr. Gephardt to 56
percent of the vote, his lowest margin of victory ever, and the eighth
lowest of any Democrat incumbent in the House of Representatives.
Furthermore, Federer did it on a shoestring, spending around $200,000 to
Gephardt’s $3.3 million.

Despite all the money and clout that comes from being the minority
leader, there are other signs that Gephardt could be vulnerable. His
district has been trending Republican for years. Gephardt doesn’t live
there any more. He has a posh home in Virginia and simply jets back to
St. Louis from time to time. Mr. Gephardt alienated Catholic voters in
his district when he changed his position on abortion in 1986. He has
alienated Second Amendment advocates by calling for more gun
restrictions. Also the Democrats in his district show a distinct
independent stripe, turning out in good numbers for Reagan in the 1980s
and for Ross Perot in the 1990s.

Make no mistake; Gephardt will not be caught napping again. The
minority leader is gearing up to do whatever it takes to retain his seat
and the party will make sure that he is well financed. That is why
Federer is doing his best to make this a national campaign. That is the
only way he can raise the money necessary to buy sufficient TV and radio
time to get his message out to the voters of Missouri’s Third
Congressional District. If he succeeds, there will be some interesting
headlines on Nov. 8, 2000. If he doesn’t, we may have Speaker Richard
Gephardt in the year 2000 and President Richard Gephardt in the year
2004.