[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 70 (Friday, May 23, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1058-E1059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO SILVIO CONTE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BOB LIVINGSTON

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 1997

  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
memory of our former colleague, the late Representative Silvio Conte of 
Massachusetts, in the hope that his spirit of fellowship will serve as 
a lesson to us all. In that spirit I would like to submit this article, 
which appeared in the April 4, 1997, edition of Roll Call into the 
Record. In this day of partisan rancor and personality bashing, I 
suggest that we all could learn something about civility from the 
career of Sil Conte.
  It is said that no Member of the House, perhaps in this century, 
brought as much enthusiasm and joy to this job than Sil Conte.
  While Sil Conte was a fierce partisan on the floor, that's where it 
began and ended. Sil Conte did not look at his political opponents as 
enemies. He simply viewed them as people of good will with different 
ideas. And he viewed them as friends.
  Sil Conte loved his job. He loved debating issues and ideas. He liked 
to joke and he took everything with a grain of salt. He had fun. Most 
of all, he loved the institution of Congress.
  To quote the article:

       Maybe the answer is for Members not to take themselves so 
     seriously. Silvio Conte never did. And he actually liked his 
     job. He didn't revile serving in Congress, and he certainly 
     didn't detest members on the other side of the aisle because 
     their party designation was different from his.

  So, Mr. Speaker, I submit this article into the Record in the hopes 
that it will promote among the Members not just an air of civility, but 
that it will foster a love of this greatest of democratic institutions, 
this people's House, this Congress. Maybe then, we will feel Sil 
Conte's joy of politics.

                  [From the Roll Call, Apr. 14, 1997]

                            Joy in Mudville

       In honor of the late, great Rep. Silvio Conte (R.-Mass), 
     they call it the ``joy of politics'' award. Conte was a man 
     who relished a good joke, who loved to win but never bashed 
     his opponents in the face to do so, and who cherished the 
     institution of Congress above all. And you can see from the 
     photographs on page three of today's Roll Call that Members 
     of Congress from both parties last week were having a blast 
     at the fun--and eminently civil--event celebrating Conte's 
     legacy. Civility doesn't mean boring, and it also doesn't 
     mean an end to the partisan clashes that liven up the 
     otherwise humdrum Congressional business of passing the 
     nation's laws and overseeing their implementation.
       But instead of joy, there is much rancor these days on the 
     House floor--as a very unConte-like event last week 
     demonstrated yet again. The finger-pointing, epithet-throwing 
     fracas between Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and 
     Appropriations ranking member David Obey (D-Wis) demoralized

[[Page E1059]]

     Members just back from Easter recess, making the much-
     ballyhooed bipartisan retreat to Hershey, Pa., last month 
     seem like just another empty feel-good session. These are 
     senior Members of Congress, leaders in their respective 
     parties. If they can't get along, who can?
       The truth is: There's no joy in Mudville. Civility has 
     struck out. Deadly serious disdain for the other party is the 
     prevailing emotion, and total, no-holds-barred, take-no-
     prisoners warfare is the mode of combat encouraged, at least 
     tacitly, by leaders in both parties. The crusade of 
     Democratic Whip David Bonior (Mich) against Speaker Newt 
     Gingrich (R-Ga), Ginrich's own history as a backbench 
     guerrilla warrior, and the revolutionary fervor of the GOP 
     class of 1994 all contribute to this toxic atmosphere. It's 
     no wonder that the recommended reading in the House 
     Republican Conference these days is the Army's field manual.
       It's also no wonder, then, that DeLay and Obey won't even 
     apologize to each other for the incident--the most they say 
     is that they regret it occurred. More regretful than the 
     combatants themselves are many other Members in both paties 
     who have tried to launch a grassroots civility movement 
     inside the House. The Hersheyites, led by Reps. Ray LaHood 
     (R-Ill) and David Skaggs (D-Colo), are trying to put the 
     contretemps behind them with a full schedule of meetings, 
     briefings for other Members, and reform proposals in the 
     works. To that end, Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif) will even 
     host a hearing next week on whether changes in the House 
     schedule--such as moving highly partisan one-minute speeches 
     to the end of the day--can improve the 105th Congress's 
     civility quotient.
       But the civility hounds face daunting obstacles that we're 
     not sure scheduling changes can fix. Members who so obviously 
     detest each other will continue to do so--whether they spar 
     on the House floor at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m. Hearings into 
     Clinton White House fundraising this summer will raise the 
     decibel level. Budget posturing will bring extremists from 
     both parties into a pitch of rhetorical excess. And the list 
     of challenges to civility goes on.
       Maybe the answer is for Members not to take themselves so 
     seriously. Silvio Conte never did. And he actually liked his 
     job. He didn't revile serving in Congress, and he certainly 
     didn't detest Members on the other side of the aisle because 
     their party designation was different from his. Conte's 
     secret was that he had fun on Capitol Hill. It's time to put 
     the joy back into politics.

     

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