[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 11, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CLEMENT ZABLOCKI, THE ORIGINAL DEMOCRAT FROM THE REAGAN ERA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GERALD D. KLECZKA

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 11, 2003

  Mr. KLECZKA. Mr. Speaker, I wish to enter into the Congressional 
Record an article that appeared in the April 29, 2003 issue of The 
Hill. This piece, written by John Komacki details the career and legacy 
of my predecessor in Congress, U.S. Rep. Clem Zablocki.

      Clement Zablocki: The Original Democrat From the Reagan Era

  He is now all but forgotten unless you stop at the branch public 
library on the corner of 35th and Oklahoma Avenue, just across the 
street from Villa Roma Pizza and Oak Park Lanes on Milwaukee's South 
Side. Or you might know of him if you visit the Ambulatory Care Wing at 
the Polish-American Hospital in Krakow, Poland.
       Yet he left an important mark in U.S. foreign affairs that 
     all presidents follow, in spirit if not approval. He was also 
     a model for his party who predated the Sen. Henry ``Scoop'' 
     Jackson (D-Wash.) pro-defense Democrats of the '70s and is 
     again becoming fashionable in an age of terrorism and 
     preemption.
       The first thing most people noticed about Rep. Clement J. 
     Zablocki (D-Wis.) was how unnoticeable he was. With a dark, 
     Thomas Dewey-like mustache, the short, squat, reticent man 
     looked more like a church organist or a high school teacher 
     than a congressman.
       He was, of course, both before being elected to the 
     Wisconsin Senate in 1942. In 1948, he was elected to the U.S. 
     House of Representatives, and he was re-elected by large 
     majorities until his death in 1983.
       Zablocki became one of Wisconsin's most popular and 
     endearing politicians. His Milwaukee district was the core of 
     city's Catholic. Polish-American community, and he reflected 
     the working-class patriotism and morality of the second- and 
     third-generation Eastern European-immigrant community.
       As such, he valued hard work and was staunchly anti-
     Communist and religiously conservative. Yet his standing with 
     liberal groups especially on economic matters and on 
     important issues in foreign policy was generally higher than 
     with conservative groups.
       It is, however, in foreign policy that Zablocki's legacy 
     remains.
       Since his first term in Congress, Zablocki was a member of 
     what was then called the Foreign Affairs Committee, not 
     considered a prize committee assignment then--or now, for 
     that matter. It remained his only major committee throughout 
     his long tenure in the House.
       He became an expert on a broad range of international 
     issues and, over time, was able to blend his pro-Western, 
     Cold War perspectives with an understanding of the more 
     liberal views of Democrats who joined the committee in the 
     '60s. Even so, he was an advocate of American intervention in 
     Vietnam as chairman of the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific 
     Affairs between 1959 and 1969.
       As escalation continued in Vietnam without appreciable 
     results. Zablocki began to judiciously question the strategy 
     and the information he and fellow committee members were 
     receiving from the White House and the Defense Department. In 
     the early '70s, he led the House effort to reassert 
     congressional authority in foreign policy decision-making.
       By then, Zablocki was chairman of the Subcommittee on 
     National Security Policy and Scientific Developments. He 
     became floor manager of a 1971 resolution directing the 
     president to consult with Congress before committing troops 
     ``whenever feasible.'' A year, later he sponsored another 
     resolution without the qualifier. The House passed both but 
     the Senate took no action.
       In 1973, with President Nixon weakened from revelations of 
     the Watergate scandal, the House and Senate passed the War 
     Powers Resolution, restricting the executive warmaking power 
     over Nixon's veto.
       Though preferring close scrutiny of most presidential 
     actions, Zablocki still favored executive flexibility, 
     especially in intelligence and security matters. He supported 
     President Jimmy Carter's position on limiting congressional 
     oversight of the CIA yet disagreed with Carter's emphasis on 
     human rights as a determining factor in providing foreign 
     aid.
       Zablocki became chairman of the full committee as Ronald 
     Reagan became president in 1981. While Reagan stressed 
     defense priorities in foreign assistance programs, Zablocki 
     emphasized direct economic aid to the poorest regions. 
     Eventually he provided a compromise on key issues that 
     bolstered strategic concerns while building stronger 
     economies abroad. Zablocki was also able to pass a rare two-
     year aid authorization package in 1981.
       Though supportive of Reagan's Caribbean Basin Initiative, 
     Zablocki differed with Reagan on nuclear-proliferation 
     policy. Later, when it became apparent that the 
     administration was supporting Nicaraguan insurgents, which 
     the House majority felt was ill-conceived, he co-wrote the 
     amendment that cut off assistance to the Contras. Though 
     better known today as the Boland Amendment, it was officially 
     the Boland-Zablocki Amendment. The administration's 
     surreptitious reaction to that led to the Iran-Contra scandal 
     that roiled the Gipper.
       The unimposing, diminutive man from a working-class 
     district tempered executive authority while increasing the 
     prestige of both his committee and the House. He also 
     provided a timeless lesson in how the opposition party may 
     boldly assert itself in matters of foreign policy without 
     sacrificing principle in matters of national security or 
     compassion. The Reagan Democrats were named for voters such 
     as his constituents, but they never left Clem Zablocki.

                          ____________________