Well written "inside congress" piece. The NYT does get the good writers.
Can a 'Wire Brush' Learn Civility?
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG - NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON, July 27 - The Capitol has always been a place of outsized egos and bare-knuckled politics. Yet even here, Representative Bill Thomas stands out.
Mr. Thomas, Republican of California, is widely regarded as one of the smartest members of Congress and one of the most abrasive. As chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, he has pushed through every major piece of Republican tax and health care legislation since George W. Bush became president.
But in a place that prizes civility, at least on the surface, Mr. Thomas rarely misses a chance to use his sharp tongue.
Republicans are terrified of him; Democrats call him a bully. Once, in a political scuffle over a tax package, Mr. Thomas told reporters that it would be easier to get inside the head of Representative Richard A. Gephardt, Democrat of Missouri, than the head of Senator Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota and the minority leader, because at least "you bump into things" in Mr. Gephardt's head.
Another time, he dismissed a proposal by former Representative Jim Maloney, Democrat of Connecticut, as "Maloney baloney."
Now Mr. Thomas is vowing to change. In a remarkable mea culpa before the House last week, he tearfully confessed to "poor judgment" in calling the Capitol police to break up a meeting of Democrats. Bent over the podium in anguish, he dedicated himself to better behavior in the future.
"I need your help," he declared, his voice breaking, "and I invite it."
Many lawmakers were stunned; Mr. Thomas, they say, is not the kind of man to admit he is wrong, much less ask for help. But those close to him say they saw the Bill Thomas they know: a man who has struggled for years to contain his personality ? a personality that he has said is his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.
"People, including me, have had discussions with him before about trying to be less acerbic and more tolerant of others, and to be a little gentler," said Representative Jim McCrery, a Louisiana Republican who serves on the Ways and Means Committee. "He's really worked on that."
Mr. Thomas was not talking to reporters last week, at least not about his troubles. (He had plenty to say about taxes and Medicare.) Thursday night, past midnight, as the House was considering legislation to revamp the Head Start program, the chairman could be found hunched over a table in the Speaker's Lobby, an elegant sitting room that runs alongside the House chamber, where members mingle with reporters and each other.
He had a cigar and a slick car magazine in his hand ? he owns a Porsche, friends say, and likes to tinker with it ? as well as a telephone message from Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader.
Approached by a reporter, he let loose a tirade about how the Speaker's Lobby used to be a place where a member of Congress could sit in peace, without "being assaulted." Then, after some sparring back and forth, he spoke for about 15 minutes in a way that was brusque, but also honest and at times charming. Every word was off the record.
The portly and bespectacled Mr. Thomas, 61, represents the southern end of California's Central Valley, the cradle of one of the richest farm belts in the nation. He grew up poor ? his father was a plumber and his family lived in public housing for a time ? put himself through college and then taught political science at a community college in Bakersfield. He became chairman of the local Republican Party.
In 1974, when he could not find anyone to run for the state Assembly, he ran himself, beating an incumbent Democrat. He was elected to Congress in 1978.
Friends say he does not much like retail politics, the part of the job that involves kissing babies and shaking hands. "He's not a person that ran for office to ride in a parade or go golfing," said Kevin McCarthy, who spent 15 years working for Mr. Thomas in California and now occupies the Assembly seat once held by his former boss. "He ran to solve problems."
Mr. Thomas' grasp of tax and health policy is legendary. Karen Ignagni, president of the American Association of Health Plans, recalls hearing him address the Jackson Hole Group, a collection of economists and health policy analysts who became influential in the early 1990's.
"I remember Bill Thomas talking about how to blend private and public in a way that was both erudite and smart operationally," Ms. Ignagni said. "He's an idea man."
Those who have mastered the complexities of such topics typically enjoy time spent with Mr. Thomas. Those who have not ? and most lawmakers have not ? invariably find him condescending, like the kid who knows he is the smartest boy in the class and feels compelled to prove it.
Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee say they can put up with what Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington and a committee member, calls Mr. Thomas's "wire brush quality." But what they say they cannot put up with is his habit of cutting off their right to debate.
"I have watched him in committee act in a fashion that wouldn't fit polite company," said Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group in Washington. "He has just decided, no matter what the issue, he's going to do it his way and he's going to do it with Republicans, and he's got the votes and if the Democrats don't like it, tough."
Some of that goes with the territory. The Ways and Means Committee chairman's seat has historically been home to strong-willed legislators. And some of it may be payback for the way Democrats ruled the House when they were in the majority.
Payback or not, many say the latest dust-up over Mr. Thomas has been exploited by Democrats. When Democrats ran the House, the Republicans goaded them and they overreacted. Now that Republicans are in the majority, it is the Democrats' turn to do the goading. In Mr. Thomas, they have found an easy mark.
"They do needle the chairman," Mr. McCrery said. "He has been remarkably controlled and bitten his tongue and not taken the bait. But there are times when he gets so overworked that he truly does become frazzled and forgets to consciously police himself."
Calling the police, people on both sides of the aisle agree, was one of those excesses. House leaders said Mr. Thomas was never in danger of losing his chairmanship as a result.
But he and fellow committee Republicans were summoned to a meeting with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who made his displeasure known.
Now the question is whether Mr. Thomas can really control his temper, or whether he wants to.
Hours after his emotional speech, Mr. Thomas was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who went to the White House to talk about progress in the House-Senate negotiations for a Medicare prescription drug benefit bill.
The group announced afterward that it had made progress. But when talk of bipartisanship came up, Mr. Thomas snapped, "You have to practice bipartisanship at all times, not just in front of the cameras."
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