{"article":{"id":13696,"heading":"Standards For Kids, But Not Politicians!","author":"Betsy Rothstein \/ The Hill","created":"2001-12-20 00:22:11","modified":"2005-08-15 00:48:50","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:48:50","article":"

How smart does a lawmaker really need to be?

By Betsy Rothstein

President Bush flaunted the gentleman C's he received at Yale like trophies, telling Yalies at their May graduation, \"And to the C students, I say, you, too, can be president of the United States.\"

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) laughs over the absurdity of the D he once received in high school English and the job he later landed as President Ronald Reagan's speechwriter. \"What does that tell you?\" he asked.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) admits he rarely cracked a book in school and thought he flunked out of his first year of law school.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) once confused a computer mouse with a rodent she believed was under the desk.

Though he denies it, former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), one of several Rhodes scholars who served in Congress, reportedly left a Senate hearing and walked into a closet where he remained for several minutes, too embarrassed to leave.

Intelligence. How important is it really when it comes to the daily existence of elected officials? Well, say the officials themselves, not very.

\"To get elected, you don't have to be too smart at all,\" said King, who got his law degree and has written two novels on the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Instead, he said, \"It would be luck.\"

And Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who received low marks in citizenship and spent a fair amount of time being paddled in grade school for chewing gum, talking in class and not sitting still, said people skills far outweigh intelligence when it comes to being a member of Congress.

\"There's far more important things than having a diploma from Yale,\" said Kingston, a University of Georgia graduate, as he rattled off examples such as \"compassion, working hard and returning your phone calls.\"

The six-term lawmaker recalled an old adage: \"Your first year you're wondering what you're doing here. The second year, you're wondering what everyone else is doing here.\"

Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-Miss.), who is serving his second term, can relate to the adage but has a different take on the evidence of intelligent life form in Congress.

\"I see some folks and I don't know how in the hell they got elected,\" said Shows. \"If they act at home like they act here - standoffish, very quiet, stuck up - then I don't see how they got elected.\"

Shows, whose wife once joked that he cut so many college classes to shoot pool that he should have a degree in \"poology,\" explained, \"If you've got the money to back a candidate, just tell 'em what to say and you'd be surprised how far they can go.\"

Chuck Conconi, a gossip columnist for Washingtonian magazine, remarked that \"a good politician can just be a good face,\" and \"can accomplish a lot with real smart staff members who feed them information.\"

\"Intelligent lawmakers?\" asked Conconi. \"It's an oxymoron, isn't it? It's a hard thing to generalize on because there really are a lot of bright people on the Hill and there are a lot of dumb ones, too.\"

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who Washingtonian placed in its \"No Rocket Scientist\" category last year, was irritated by the topic of intelligence and lawmakers and declared it \"silly.\"

\"Congress should reflect the population in all manner,\" she responded. Asked to comment on President Bush's intelligence, she replied, \"I don't want to comment on that. I don't think that gets me anywhere. The American people can judge that.\"

In fact, few lawmakers were willing to remark forthrightly on Bush's intelligence.

\"You're trying to get me in trouble,\" said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) about his fellow Yale alumnus.

Pushed to comment on Bush's reputation as something less than an intellectual, Lieberman said, \"First off, I reject that description categorically because he went to Yale and I did, too. And it's evident that anyone who went to Yale isn't dumb, or, I should say, is intelligent.\"

Lieberman said he has met with Bush three or four times but doesn't \"know him very well. He's a likeable, bright, engaging man. I didn't give him an IQ test when I was with him.\"

Paul Begala became so agitated by what he considers Bush's low intelligence that he wrote a book detailing what he considers Bush's failed education policy in Texas. The book's title, Is Our Children Learning?, falls into the category of one of Bush's verbal snafus.

\"It's fashionable in Washington to pretend that Bush isn't dumb,\" said Begala, former adviser to President Clinton. \"You're supposed to say, 'You know, he's no dummy.' That way you're not insulting the president, but also you can't be accused of intellectual snobbery.

\"But the truth is, Bush is not smart and those who say he is remind me of the sycophantic courtiers in \"The Emperor's New Clothes.\" But saying Bush is smart won't make him smart, no more than saying the emperor has a splendid suit of clothes changes the reality that he's buck naked.\"

\"That was Clinton's greatest intellectual gift,\" he said. \"Bill Clinton is the single smartest person I have ever known - and I'm on a first-name basis with [Bush adviser] Karl Rove.\"

But some lawmakers readily defend Bush's intellect and note that not all intelligence is verbal.

\"Bush, dumb?\" asked Rep. Michael Simpson (R-Idaho). \"Not by any stretch of the imagination. People have a tendency to look at the fact that he sometimes has a tough time articulating and people take that as dumb.\"

Simpson contends that any legislative body must reflect the American people. \"The last thing I'd want is a Congress where everyone had an IQ of - what is a high IQ? - of 180. There are some people who are smart and have a tough time speaking. There are other people who are dumb as a brick and have a tough time speaking.\"

King, an ardent supporter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the presidential primaries, offers a diplomatic answer when asked about Bush's intelligence.

\"He is certainly intelligent,\" said King. \"I'll concede he [does not have] a great intellectual curiosity, but he can get to the guts of an issue without anguishing over a decision.\"

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) believes the brightest people don't always make the most effective legislators. \"Few of the best lawyers are in the top of their class,\" said Durbin. \"I've seen some very bright people who are lax.\"

People skills are most important, said Durbin, who looks to Clinton's intelligence and sees it didn't come without a cost.

\"Oh, very bright,\" he said of the former president. \"Very skillful. Had an extraordinary work ethic. Not that he didn't have any flaws. We all do.\"

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