Connolly: Ten guidelines for new members of Congress

Rep. Gerald E. “Gerry” Connolly was one of four members of Congress asked by the House Administration Committee to address incoming House freshmen of both parties during the first day of their official orientation program on Capitol Hill. These are his recommendations:

1. Protect and honor your family. They pay the sacrifice and get few of the psychic rewards of your public service. Share the experience with them. Organize special weekends for them here. All too often, families are the first casualties of our public service.

2. To thine own self be true. There will be plenty of counselors, aides, lobbyists and colleagues who will push you one way or another on an issue or vote. Filter all such advice with your conscience, your values, your constituency. Nothing is sadder than seeing someone cast a vote that runs counter to his or her beliefs or principles. Voters look for authenticity, and you’ll sleep better at night.

3. Pick your legacy. Where do you want to make your mark? Develop an expertise in something. Your colleagues will respect you for it; your constituents will ultimately benefit from it. Congress has all too much bloviation and all too little intellectual heft.

4. Do your homework. It surprises everyone, especially the press, and it will expand your influence. Simply relying on canned caucus talking points trivializes complex issues and contributes no thought to informed debate.

5. Pick your committees with care. Your committee assignments are your destiny in Congress. Once assigned, throw yourself into their work at hearings, briefings and mark-ups. Enormous opportunity awaits those who are diligent about the work level of committees. This is where Congress legislates, and where the workhorses are divided from the show horses.

6. Revere and honor the institution. James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln sat here. Remember where you are, and bring honor to this place. That means avoiding the harshest rhetoric and respecting other points of view. Others may see political advantage in shouting, denigrating and bitter ad hominem attacks. But they damage this House, the people’s House, when they do. Civility and humor are all too often in short supply, but they have more positive staying powers. There is a reason the public holds the Congress in such low esteem: not just their judgment of what we do, but how we do it.

7. Acknowledge the sincerity of an adversary. It has such a healing power in the heat of battle to acknowledge the fact that the person on the other side of an issue or the aisle is as equally motivated as you. Misguided maybe, but trying to do the right thing as he or she sees it. None of us — no individual, no party — has a corner on the truth. When we question an individual’s motivation, we poison and personalize the debate often with lasting enmity as the consequence.

8. Seek out companions on the other side. The long arc that divides our aisles has becomes like the Berlin Wall. We rarely socialize; often don’t even meet our colleagues who sit over there. It requires an effort to reach out and form a relationship with colleagues on the other side, but it humanizes the place, and if more did it, would make us more effective as an institution. The public we serve hates the bickering and divisiveness it sees. It despises the displays of rabid partisanship. Do your bit to avoid demonization and to forge some real relationships with people who see the world differently.

9.  Exploit the richness of this place. No other institution can consistently draw the top names in myriad fields, from medicine to the economy, history to defense, foreign affairs to corporate leadership. Soak it in, inform yourself, and take advantage of the Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service. No legislative body offers such an intellectual feast of expertise, knowledge and experience as does the U.S. Congress.

10. Don’t let it go to your head. It is hard not to feel special when you are addressed by your honorific, “Congressman” or “Congresswoman,” and when you are exposed to and vote on so many critical issues that affect people all over the world. But preserve a sense of humility: The people sent you here, and you are just the hired help. Make your contribution on their behalf, and remember to keep it all in perspective. This, too, will pass.

Take care of yourself. It’s easy to let it go with the crazy schedule and bad food. And preserve a sense of humor: It will keep your health and help you guard against the sense of self-importance. I wish you much success in your congressional careers.

Rep. Gerald E. “Gerry” Connolly, a Democrat, represents Virginia’s 11th District, which includes most of Prince William County.

http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2010/nov/24/connolly-ten-guidelines-new-members-congress-ar-670010/