Inside the Beltway

Continuity of Congress

It’s an unpleasant thought, but a constitutional amendment on congressional succession has been introduced by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican.

“Much has been said over the last couple years about the need to make sure we have a functioning Congress that is perceived as legitimate in the case of a national disaster that kills or incapacitates a large proportion of members of Congress,” the congressman notes.

Under his proposal, each general-election candidate for the House or Senate would be authorized to publicly appoint, in ranked order, 3 to 5 temporary successors. The congressman likens his proposal to a vice president succeeding a deceased or incapacitated president — not separately elected, but chosen by the principal and known well in advance of the election.

Better safe

Thirty-six senators and thousands of staffers who returned to their offices in the Russell Senate Office Building after discovery of lethal ricin powder last winter — only to find personal property damaged or missing — can now file claims of up to $4,000 each.

Traces of the toxin were confirmed in the mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Feb. 2 after an intern noticed powder on a letter-opening machine. The building was closed for three days during cleanup.

There has been speculation since then that the ricin powder was merely a byproduct of paper or paper dust. Still, after millions of lethal anthrax spores were released by one or more terrorists in the Senate Hart Office Building two years ago, authorities are taking no chances.

Lifelong seats

He’s been on Capitol Hill longer that any other lawmaker today, having cast his first vote in the House on Jan. 8, 1959. At the time, this columnist was 14 months old.

Late last week, 86-year-old Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, reached yet another milestone, casting his 17,000th vote in the Senate.

To mark the occasion, Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, a West Virginia Democrat who considers Mr. Byrd his “mentor,” crossed the Capitol to appear with the senator for his historic vote.

“They say that records are made to be broken, but I believe this record will never be broken,” Mr. Rahall said after the vote.

We’re not so sure. Mr. Rahall has served in Congress for 27 years, and he will be only 55 years old on May 20.

I told you so

Pat Buchanan was right all along, some in Congress now concede.

“I look back to the years when Pat Buchanan was running for president and he insisted that we have a nationwide debate on immigration,” says Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican. “I regret that we were not able to move that debate forward at that time, shape this policy before we got to this critical situation that we are in today, with massive numbers flowing over the border and not a policy to deal with it.”

Other lawmakers have similarly undertaken closer examinations of U.S. immigration policy, and they don’t like what they see — particularly the number of illegal aliens continuing to penetrate the porous U.S.-Mexican border.

“My home and vehicles have been broken into 22 times in five years,” writes an Arizona woman, Rhonda Rose, her letter read on the floor of the House on Friday by Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican.

“I stopped calling the police each time they do now, because they do not come anyway,” she says. “Instead, we bought a gun. We scared off the last illegal alien trying to steal our truck. He knew enough English to say ’sorry’ as we pointed the gun at him.

“Not too long ago a car ran into the rear end of my car,” Mrs. Rose adds. “The policeman came and … the illegal alien who hit me said ’sorry’ as he walked away. He was free to go. I was free to pay the deductible on my car and the chiropractor bills for my children and myself.”

Four stars

Rep. John Shimkus, Illinois Republican, is giving a big “thumbs up” to “The Passion of the Christ.”

So much so that he walked onto the floor of the House on Friday to send a “thank you to Mel Gibson and his movie.”

“I think it is appropriate during this Easter break that we understand that no greater love is this, than one lays down their life for someone else,” he says.

• John McCaslin, whose column is nationally syndicated, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com.