West Virginia's "Wild and Wonderful"

By Byrd Rahall

West Virginia's license plates, call state "wild and wonderful." Its neighbor Tennessee, calls itself "the Free State." After watching representatives of both in Congress, however, it's clear that at least two of the West Virginians feel a lot freer to represent their constituents when it comes to foreign aid and all things pertaining to U.S. support for Israel.

Readers may recall that in the Senate voting record for 1993 presented in the February/March 1994 issue of this magazine (p. 18), only Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) had a perfect record of zero compliance with recommendations of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israel's principal Washington, DC lobby. When the magazine set out to prepare a similar record of House votes during 1993, however, it was clear that most House members have avoided yes or no votes on Israel-related issues.

They're increasingly aware they can't please both the Israel lobby and their constituents. Now they can earn campaign donations from AIPAC-related political action committees just by voting yes to the foreign aid and defense budgets containing appropriations for Israel. (The money for Israel is earmarked in both budgets by sympathizers who make up virtually the entire membership of the foreign affairs and foreign relations committees and much of the membership of the defense and foreign operations subcommittees of the appropriations committees.)

Try as we might, we could find only one "litmus" test in House voting during 1993 that would help guide Washington Report readers on whether or not to support their incumbent representatives. That was the vote on a resolution determining that "the Arab boycott of Israel is detrimental to the peace process in the Middle East and should be discontinued forthwith. " The vote was 425 to 1 in favor. The one vote against was that of Democrat Nick Rahall of West Virginia.

So, for the first time in several years we will not run a list of 1993 Middle East-related votes in the House. It's too much space just to tell readers that Rahall, like Byrd, is "wild and wonderful." Readers who nevertheless would like printouts of any House or Senate votes can get them from our source, Allan C. Kellum whose Kel-Wes Innovations [tel. (703) 53~-26381 sells software that tracks and displays congressional voting records on any issue for any recent year.

As for Tennessee and West Virginia, we don't want to oversimplify. A senator with a 100 percent pro-Israel voting record in 1993 was West Virginia Democrat John (Jay) Rockefeller, who also has taken $125,200 from pro-Israel PACs, 100 per cent of it from out of state. He doesn't need the money from pro-Israel PACs. By accepting it, however, he indicates he's going to vote their way, and there's no need for them to find and fund an opponent.

Of the two Democratic senators from Tennessee, James Sasser had an 83 per cent pro-Israel voting record in 1993 and, not surprisingly, has received $150,750 from pro-Israel PACs, 33 percent from out of state.

Harlan Matthews, replacing Albert Gore, had 33 percent pro-Israel voting record in 1993 and, not surprisingly, has received nothing to date from pro-Israel PACs. Washington Report readers can check out their own legislators by taking the Senate voting record from the February/March issue (pp. 18-19) and the table of PAC contributions to candidates in the 1994 election cycle from the April/May issue (pp. 37-40). For all congressional candidates, we recommend the book Stealth PACs, available from the AET Book Club. The book lists all contributions by all pro-Israel PACs to all candidates-winners and losers-for Congress since 1976.

Maybe "wild and wonderful" just applies to two West Virginians. However, where West Virginia water is available commercially, readers may want to send a bottle to each of their own representatives in Congress, with an explanation. For that matter, it sounds like Senator Rockefeller ought to go home and try some himself.