WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill last week felt a little more
like Capitol Church, thanks to U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
DeMint chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention and
Prediction, and was expected, as all committee chairman are, to open
Tuesday’s hearing with an introduction to that afternoon’s
proceedings: an examination of the National Weather Service’s
prediction of Hurricane Katrina.
But DeMint instead announced he would first defer to Senate
chaplain Barry C. Black. The people of the stricken Gold Coast need
the chaplain’s words as much as they do the committee’s work, the
senator said.
The preacher began: “Lord of the winds and rain, it is because of
your mercies that we are not consumed ... give wisdom to the many
who seek to bring order out of the chaos of Hurricane Katrina.”
Black later said that it is very unusual for him to offer a
prayer before a hearing, but DeMint had asked, and given the subject
of the hearing, the request seemed appropriate.
However, Val Shannon, interim executive director of the S.C.
branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the prayer
misplaced — a violation of the doctrine of separation of church and
state.
SPRATT CHALLENGER?
Many members of Congress coast to re-election, but U.S. Rep. John
Spratt, D-York — the senior member of the S.C. congressional
delegation — may find himself with a well-financed opponent in
2006.
State Rep. Ralph Norman, R-York, said he will decide whether to
run against Spratt this weekend. The real estate developer, 52,
already has made several trips to Washington to confer with the most
powerful of Republican operatives, including presidential advisor
Karl Rove and Republican National Committee chairman Ken
Mehlman.
“When Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman call, it gets your attention,”
said Norman, who met with Rove on Monday.
Spratt is one of two Democrats in the eight-member S.C.
delegation. The ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee is
praised on both sides of the aisle and won his 12th term in
2004.
Yet Spratt remains perhaps the most vulnerable of South
Carolinians in Congress, in that his constituents are more
Republican than Democratic — with 55 percent voting for Bush in
2004.
Spratt’s winning percentages in his last six elections are
relatively low for a House veteran. They are, from 2004 to 1992: 63
percent, 86 percent, 59 percent, 58 percent, 54 percent and 52
percent.
Norman, who won his S.C. House seat in 2004, says he is strongly
considering a run for Congress because he believes in the
conservative cause and Spratt, he says, is aligned with House
liberals.
Spratt, he notes, bears the title “assistant to the minority
leader,” and the minority leader is the left-leaning U.S. Rep. Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif.
Norman said he would go to Washington to trim spending and limit
government’s role in his constituents’ lives.
Spratt, however, is also known as one of Congress’ loudest
champions of a balanced budget and fiscal restraint, his supporters
point out.
“John Spratt is one of the most respected member of Congress and
perhaps the nation’s leading deficit hawk,” said Lachlan McIntosh,
executive director of the S.C. Democratic Party. “I really don’t
think the voters of the Fifth District are going to throw him out
for some Karl Rove lackey.”
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VERBATIM
“Finally, we’ll have a portrait in the House of Representatives
that represents African-Americans.”
— U.S. Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., on the
portrait of the late U.S. Rep. Joseph H. Rainey of Georgetown, the
first black congressman, unveiled last week. The portrait will be
the first of a black person to hang on the House side of the U.S.
Capitol. Rainey served from 1870 to 1879.
Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com
