"That's what leaders are for, to take the heat," drawled House Speaker Jim Wright, sporting his trademark country-boy grin. It has seldom been hotter than it has been since plans for a 51% pay hike for top Government officials, including members of Congress, touched off a political fire storm.
Disk jockeys across the country broadcast Wright's telephone number, provoking a barrage of angry calls from outraged citizens. Republican Senator Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire juxtaposed a bandit's mask with a portrait of Wright, solemnly intoning that "a pay raise without a vote is stealing." Later Humphrey came as close to blows...