In their endless struggle to please and appease special interests and large voter blocs, most of the 535 members of Congress have succeeded mainly in diminishing themselves. Their fundamental obligation to order the nation's finances has given way to the politician's primal instinct: inflict no pain; ruffle no feathers; get re-elected.
How, then, to explain Bob Kerrey? The junior Senator from Nebraska, whose personal valor was certified for all time when he lost a leg in Vietnam, is equally fearless wading through political minefields. Opposing a Senate resolution supporting George Bush's gulf policy, adopted 97-3, Kerrey declared, "No American should die in the Persian Gulf in order to hold down the price of gasoline." Impatient with the inadequacy and dithering of the budget debate, he predicted, "We will pass a budget that will reduce the deficit by $34 billion, the economy will continue to weaken, and the deficit will grow beyond $300 billion." Feather-ruffling talk.
Beyond the borders of his native Nebraska and outside the domains of the political cognoscenti, Kerrey, 47, is known, if at all, as actress Debra Winger's sometime boyfriend. But since taking his seat in the U.S. Senate 21 months ago, J. Robert Kerrey has emerged as an intriguing figure in a capital where blunt talk is a scarce commodity that attracts lots of attention. Explains Democratic pollster Harrison Hickman, who has worked for Kerrey: "He isn't caught up in status quo thinking. I don't know if I have seen anyone quite so fearless." There is of course a dissenting view. "He's long on rhetoric," grumbles Scott Matter, former executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party. "Almost like a stage performer. But it's hard to come up with any accomplishments." Still, in Nebraska, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 70,000, Kerrey, a slender, earnest man with outsize eyes, has won two statewide elections -- for Governor in 1982 and for Senator in 1988 -- in which Republican support was essential. Dick Mercer, a cattle rancher from Kearney and a lifelong Republican, in 1988 headed up an organization called Third Congressional District Republicans for Kerrey. Why? Says Mercer: "I never met a person like Bob Kerrey." Members of the Navy Sea/Air/Land (SEAL) team who followed Kerrey into battle in Vietnam voice similar sentiments. The fact that he lost a leg and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for "conspicuous gallantry" is part of Kerrey's political appeal. It also shields him from some of the voter wrath that would rain down on other politicians if they dared to be equally outspoken.