New Democrat in U.S. House Tackles Iraq, 100 Hours - and Furnishing an Apartment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The offices of freshman Representative Chris Murphy (D-5) are sparse. Stacks of unopened office supplies are piled on tables and desks, the shelves are bare and there’s nothing on the walls.

But the place was busy the morning of Thursday, Jan. 11, as the congressman dashed from meeting to reception to the floor of the House, taking a half-hour out to talk to the home-state reporter who happened to be in town.

The previous evening, President George W. Bush made public his plan for a "surge" of 21,000 additional soldiers to help stabilize the situation in Iraq, and it was on everybody’s mind.

Murphy, who has signed on to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s "100 Hours" agenda, was critical of the president’s strategy.

"It’s unworkable," he said flatly. "It’s asking 21,000 troops to simultaneously secure Baghdad, Anbar province, the borders, and increase the training of Iraqi forces. Colin Powell will tell you that’s a job 100,000 troops can’t do."

Murphy said he had just attended a briefing for freshmen, and the situation did not look rosy.

"There are 12 urban areas, four primary urban areas, and they are all trouble spots. The notion that we can win the war by concentrating on one of those 12 areas is contrary to the military opinion," the freshmen heard in the briefing.

And Murphy’s criticism didn’t stop there.

"There were some nuggets tucked away [in the president’s speech]," he continued. "He mentioned a process of re-entry for the Ba’athists, the people we removed.

"We evicted from government all secular interests, only leaving the religious factions, particularly the extremists, with access to power. Before we got there the Sunnis and Shiites weren’t fighting, at least not at this level. We created this civil war out of whole cloth.

"There is no political component to this plan. The president seems to be the last one to realize that this is not ultimately a military process but a political process. A temporary escalation will not solve endemic historical and religious issues."

Asked if it was reasonable to expect religious factions who have been feuding for more than 1,300 years to stop, he said, "You don’t even have to read ancient history. The parallels between what we’re doing and the British occupation are scary.

"And it doesn’t seem that anyone in the West Wing is reading the history books."

Knowing When To Push Back

A casual observer might suppose a new congressman would be expected to show a certain amount of deference to the party leadership. After all, the freshmen get the worst accomodations: Murphy’s office — on the fifth floor of the Cannon House office building and accessible by only one elevator, or the stairs from the fourth floor — is about as obscure a location as exists on Capitol Hill.

So does Murphy intend to be a back-bencher, toeing the party line?

"I was a rookie in the [Connecticut] House and Senate, and I learned how to absorb pressure from above and how and when to push back.

"We’ve signed on to the 100 Hours agenda and I’m sure there will be a vote where the leadership would like us to vote a certain way.

"But I know how I got here — I upset a 24-year incumbent due to the unbelieveable good will and courage of 100,000 voters in the 5th District. They’re the only ones I have to answer to."

He was asked, "So, you’re saying you’ve got the moves, you’ve just switched leagues?"

The congressman laughed. "I think it’s one of those things... if you put your head underwater once, it’s not so scary anymore. Of the things that perplex me down here, figuring out how to say ‘no’ to leadership isn’t one of them."

What does perplex him?

"The scope of it. It’s just enormous. I’m sitting around on evenings and weekends with a facebook of just the members. In Hartford I had 35 colleagues, here I have over 400. Getting to know colleagues and building relationships — it’s probably a bigger task than I had imagined."

Murphy said the other members of the Connecticut delegation — representatives Rosa DeLauro and John B. Larson, especially — have been helpful. "I don’t stray too far from them in the chamber because I know if I have any questions I have two experts to go to."

Changes in the House

The last time the House membership changed in such dramatic fashion was in 1994, with Newt Gingrich and the Republican "Contract With America." Murphy was asked how the new Democrats of 2006 stack up to the ‘94 group in terms of ideology, unity, fervor.

"I don’t think we’re as ideological as the 1994 Congress. What binds the class of ‘06 together is more our pragmatism than our ideology — although I think the president’s new policy [on Iraq] is actually forcing a greater degree of confluence. We might have come here with some divergent opinions but the president is uniting his opposition at some level.

"Remember how people were surprised at the exit polls showing that ethics and corruption were the number one issues, not the war?

"We want to make this town work again. We want to make Congress work for regular working families. We want to walk out of here with bills passed.

"It was amazing to be on the floor for the minimum wage vote. It was just raucous. And because there were Republicans and Democrats supporting it, something that should have been done a long time ago, there was a feeling that ‘Listen, this place is finally working again for the poor and disenfranchised.’ I sensed that was the first tangible example of how we’d taken back the Congress from the special interests.

"The minimum wage might still not be a livable wage, but try telling someone who was making $5 an hour, who’s now going to make $7, that that vote doesn’t make a difference. They’ll look at you with strange eyes."

Schaghticokes and Housing

On two hot issues in the Northwest Corner — the question of federal recognition of the Schaghticoke Indians, and affordable housing — Murphy said he has not yet heard from any of the interested parties on the former.

"But the bottom line is the tribal recognition process is broken. It’s so politicized that there is no predictability from decision to decision. Senators Dodd and Lieberman have both been involved in changing it, but until it’s changed, you’ll still have these poor decisions made."

Affordable housing advocates should be happy that Murphy is on the Financial Services Committee (chaired by Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts). "I sought out a seat on the committee, which oversees all housing policy, because of the housing issues in the 5th and particularly in Litchfield County."

Murphy’s other assignment is the Government Oversight and Reform Committee. "There’s a lot of catching up to do. The job was largely abdicated by the previous Congress."

Iraq and Other National Issues

Which inevitably gets the conversation back to the war. "The committee will have something to say about the finances of the Iraq war, the contractors, etc. All the money being spent in Iraq, all of the waste and fraud and abuse...

"[Chairman Henry] Waxman [D-Calif.] has been a vocal critic of the pharmaceutical industry and I imagine we’re going to ramp up our oversight of Medicare and prescription drug policy."

Asked if Congress will be able to stay focused on results and avoid the perception all they’re interested in is political payback after years of frustration, Murphy said, "Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] have been pretty responsible — they’re not making any open threats. We certainly hold the power of the purse, and ultimately that is decisive on any strategy the president wants to do, but now is not the time to make whiny threats about what we will fund and what we’re not going to fund.

"Rather we should use that power as leverage to get the president back to the table to talk about what Plan C should be, rather than the Plan B that he outlined."

Murphy also said Democrats are prepared for a showdown with the president, although he is not hoping for such an event. A vote to deny funding for the war would be "a very tough vote."

"And it won’t even be that easy, because it will be wrapped up in a bigger appropriation for the existing troops, and our one committment is to make sure that we don’t pull the rug out from under the troops that are there.

"None of this is easy because we don’t have a full toolbox. Congress has very blunt instruments in order to affect foreign policy and it doesn’t lend itself to hyperbole.

"When it comes down to it there are only so many things we can do to affect foreign policy."

And perhaps with an eye to staking out his own turf, he added, "There are some out there in the Democratic Party throwing their hands up in the air and saying there’s nothing the Congress can do to affect the president’s strategy, and I think that’s absolutely false. I think that at some level Congress has walked away from its constitutional powers to make and oversee the war. I think we have a role here but it’s going to be tricky to figure out what it is.

"We have the power to come back and redefine the parameters of this war. The president didn’t ask to send the additional troops, he said he was going to send them."

Settling Down in D.C.

On the personal front, Murphy has found an apartment and furnished it to some degree. "I’m no longer sleeping on an air mattress, I have a real bed. It takes a while, and frankly I’m not terribly interested in settling into Washington, D.C. I’m going to go back to Connecticut every second I get. There are so many groups and individuals I need to sit down with."

(Murphy returned home over the weekend, and celebrated his inauguration at Salisbury’s White Hart Inn on Saturday night with his supporters.)

One big change: The new Congress is expected to work a five-day week. (The previous Congress set a record for inactivity.) Murphy laughed again.

"Working two days a week is just untenable."

And he plans to return most weekends. "I met a lot of people during the campaign, but there are so many groups and individuals I need to sit down with."

Murphy’s staffer, Kristen Bossi, made noises about getting over to the floor for a debate on stem cell research, and Murphy rose, still thinking about home.

"Unless there’s something going on here, I’ll be back every second I get.

"It’s only an hour flight."