Basic Training for Lawmakers?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Military Service Helps Politicians Forge Bonds, Ex-Senator Says


A veteran of both the Army and the Congress says the common bond of military service can help otherwise dissimilar politicians keep the peace later in public life. Former senator John Melcher (D-Mont.) discussed his World War II service and its impact on his political career Wednesday in an event hosted by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

Melcher, an Army private from 1943 to 1945 and a senator from 1977 to 1989, said senators as politically diverse as George S. McGovern (D-S.D.) and Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) found ways to work together despite their differences, in part because both served in the military. (McGovern was a bomber pilot and Dole an Army platoon leader in World War II.) Melcher, who was shot in the knee in Germany in 1945, recalled attending a veterans reception in 1979 with 18 other senators of various political leanings, all of whom had earned Purple Hearts for being wounded in combat.

"I think it did have a lot to do at that time with what we call comity in the Senate," the 79-year-old told the audience of 30 people at the Veterans of Foreign Wars office on Capitol Hill. "I suppose it's dwindled way down now. Only a small percentage of the Senate would be veterans of any war, and not as many would be Purple Heart veterans. So I think it was an advantage to me and the rest of us in that era."

Such memories provide a contrast to the current era, when members of the House and Senate routinely engage in bitter partisan fights. Relations in the House had deteriorated so much last year that a Republican committee chairman tried to get the Capitol Police to evict Democratic members from a congressional library during a disagreement over pension legislation. (The chairman later apologized.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17024-2004Aug19.html