Dan Rostenkowski

CHICAGO -- If people here have a high tolerance for political corruption, it is not because they admire evil or think the powers of goodness are weak.It is because their political heroes often have been men who have had a foot in both worlds.Abraham Lincoln Marovitz is 88 now and still a federal judge on senior status in Chicago.His office contains not only hundreds of photographs drawings, paintings, and busts of Abraham Lincoln, but autographed pictures from John Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Bob Newhart, Joey Bishop, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, and my personal favorite: "To Abraham Lincoln Marovitz with respect and loving regards, Carl Sandburg."

Cheer up. PLO police are on the job in Gaza.We are told on the one hand that Dan Rostenkowski's lawyers are cutting a deal with federal prosecutors and on the other that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a fair and public trial. Sort of makes you stop and stutter.The Constellation has departed on what we hope is not its last voyage."L.A. Law" is over. Which is too bad. Getting a complex legal case settled in five minutes is about right.

The chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee will be the key players in deciding how $190 billion worth of spending cuts and tax increases are made.HOUSE:Dan Rostenkowski, of Illinois.Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, since 1981.Born: Jan. 2, 1928First elected: House 1958. Continuous service.Tough bargainer, a wily, rumpled graduate of the Chicago school of politics. Friend of George Bush.Opposes capital gains tax breaks, favors progressive tax rates, resists opening loopholes.

WASHINGTON -- Linking U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf to the politically volatile issue of a tax increase, powerful Democratic voices in Congress are raising the possibility of a surcharge to finance the enormous cost of the military expedition.Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, endorsed the idea of the levy yesterday, following the lead of the Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House Budget committees.Senate Budget Committee member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, suggested instead a greater economic commitment from U.S. allies, changes in the defense procurement process and a re-allocation of troop levels in Europe and Asia.

MARYLAND'S American Joe Miedusiewski is one of the most attractive names ever to appear on an election day ballot. But Illinois can claim one that is even better in its appeal to voter sentiment these days.We thought of that candidate, who was born Elias R. Zenkich in Bosnia, the other day as we followed the primary returns from Illinois.As you know, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the powerful chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee, won renomination in a race thought to be close, and in which, in fact, he got barely 50 percent of the Democratic vote.

HISTORIAN Doris Kearns Goodwin on the idea that the presidency has entered a cycle of weakness:"Gingrich has authored leadership and it's a country that's hungry for leadership, and he's stepped up to the plate with ideas, conviction, and energy. . ."If he were to run two years from now for president, and were to be elected president, the power would shift over there."The real test will be, like in the 19th century when speakers were really popular, they counted all the babies named after them.

WASHINGTON -- A congressional leader arranged an $8 million federal grant to his alma mater two weeks ago, but that small act may end up setting off spending cuts in a wide range of domestic programs.Representative Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, arranged the grant for Loyola University of Chicago as part of $4.5 billion legislation to cover U.S. military expenses in the Persian Gulf.The grant, which would go toward a $24 million Center for Commerce and Industrial Expansion at Loyola's business school, was one of several non-military items in the bill.

CONGRESSIONAL Democrats are suddenly seized with the idea that unemployment benefits are inadequate, and must be improved by Friday. The House is developing a more honest fix than the Senate.Bills to authorize up to 20 additional weeks of benefits are moving quickly in both houses because (1) members want to go on vacation at the end of the week, and (2) the Democratic leadership wants to show concern for victims of the recession. The problem is how to pay. Under last year's budget agreement, new spending must be offset by new revenues or by cuts in other programs -- except for emergencies, [in which case]

WASHINGTON -- Bowing to rank-and-file pressure, the Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House tax-writing committees have agreed to propose a tax cut for middle-income taxpayers in October and to push for its adoption next year.Because the legislation is expected to meet pay-as-you-go requirements of last year's budget agreement between President Bush and Congress by sharply increasing taxes for upper-income Americans, however, it appears certain to be vetoed with scant chance of an override.

WASHINGTON -- Spurred by a demand for quick action by President Bush, congressional Democrats have agreed on a new plan to pay extended unemployment benefits to people out of work at least half a year, according to House Speaker Thomas S. Foley.The plan, which Bob Dole of Kansas, the Senate Republican leader, said he could support because it paid for itself, may end three months of partisan wrangling over helping about three million long-term unemployed people.The spur to yesterday's agreement was a move by the president, who has killed two earlier versions of the bill, to complain of the "politics being played" on the issue and urge quick action.