Dan Rostenkowski

CHICAGO -- "Money," Roman Pucinski is saying as Dan Rostenkowski takes the stage. "It's about money."Pucinski should know. He and Rostenkowski were both elected to Congress from Chicago in 1958. While Rosty stayed to become chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Pucinski returned home after 14 years to serve as an alderman, a seat he held until 1991.Now, at age 74, his voice reduced to a whisper, he still helps out a friend in need, he still serves The Machine.This is the Democratic Machine whose obituary has been written by the media for decades but which still manages to return people like Dan Rostenkowski to Congress.

It's almost impossible for most of us to imagine what a thrilling experience it would be. But let's try.An American president boards Air Force One to jet to your hometown. Then he rides in a limo to your very own neighborhood.And when he gets there, the president of the United States -- probably the most powerful individual in the world -- stands on a stage and makes a speech about you.Yes. About you. About what a terrific person you are. And how important you are to him, his goals and to the future well-being of all Americans.

CHICAGO -- During President Clinton's thinly veiled political BTC ride to the rescue of his powerful House ally, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, the topic at a round-table discussion was crime and gun control."

CHICAGO -- For two years, Washington has been waiting for the federal prosecutors' ax to fall on one of the nation's most powerful lawmakers. But the first and most devastating blow to Rep. Dan Rostenkowski could be landed next month by voters in this city where politics is a blood sport.Democrats such as Robert Best, 74, a regular contributor to the 80 percent landslides the 18-term congressman once enjoyed, have been bombarded by so many news reports of alleged corruption involving Mr. Rostenkowski that they've come to believe the worst.

In 1980, when Dan Rostenkowski could have taken steps that might have led to his becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives, he decided to become chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means instead.It was a somewhat unusual choice.Rostenkowski was not an expert on taxes. He was not a lawyer. He was not even a college graduate.But he knew something very, very important about public life:It doesn't last forever. Not even for a Democrat from Chicago."I figured if you wanted to be where the action is, you're certainly going to be in the eye of the hurricane in Ways and Means," Rostenkowski told a reporter.

Joseph "Big Joe Rusty" Rostenkowski was a Chicago alderman of the old school. He was loud and rough-edged and kept a tavern on the ground floor of his home.He lived by the simple rules that guided Chicago politics then as now: Reward your friends, punish your enemies, and always know which is which.Big Joe Rusty married Priscilla Dombrowski -- they lived in a large Polish enclave on the city's Northwest Side -- and they had twin daughters, Gladys and Marcia, and a son, Daniel David.Dan was the charmer of the family, a born leader who as a child would come down to the tavern and listen to the barbershop quartets and mingle with the crowd.

If President Clinton were backed into a corner and asked which member of Congress he could least afford to lose, chances are his answer would be ''Dan Rostenkowski.''The big, gruff chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is gatekeeper for the administration's most important legislation -- its deficit-reduction package, its health-care reforms, the Mexican free-trade pact and proposed limits on welfare benefits.Yet it is Mr. Clinton's bad luck that Rosty is in trouble, bad trouble, as federal prosecutors close in with charges that he might have used his stamp privileges at the House Post Office to obtain illegal cash in the amount of $21,300.

WASHINGTON -- Climaxing an emotional drama that put the Democrats to the first test of their ability to reshape the nation's economic policy, the House of Representatives gave President Clinton a slim but firm victory last night on his deficit reduction package."

Attorney General Janet Reno's call for the resignation of al incumbent U.S. attorneys is politics as usual. When Democrats win the White House, Republican lawyers lose jobs, and vice versa.But because one of the heads to be chopped belongs to U.S. Attorney Jay B. Stephens, and because Mr. Stephens is investigating House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and because Mr. Rostenkowski is the self-described downfield blocker in Congress for President Clinton's entire economic package, what we have is Washington high drama.

WASHINGTON -- Common Cause, a citizens' lobbying group, has asked the House ethics committee to investigate reports questioning Rep. Dan Rostenkowski's rented campaign office space and postage-stamp purchases.The group asked the committee to look into whether any of Mr. Rostenkowski's activities violated House rules prohibiting converting campaign funds to personal use. Common Cause did not raise any new allegations against Mr. Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, but it cited newspaper reports in calling for the investigation.