Political Scientist

It will soon be a year since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. After that storm laid waste to that storied city, there was much talk of the greatest reconstruction effort in American history. President Bush famously addressed the nation from a floodlit downtown square. But New Orleans still sits in ruins, littered with abandoned houses and cars and debris. And despite the lofty rhetoric, there are few, if any, visionary plans for reconstruction even on the drawing board, much less at the construction phase.

WASHINGTON - Hog-tied by politics from getting anything done on the job, members of Congress are rushing home this week to urge voters to send them back for more. With control of the House of Representatives and Senate up for grabs, the Democratic and Republican parties are searching for issues to galvanize voters to give them the slight edge they need to triumph Nov. 5. But while Iraq and the economy dominate conversation in Washington, the picture around the country is much different.

Everyone knows that George W. Bush is going to appoint a conservative (or two) to the Supreme Court. The question is, what's a conservative? Is it, for instance, someone who wants to let you, the individual, make as many decisions free of government encumbrance as possible? Or is it someone who wants to make sure that the decisions you make conform to traditional values? That dilemma always dogs the Republican party to some extent. "The traditional distinction is between social conservatives and economic ones," says James Gimpel, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park.

AS THE confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. moves forward, many Democrats express concern his could be the vote that will overturn the Roe v. Wade decision. But if Roe were overturned, who would stand to gain the most politically? Most agree that it would be Democrats. "I would think that Republican strategists would not be pleased at all to see Roe v. Wade overturned," says Alan I. Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University. Thomas F. Schaller, associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, agrees.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- For anyone wondering how Sen. Jesse Helms won re-election so easily here on Tuesday, there was a clue found recently on a Civil War battleground at Cold Harbor, Va.There in a sunken trench were the bones, buttons and belt buckle of a North Carolina Confederate who fell dead to a Yankee bullet in 1864. Two weeks ago his remains were brought home in a white pine coffin that lay in state for a weekend in the Capitol rotunda here.In a way, you might say, the soldier was a lot like Mr. Helms: gone north to fight against overwhelming odds for traditions and values that were vanishing in other parts of the country.

Washington. -- A new entry to the PCHF (Political Cliche Hall of Fame) made a darting appearance a few months ago. It was stressed by some political analysts that ''there is no center.''If so, that would be troubling. When sages say there is no center they mean there are very conservative elements and very liberal elements in our politics and not much in the middle.That can easily lead to polarization, divisiveness and tumult. Perhaps worse.Writing in a soon-to-be-published volume, ''The Clinton Presidency -- First Appraisals'' (Chatham House)

As John Kerry rolled to victories in Democratic primaries over the past two months, there were some soft spots in his support - among moderates, suburbanites and better-educated voters. But in Maryland's primary yesterday, the Massachusetts senator dominated among nearly all demographic groups, according to exit poll numbers. "Kerry's support varies from group to group, but it's pretty strong across the board," said Thomas F. Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

HOUSTON -- At a campaign stop last week, congressional candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs asked a group of women who own businesses to vote for her twice in November: once in a special election to fill the unexpired term of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and again in the general election as the Republican write-in candidate running for the full two-year term. The women, meeting for breakfast in a hotel banquet room, looked up from their scrambled eggs as Sekula-Gibbs launched into a jingle to drive home the point: "Vote twice for Shelley," she sang to the tune of "Roll Out the Barrel."

Where is Osama bin Laden when we need him? Don't get me wrong; in no way do I wish death and destruction on our country. But as I listen to the increasingly vitriolic and even seditious rhetoric coming from the political right, I can't help thinking that we need a threatening external enemy to help us cohere as a nation - a more looming threat than the almost-vanished al-Qaeda leader or even his recently arrested alleged minion from Denver. Oh please, don't be so shocked. From time immemorial, collections of people have leveraged the fear of an enemy to keep their clans, groups and, later, nations from coming undone.

If you had to turn over a razor-thin election to a single undecided voter, Harold Bingham should be the one to pull the final lever. Forget whether he's Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. He is thoughtful, deliberate and earnest. Bingham, 50, a general contractor from Bethesda, is undecided, but only because he isn't ready to decide yet. Once he has gathered all the information, read the newspaper articles, watched the television reports, consulted his conscience, then Bingham will know - really know - and he'll be ready to cast his ballot for either Ehrlich or Townsend, Morella or Van Hollen.