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Politics & The Nation


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New GOP House rules put Constitution in spotlight


tea party from A1 But the question being debat-


ed in legal and political circles off Capitol Hill is whether the con- stitutional rules are simply sym- bolic flourishes to satisfy an emboldened and watchful tea party base. “I think it’s entirely cosmet-


ic,” said Kevin Gutzman, a histo- ry professor at Western Con- necticut State University who said he is a conservative liber- tarian and sympathizeswith the tea party. “This is the way the establish-


ment handles grass-roots move- ments,” he added. “They humor people who are not expert or not fully cognizant. And then once they’ve humored themand those people go away, it’s right back to business as usual. It looks like this will be business as usual — except for the half-hour or how- ever long it takes to read the Constitution out loud.” House Republican leaders an-


nounced dozens of new rules, including several measures de- signed to increase transparency in the legislative process. Com- mitteeswill broadcast their hear- ings and mark-up sessions on- line, lawmaker attendance will be recorded for each committee hearing and the debt limit will no longer be automatically in- creased with each new budget resolution. The reading of the Constitu-


tion will occur on Jan. 6, one day after the swearing in of Speaker- designate John A. Boehner (R- Ohio). The 4,543-word docu- ment, including all 27 amend- ments, could be read aloud in just 30 minutes. But the exercise probably will last longer. The moment seems designed


for maximum effect. Many law- makerswill participate,with one representative reading a portion of the document before yielding the floor to another representa- tive to continue reading and so forth. Boehner spokesman Bren- dan Buck said Democratic law- makers are welcome to partici- pate. “We always hear members of


Congress talking about swearing an oath to represent their con- stituents, when in reality the only oath we take is to the Constitution,” Boehner said in a speech this fall. “We pledge ‘to support and defend theConstitu- tion of the United States.’ No more, no less.” The House historian’s office found no record of the Constitu-


tion ever having been read aloud on the chamber’s floor, although twice lawmakers have submitted the text into the Congressional Record. Roswell Flower (D-N.Y.) did so in 1882 and Thomas Reilly (D-Conn.) in 1915, according to House Historian Matthew Was- niewski. The historic nature of next


week’s reading came as a sur- prise to some tea party leaders. “That’s pretty extraordinary,”


saidMarkMeckler, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. “It shows the extraordinary times now. Regu- lar people all across the country are focused on the Constitution, and the message was sent to Congresswewant themto do the same.” Akhil Reed Amar, a constitu-


tional scholar at Yale LawSchool, said he supports the reading. “I like the Constitution,” said Amar, author of “America’s Constitu- tion: A Biography.” “Heck, I’ll do them one better. Why only once in January? Why not once every week?” But he added: “My disagree-


ment is when we actually read the Constitution as a whole, it doesn’t say what the tea party folks think it says.” Amar argues that the Consti-


tution charters a “very broad federal power” and is not the narrow states’ rights document that tea party activists present it as.


The constitutional authority


rule will restart this debate with each newbill. Everymeasurewill require a statement from its sponsor outlining where in the Constitution Congress is empow- ered to enact such legislation. This is such a big change to the


daily routine on Capitol Hill that Republican leaders distributed a five-page memo to lawmakers outlining how to determine a bill’s constitutional authority. They also held training sessions for legislative aides. The rule has been a top tea


party priority; it was the No. 1 recommendation in the move- ment’s “Contract From Ameri- ca.” “It’s a big deal,” said Brendan


Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns at Freedom- Works. “That’s a very basic start- ing point for all legislation—not only should we do it, can we afford to pay for it, but canwe do it?”


The ongoing debate over the


nation’s recent health-care over- haul is rooted in questions of constitutionality. The Constitu-


tion does not explicitly allow an individual mandate for health care, but supporters of the law make several arguments, includ- ing that the Constitution gives Congress the authority to “make all Lawswhich shall be necessary and proper” to provide for the “generalWelfare.” Opponents, however, argue


that the courts have never inter- preted the Constitution as guar- anteeing a right to health care, and they consider the health- care law an overreach that the nation’s Founding Fathers would condemn. This debate about constitu-


tionality has split largely along partisan lines, leading some le- gal scholars to say the new House rulemight bemore about playing politics than anything else. “I see this as a statement of


the Republican Party, heavily influenced by the tea party, that we are the defenders of the Constitution and we will exer- cise our constitutional responsi- bilities seriously in ways the Democrats did not,” said Neil Siegel, a law professor at Duke University. Interpretations of the Consti-


tution can vary widely. Where a Democratic lawmaker could see constitutional grounds for a bill, say by citing an oft-referenced clause in Article 1 that gives Congress the power to regulate commerce, a Republican law- maker could argue the opposite. For tea party activists, thiswill


be the true test of whether GOP leaders are taking the Constitu- tion seriously. “You can do the talk, but you


have to do thewalk,” said Clifford Atkin, a leader of theNewBoston Tea Party in Woodbury, Conn., who likened the increased focus on the Constitution to a religious conversion. Beth Mizell, who leads a loose


affiliate of tea party activists in tiny Franklinton, La., has attend- ed weekend classes on the Con- stitution that she compared to a church Bible study. She said she is heartened that Congress is taking these steps. “It may be an olive branch,”


Mizell said. “People are excited to see that our leaders know there’s a relevance to the Constitution in the process. But I don’t think it will make people any less vigi- lant in looking at the laws that are being introduced.” ruckerp@washpost.com thompsonk@washpost.com


KENNEDY CENTER Jazz greats Duke Ellington, left, and Billy Taylor in 1972. Both were part of the vibrantD.C. music scene. Taylor gave jazz to the masses taylor from A1 “It is almost indisputable,” crit-


ic Leonard Feather once wrote, “ that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world’s foremost spokesman for jazz.” When Dr. Taylor became the


Kennedy Center’s artistic adviser for jazz in 1994, he helped bring hismusic into themainstreamof classical culture. “BeforeBillywashere, theKen-


nedy Centerwould have four per- formances a year in jazz,” Darrell Ayers, vice president for educa- tion at the Kennedy Center told The Washington Post in 2005. “Now,we’re over 150 performanc- es.”


Although he lived in the Bronx,


N.Y., Dr. Taylor consideredWash- ingtonhishome townandwas the presiding spirit of jazz at theKen- nedy Center, both as an impresa- rio and as a musician who per- formed until months before his death.He launched theMary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival at theKennedyCenter in1996and introduced several other concert series. As a youngster growing up in


Washington, Dr. Taylor met Jelly Roll Morton, often called the fa- ther of jazz, at a club on U Street NW.Hismusic teacher atDunbar High School, Henry Grant, had taught Duke Ellington two de- cades earlier. “And every week we had a dif-


Obama names ambassador to Syria


President bypasses Senate with six recess appointments


BY PERRY BACON JR. AND KAREN DEYOUNG


President Obama on Wednes-


day appointed the first U.S. am- bassador to Syria since 2005, us- ing a recess appointment to by- pass opposition from Senate Re- publicans. Because he was appointed


while the Senate is in recess,Rob- ert Ford, a career diplomat, will not need Senate confirmation. Buthe canserveonlyuntil the end


of the next session of Congress, which will likely be in December 2011. Ford’s nomination was held up


by a group of GOP senators who complained that the administra- tion had failed to articulate a viable policy toward the Syrian government, which has been charged with supporting Hezbol- lahmilitants andother anti-Israel groups. The Bush administrationwith-


drewitsambassador fromSyriain February 2005 to protest the as- sassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Syrian intelligence officials were suspectedofbeingbehindthekill- ing, a claimthat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejected.


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Fordwas one of six long-stalled


nominees Obama appointed Wednesday, including ambassa- dors toTurkey, theCzechRepublic and Azerbaijan. The president also appointed James M. Cole as deputy attorney general. Cole’s nomination had stalled


in the Senate because of Republi- canconcerns abouthis comments about terrorism and his work as anindependent contractor for the insurance giantAIG. Cole had waited nearly five


months for a Senate vote on his nominationto the JusticeDepart- mentpost,by far the longestdelay to fill that position in the past 30 years.


baconp@washpost.com deyoungk@washpost.com


ferent band playing at the How- ard,” Dr. Taylor said in a 2005 interview with Jazz Times maga- zine. “You talk about an educa- tion: I heard Earl Hines, Chick Webb — people who looked like me and could play sowell. Iwant- ed to be one of them.” Dr.Taylor gainedhis credibility


from his impeccable musician- ship, his long-held friendships and his love of jazz history. As a result, when he began to write about jazzandconduct interviews for radio and television, he had immense credibility with musi- cians. In some ways his wide-ranging


promotion of jazz came to over- shadow his primary career as a pianist. Younger generations came to recognize his beaming smile, oversize glasses and rich baritone voice more than his ac- complishedwork at the keyboard. “There’s no question that being


an advocate eclipsed my reputa- tionas amusician,”Dr.Taylor said ina2007 article inThePostMaga- zine. “Itwasmydoing. Iwantedto prove to people that jazz has an audience. I had to do that forme.” Soon aftermoving toNewYork in 1944,Dr. Taylor became part of


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on washingtonpost.com Billy Taylor’s genius


IFor photos of the legendary D.C., visit washingtonpost.com.


pianist, who grew up in


the bebopmovement, led by saxo- phonist Charlie “Bird” Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Bebop brought advancedharmonies and rhythms to jazz, but few musi- cians were comfortable speaking about its complexities to the un- initiated. Dr. Taylor stepped in to fill the void. “People were asking serious


questions about jazz and seeking serious answers,” he told Melody Makermagazine in 1971. “It both- eredmewhenDiz andBirdwould start talking bebop and giving nonsensical answers towhat they were intelligent enough to know was a seriously meant question. . . . It bothered me so much that everychanceIgot, I triedtoset the record straight.” In 1949, he published his first


book, aboutbeboppiano styles. In 1958, he became the musical di- rector of NBC’s “The Subject Is Jazz,” the first jazz series on net- work television. He became a DJ and program


director at New York radio sta- tionsandgainedanationalprofile on “The David Frost Show” from 1969 to 1972 as the first African American bandleader on a net- work talk show. Dr. Taylor later was music di-


rector for “Tony Brown’s Black Journal Tonight” on PBS and had his own local TV show in New York. By the late 1970s, he was on the NPR series “Jazz Alive!,” and for seven years he was the host of the weekly “Billy Taylor’s Jazz at theKennedy Center” onNPR. After being the subject of a


profile on “CBS SundayMorning” in 1981, the network signed Dr. Taylor as its jazz correspondent. For more than two decades, he recorded memorable interviews with musicians, often sitting down at the keyboard to perform with them. In 1983, he won an Emmy Award for an interview withQuincy Jones. “I found I had a knack for


explaining things,”Dr. Taylor said in2005. “Mymotherwas a school- teacher, andmy fatherwas a den- tist and choir director, so I guess I learned from them how to be articulate.” William Edward Taylor Jr. was


born July 24, 1921, in Greenville, N.C. He was 5 when his family moved to Washington to a street nearHowardUniversity.


An uncle introduced him to


jazz at a young age, andDr. Taylor began playing piano at 7. He had his first professional job at the Republic Gardens on U Street when hewas 13. “I was so proud,” he told The


Post in2005. “Imadeadollar, then came home and gave it to my mother.” At Virginia State University in


Petersburg, he studied sociology for two years but switched tomu- sic when he realized he spent most of his time playing in jazz bands and working at the radio station.He graduated in 1943 and received a doctorate in education fromthe University ofMassachu- setts in 1975. When he arrived inNewYork a


year later, he went straight to Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, where the heartbeat of bebopwas born. Intwo days, hewasworking withsaxophonistBenWebster.He befriended piano greats Art Tat- um and Teddy Wilson and was knownas anaffable, bespectacled straight arrow who could play anything on the piano. Dr. Taylor appeared on hun-


dreds of jazz albums and wrote more than 300 tunes, including “I WishIKnewHowItWouldFeel to Be Free,”which became an unoffi- cial anthem of the civil rights movement inthe 1960s. Itwas the theme music of the 1996 film “Ghosts ofMississippi.” He received many awards, in-


cluding the National Medal of Arts from President George H.W. Bush in 1992, andwas designated a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for theArts in 1988. Unlike many jazz musicians,


Dr. Taylor was never part of the drug scene. He once was fired from a band for refusing to con- tribute to a fund to buy heroin. After a stroke in 2002 affected


his right hand, Dr. Taylor under- went therapy and was able to return to the concert stage almost as adept as before. He continued to perform until another stroke this past summer. He is survived by his wife of 65


years, Theodora Castion Taylor; a daughter, KimTaylor-Thompson; and a granddaughter. A son, Duane Taylor, died in 1988. Summinguphisabilitytobring


jazz to a wider public, Dr. Taylor said in 2005: “From my classical teachers, I took ways of teaching technique. . . . “From my jazz elders, I took


ways of teaching the language of jazz. I passed on the stories I had heard, the tricks I had picked up and the lessons I had learned.” schudelm@washpost.com


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