TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010

KLMNO

THE FED PAGE

House chaplain marks 10 years of service

Lawmakers gather for a bipartisan show of appreciation

by Ben Pershing

lain in March 2000, Democrats made clear that he wasn’t their pick. A top Democratic spokes- woman called the decision to ap- point him — made unilaterally by then-Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) — “a graceless, tactless, partisan maneuver.” Ten years later, Coughlin is still in the job, and there is ample evi- dence that the rancor that accom- panied his selection has disap- peared: Last week, lawmakers from both parties streamed onto the House floor to honor his dec- ade of service. “He has seen us through the dark and through the bright,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said of the chaplain. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) confessed to being “a better per- son for having known Father Coughlin and having been coun- seled by him.” Rep. Daniel Lipin- ski (D-Ill.) called him “an inspira- tion.” That Coughlin would receive

I

such praise was not foreordained, given how his service to Congress began. After the previous chaplain,

James Ford, decided to retire, a bipartisan committee of lawmak- ers was formed to vet possible re- placements. The committee for- warded three names to Hastert, who then selected one — Charles Wright, a Presbyterian minister — as his choice for chaplain. But Democrats complained

that another of the three candi- dates, a Catholic priest, had more support on the committee. Some

n the beginning, there was partisanship.

When Daniel Coughlin was chosen to be the first- ever Catholic House chap-

isters during their times of trou- ble. That job, it turns out, wasn’t so

different from his current one. “My transition from working full time with priests to now be- ing here working with politicians was an easy transition,” Coughlin said. “Who likes to talk more than ministers or priests, and politi- cians? So I have the easiest job in the world — I just listen.” Indeed, listening is Coughlin’s most important task, as lawmak- ers, aides and other members of the congressional flock regularly visit the chaplain in his comfort- able, wood-paneled office in the basement of the Capitol. Although Coughlin is the first

SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Daniel Coughlin was appointed House chaplain 10 years ago by then-Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Democrats suggested that Has- tert’s choice might reflect an anti- Catholic bias among Republi- cans. Furious at the allegation, Has-

tert nonetheless urged Wright to withdraw. And then the speaker decided to hand the job to a Catholic priest who hadn’t been on anyone’s list of candidates: Coughlin. Having spent most of his first four decades in the clergy near his native Chicago, Coughlin was blissfully ignorant of the ways of Washington. “I didn’t follow politics at all,” Coughlin recalled last week. When Hastert picked Coughlin on the advice of Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chica- go, Coughlin was serving as the vicar for priests, meaning he was a counselor to his fellow min-

Catholic to hold the post after 58 consecutive Protestants, his door is open to all faiths. (According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 55 percent of House members are Protestants, while 30 percent are Catholic and 8 percent are Jewish. The cham- ber includes nine Mormons and two Muslims.) Aware of the controversy sur- rounding his selection, Coughlin says his mantra from the start was “I’m here for everybody.” In addition to spiritual guid-

ance, lawmakers seek out Cough- lin to discuss their families, their health and even their career deci- sions. Beyond counseling, Coughlin’s

office helps organize regular Bi- ble study groups, as well as Torah study and a Muslim prayer serv- ice.

C-SPAN viewers probably know Coughlin best for his deliv- ery, spelled by the occasional guest chaplain, of a prayer to open each day’s House session. Coughlin often tailors his words to the season and the events of the day, whether they’re hopeful

S

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RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST

Coughlin appeared with VickiKennedy on Capitol Hill for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s funeral procession. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts died in August after battling brain cancer.

or somber. “As so many dead are laid to rest we must memorialize their ordinary innocence, their daily hopes and responsibilities, as well as their love,” Coughlin said on Sept. 13, 2001, the House’s first day in session after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Cen- ter and the Pentagon. Coughlin’s prayers are studi- ously nonpartisan, though ob- servers may occasionally read more into his words than in- tended. When he delivered a re- cent ode to the beginning of spring, Coughlin said some Dem- ocrats thought he was referring to health-care reform. “They heard it with a slight twist that I was not really addressing,” he said.

Being nonpartisan meant not weighing in even when the

Catholic Church became a central player in the health-care debate and the divisive subject of abor- tion funding. Though his person- al views are clear — “I accept wholeheartedly the teachings of the church” — Coughlin said he was able to counsel members on all sides of the debate, particular- ly those who were struggling with how to vote on reform.

Coughlin has also been mostly

quiet on another controversial topic — the clergy abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic church in the United States and around the world. As vicar for priests in Chicago, Coughlin sometimes counseled members of the clergy who had been accused of sexual impropri- ety. He did the same during an earlier stint as director of the Car- dinal Stritch Retreat House, a fa-

cility near Chicago that has

served as a rehabilitation facility for troubled priests. Coughlin has been away from those jobs long enough that he hasn’t felt caught up in the in- ternal debates that now consume his fellow priests. “I’m removed from the church in a lot of ways . . . the day-to-day,” Coughlin says. He returns to Chicago several weeks a year to visit his 95-year- old mother (and to watch his be- loved Cubs). Asked how long he hopes to stay in the employ of Congress, Coughlin makes clear he is eager to spend even more time back home. “Not too much longer, because this year I’m celebrating 75 years of age, 50 years as a priest, 10 years here,” Coughlin says. “It’s time for someone else.”

ben.pershing@wpost.com

Kaufman tests the big-bank theory

W

hen Congress excluded the public option from its landmark health-care

bill, the leading voices in opposition from the left were familiar figures such as Howard Dean, liberal bloggers and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

On the other hand, Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) was virtually unknown until a few months ago. But the debate on financial regulatory reform has turned Kaufman, an appointed senator, into a liberal hero as he seeks to break up the largest banks in the country. Under his proposal, no bank could hold more than 10 percent of the nation’s total deposits, and banks could have liabilities up to only 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Such provisions, he says, would force banks such as Bank of America to shrink. Obama administration

officials and top Democrats on Capitol Hill have not directly criticized Kaufman’s idea. But they say the current version would empower regulators to monitor the size of banks and their risks to the overall economy and break up banks if necessary. And Obama economic adviser

Lawrence H. Summers said on PBS last week, “Most observers who study this believe that to try to break banks up into a lot of little pieces would hurt our ability to try to serve large companies, and hurt the competitiveness of the United States.”

Kaufman said regulators have not used that power and will not do so in the future. His plan, he added, is the best way to prevent bailouts of big banks. “What do we have to do before someone sends the message that these things are too big and that this Congress cannot pass the buck to the regulators who didn’t do the job in the past?” he said. “What are we doing now as senators on the floor, passing legislation based on the fact ‘I trust my regulators now’? Why aren’t we passing legislation that will work over the next two or

IN SESSION

Perry Bacon Jr.

three generations?” Kaufman, who served as a

Senate aide to Joseph R. Biden for more than 20 years, has hammered the issue in speeches for weeks. As the debate on regulatory reform dominates congressional discussion, four other Democratic senators have joined his cause. He is also, at least among

liberal activists, no longer anonymous. Arianna Huffington has raved of Kaufman: “What conditions helped turn him into a fearless crusader? And how do we get more like him?”

Kaufman is an unusual kind of

senator, part of a small club that once included three but is down to two. Paul G. Kirk Jr. was a longtime aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and served in his old boss’s seat briefly until Republican Scott Brown was elected. George S. LeMieux, a former chief of staff to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, remains in the Senate as the replacement to Republican Mel Martinez. Kaufman was surprised when Biden, days after being elected vice president, proposed that his former aide should replace him; Kaufman had never held public office. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) made it official by appointing him.

Kaufman immediately said he would not seek a full term, and it was widely assumed he was a caretaker of the seat for Beau Biden, the vice president’s son and Delaware’s attorney general. But Biden opted against a run for the seat in November. Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.) is now the front-runner, but Kaufman, 71, still has no plans to run. “I’ve never been elected to

anything, I was never the class president, not even in third grade,” he said. But he added: “It’s much easier than I thought it would be. When I taught my courses [at Duke University], I would tell students, ‘I would never want to be a senator; that’s

not what I want to do, and staff is really important.’ Now the one message I give to chiefs of staff is ‘You could be a senator, too.’ ” Kaufman, with no need for

fundraising or raising his profile, has largely toed the party line on key issues. Before regulatory reform, he was perhaps best known in the Senate for giving a speech every week in praise of a federal employee, reflecting his view of the importance of the much-maligned “Washington bureaucrats.”

At the same time, the graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school had long been interested in financial issues, and he saw an opening in February and March as much of the Senate remained focused on health care. His strong rhetoric and the obvious populist appeal of his stand may not carry the day, however. No Republican has formally endorsed his proposal. And if the two parties reach a compromise on the legislation, Kaufman’s provision may not even come up for a vote: Some Democrats and Republicans who oppose his provision may not want to want to go on record opposing a provision to shrink big banks, an idea likely to be popular with the public. Kaufman, while eager to make his case publicly, has been unwilling to use his ultimate trump card: his long-standing relationship with Biden. He says the two speak regularly, but Kaufman has not asked Biden to back his bank proposal, nor will Kaufman blast the administration in his speeches. “I am a senator; I think this is

what a senator does,” he said, referring to giving speeches and offering amendments. Referring to Biden, he added: “He is one of my best friends, but he’s never called me [since Kaufman entered the Senate] and said, ‘I really want you to do this.’ And I never call him up.”

baconp@washpost.com

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this column.

 More than 100,000 at Defense switching pay systems. Federal Worker, B3  Obama officials to lead events for Public Service Recognition Week. B3

Walter Pincus is away. Fine Print will resume when he returns.

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