As the 104th Congress begins its second session this week, the temptation would be to proclaim the first session a failure. After all, the GOP majority succeeded in passing into law only three pieces of the "Contract With America" that helped sweep it to power.
But that would be an imprecise assessment. In reality, the past year has been a powerful reminder of the wisdom of the nation's founders.Even though parts of the "contract" are worth passing, and the grinding way in which government lumbers along can be frustrating, the founders intentionally crafted a system that guards against drastic and abrupt changes. They worried about the rise of tyrannical factions, and about the loss of liberty that could come through hasty and reactionary government fiats.
Thus, when President Clinton urged Congress to pass a tough anti-terrorism bill in the emotional aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing - a bill that would have destroyed some basic freedoms in an effort to thwart criminals - he was stopped by an odd coalition of civil libertarians and gun-rights advocates who pressured lawmakers.
The system ground anti-terrorism to a halt, much as it has ground many measures, including proposed changes to the Constitution, during the past 12 months. Americans ought to be thankful for such a system.
But while the first year of this Congress was not a failure, its ultimate success depends on what eventually emerges from the budget stalemate between Congress and the president. If a budget that truly aims toward a balance between revenues and expenditures by 2002 emerges, it would overshadow any legislation that failed.
In any event, the GOP deserves good marks for shaking up the business-as-usual attitude that was so predominant on Capitol Hill, and for passing some important legislation.
Perhaps its most important achievement was to make members of Congress more accountable. New laws will strictly regulate lobbyists, make members of Congress subject to employment laws and require the federal government to avoid unfunded mandates to the states. These are important and much-needed reforms that must be followed closely by a tough campaign finance reform law during coming months.
The list of failures is much longer. It includes efforts to pass a line-item veto (something that seems much less appealing to GOP lawmakers with a Democrat in the White House), a balanced-budget amendment, a flag-burning amendment and an overhaul of environmental regulations including the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Congress did pass sweeping welfare-reform legislation, but Clinton has promised to veto it.
In all, the session was the second-longest in the nation's history and ended with only 88 bills becoming law, down from 225 new laws passed during a much shorter session in 1994. But such measuring rods are immaterial.
The philosophical stalemate that has gripped the federal government may indeed signal a watershed in the nation's history. It won't be settled easily. Ultimately, if it is to be broken, the voters will do so in November. The people, speaking collectively, hold the real power.
And that means the system invented more than 200 years ago is still working fine.