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- THE WEEK, Page 23NATIONAbsence of a Quorum
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- A mutinous meeting of freshman House members falls flat
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- "The freshman-class revolt," California Republican aspirant
- Tom Huening called it in September, when he invited prospective
- new members of the House of Representatives to a post-election
- conclave in Omaha, Nebraska, to plot the overthrow of the
- seniority system. Although 170 candidates accepted the
- invitation, only 14 Republicans (out of a freshman class of 110)
- showed up last Monday in Omaha, where they endorsed term limits
- and other G.O.P. reform proposals. Huening, who lost his race
- by a wide margin, went to Omaha anyway to lend moral support.
- But House Speaker Tom Foley had deftly defused the incipient
- uprising by flying to Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago to
- schmooze with freshman Democrats. For them, the best advice may
- still be that of Sam Rayburn, the Speaker when Foley first got
- to Washington 31 years ago: "To get along, go along."
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