"More Difficult to Govern"

Typical of younger, newer members of Congress, Anthony J. ("Toby ") Moffett, 33, is experienced, outspoken--and so independent that he did not even register as a Democrat until three weeks before he filed in 1974 to run for the House from northern Connecticut's Sixth District. Before that, he earned a master's degree in urban affairs at Boston College, worked with Boston street gangs for the U.S. Office of Education, was the first director of HEW's Office of Students and Youth, was a Senate aide to Walter Mondale and headed Ralph Nader's organization in Connecticut. Now a member of the House-Senate energy conference committee, he has led the fight to keep tight controls on natural gas prices and reform utility rates. Interviewed by TIME Senior Correspondent James Bell, Moffett echoed the mood of many in Congress. Excerpts:

Many of us come from nonpolitical backgrounds, and we believe independence is politically popular with our voters. We are particularly independent of party. You've got to consider that party organizations in many states are decrepit today. The party can't help you with money or even technical advice. So you build your own organization, and if it's good, you get elected. We don't owe leadership anything. And we're not afraid of it. Many of us were not even our party's choice in the primary campaigns.

The yardstick used in measuring a Congressman's success has changed. It used to be the number of bills you introduced. Now our constituents think that perhaps too many bills are introduced. What counts with our constituents is the service we give them and how well we oversee laws already on the books. The public is certainly less deferential to any officeholder, including Congressmen.

Congress is also less deferential to the President than it used to be. Just before Christmas, I was summoned to the White House with other members of the energy conference committee. President Carter wanted to know if we'd work until Christmas and all that. Well, we were called at 4:30 p.m. to be at the White House by 5:30. All of us Congressmen made it by 5:40; I went on the subway. But the Senators didn't even start showing up until 6. One didn't arrive until 6:20, and another didn't come at all. I asked myself, "God! Is this the way we respect the President?" I always thought when you were called, you came. I guess this President has a problem with the Senators. He never belonged to their club. So maybe they aren't as respectful as they might be.

A lot of Democrats on the Hill had to do a lot of figuring about how to conduct themselves now that they had a member of their own party in the White House.

We've learned that it's really no big deal for a Democratic Congressman to oppose a Democratic President.

The new independence is too strong to disappear or even diminish significantly when some other President succeeds Carter. This means that it has become more difficult to govern, and it will get even more difficult in the future.

Jimmy Carter can't call Tip O'Neill, like Harry Truman could call Sam Rayburn, and tell him to get up 200 votes. Everyone feared we Americans were going to become a homogenized people, and yet here we are with this tremendous diversity That's not bad, but we can't reach consensus like we used to. That makes it difficult to make decisions.

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