Legislating Below Par

Rosty's got a golf game." According to a leading Democrat in the House, K that was always the explanation muttered when Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski rushed through committee business. In fact, the Illinois Democrat was out on the links in Hawaii last March when the White House wanted a begin negotiations on the 1983 budget. It was one of 45 days during a recent vacations period that Rostenkowski spent on far-flung golfing vacations BLACHMAN paid for by corporations and lobbying groups, according to a report last week in the Washington Post.

Many of the corporations that paid for the junkets (which cost at least $10,000 during the six-month period) have an interest in legislation before the Ways and Means Committee. While there is no indication that Rostenkowski did any favors for his hosts, the disclosures were the political equivalent of a tee shot out of bounds for the House Democratic leadership, which has been trying to portray the Reagan Administration as beholden to the country-club set. On two occasions, the Post reported, Rostenkowski's golfing companion was House Speaker Tip O'Neill. The amiable Rostenkowski, who is more comfortable with the ward politics of Chicago than the intricacies of tax legislation, was rarely in Washington the first few months of this year. "We were beginning to wonder," says a colleague, "if he was still a Congressman.

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