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By RICHARD HORN
Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - On Capitol Hill the media hover in search of soundbites,and at the moment a swarm is descending on Charlie Stenholm.

It's late July and President Clinton moments ago announced he'llsign landmark Republican welfare reform.

As the cameras gaze on, Stenholm and Rep. John Tanner of Tennessee- two leaders of the Blue Dog Democrats - announce that aftertwice opposing the GOP's welfare world view, they'll now backthe House-Senate compromise.

That morning, both men had urged Clinton to sign the measure,arguing it addresses several problems in earlier versions and,accurately it turned out, predicting about 100 Democrats wouldsupport it, enough to override a presidential veto.

"Despite our reservations, it is vital that welfare reformbe enacted this year," Stenholm told reporters. "Thiscompromise is far from perfect, but it's clearly preferable tothe current system and preferable to welfare bills consideredearlier this Congress."

Or was it really? Stenholm's critics, inside both the D.C. Beltwayand the 17th Congressional District, see it as another deft moveby an 18-year incumbent who continually straddles the politicalfence.

"Another example of the Stenholm see-saw," said Republicanchallenger Rudy Izzard, charging Stenholm sided with his partyearly on and merely switched his vote after outrage erupted backhome. He noted two other conservative Texas Democrats, Ralph Halland Pete Geren, voted for welfare reform all the way through theprocess.

Similar charges have been leveled throughout his career. But Stenholmand his supporters say he did on welfare what he's always done:scouted the landscape and tried to make the best of the politicalsituation, so he can make legislation more to his liking and hisdistrict's. He calls the result "conservatism with commonsense."

By voting against the earlier welfare bill, he argues, he wona seat at the table to negotiate something better. And one motivation,he says, was helping Texas protect elements of its own welfarereform measure. Today he has a hand-written "Dear Charlie"thank-you note from Republican Gov. George Bush to back him up.

And U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw of Florida, the Republican who chairedthe committee that produced the welfare reform bill, praised Stenholm'sinput, both in comments on the House floor and in a letter tohis colleague.

"I can tell you honestly that in many instances in whichwe followed your advice and that of other Blue Dogs, we actuallyimproved the bill," Shaw wrote earlier this month.

Despite occasional fits of frustration, there's no doubt CharlesStenholm loves what he's doing. And the one-time teacher who jumpedfrom cotton farming to Congress harbors big plans if he surviveselection day.

He hopes Democrats can re-take Congress, making him an almostcertain chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, a careerdream. He also toys privately with taking another stab at a topHouse leadership post, after being predictably squashed in his1994 attempt.

And if Republicans maintain control, he believes his Blue Dogbunch of Southern conservatives will have great influence overthe battles ahead. Being at the center of it all was his goalfrom the beginning, he said.

"I've always wanted to become more than one vote, to be someonewho, when other members look up on the board, they see your voteand they'll vote like you do," he said.
Friends and critics agree he's achieved that goal to a degree- for good or for ill, depending on your politics.
SCARE OF HIS LIFE
It was already chilly Election Night 1994. It got significantlycolder the second Stenholm heard the early election returns overhis car phone, as he and his wife Cindy drove the highway to Stamford.
He was down 10 percentage points in Abilene, his district's focalpoint and largest city.

Stenholm would find out later that his family had anticipatedthe national mood and the historic Republican takeover of Congress.Son Chris and daughter Courtney Ann drove in from Fort Worth andCollege Station. Son Cary runs the family farm in Stamford. Unknownto Stenholm, they were gathering to support him in case he lost.

He didn't lose, but it was by far the toughest victory of hiscareer. Phil Boone, a persistent political newcomer, won 46 percentof the vote and carried eight counties, Taylor included. Closeto half the voters wanted Stenholm out of office.

It shook him, but Stenholm found a pony amid the dung of Democraticdefeat: He was one of the few survivors.

"We were down," he told a home health association recently,"until the next morning when we saw what happened nationwide.And then I've been up ever since. We found an upside."

But he lost a lot of his conservative Democratic friends, eitherin the election or in defections to the Republican Party. Manypeople figured this was it for Stenholm. Now consigned to theminority, they felt certain he'd either switch parties or callit quits.

He did neither. He ran for House Democratic whip, second highestpost in the party's congressional leadership.

Stenholm's quixotic challenge to Michigan Democrat David Bonior,a proud liberal, seemed doomed from the start; he ended up losing145 to 60. But to Stenholm the November election returns demonstratedthe Democratic Party had to move to the right.

Instead of switching, Stenholm stayed on to continue trying tomove the party that direction, a feat many Republicans considerequally quixotic and equally doomed. They accuse Stenholm of "playinga game of feint right and fold left."

He has liberal critics as well, though they're quieter in an electionyear.

"He often votes more conservatively than Phil Gramm, andwho needs that in a Democratic Party?" said one Democraticstaffer. "We need two distinct parties, not one big Republicanone."

Stenholm, elected in 1978, earned his congressional spurs inthe early years of the Reagan era, when he quickly became oneof the leading conservative Democrats to back the president's1981 tax cuts.

It's an economic decision he regrets, and one that's since madehim dead-set against tax cuts before the budget is balanced. Butit was also his first taste of helping to lead a coalition, andof communicating with the White House. Succeeding administrationshave welcomed his ability to count and find votes.

Ken Duberstein, who was congressional liason for Reagan and eventuallybecame White House chief of staff, said Stenholm was a quiet catalystfor making the Southern Democrats an instrumental force in thoseyears.

"While Phil Gramm and Kent Hance had their names attachedto the legislation, Charlie was more interested in getting thingsdone right," said Duberstein, now consultant and advisorto Colin Powell and, at times, Bob Dole.

He agrees both parties have, more recently, been frustrated withStenholm, "not sure which camp he's in or where he's comingfrom.

"But I always kind of thought Charlie was coming from WestTexas, and that maybe the country itself is of two minds: Of coursethey want to balance the budget, but they also want some essentialservices provided by the federal government.

"Charlie's about governing, not just making a statement,"he said. "He doesn't always just opt for the most popularthing to say, but what he thinks need to be done. Maybe what CharlieStenholm is about is getting away from political labels."

As many a reporter who has followed a congressman learns, amember's day is marked by hurried walks through the Capitol Hilltunnels, racing back and forth to committee meetings, office appointments,votes in the House, caucus gatherings, all of which may be delayed,moved forward or forsaken totally.

The Stenholms live in north Arlington, Va., several miles fromthe Capitol complex. As with most in Congress, an early eveningis getting home at 9 p.m.; a late morning is being at the officeat 8. And he's a regular participant in a reading program at aDistrict of Columbia school, where his stitched cowboy boots area big hit with the kids.

Stenholm seems to thrive on the activity.

Among reporters, lobbyists and other observers, Stenholm is regardedas a hard worker, one of Washington's most knowledgeable sourceson agriculture and a serious presence on the Hill.

"He's not much for soundbites, but the press often gravitatesto him for a moderate viewpoint," said one reporter who hascovered Congress for years and, like many of the unelected inWashington, talks best when he goes unnamed.

He also gets high marks for his staff, some of whom started withhis predecessor, the late Omar Burleson of Abilene.

"Stenholm's part of that dwindling Sam Rayburn, Lloyd Bentsenschool of Democrats," said a reporter. "He believesdeal-making and compromise is the way to get things done, youneed to keep business happy but temper the market with government,and that partisanship accomplishes little."

Not that Stenholm doesn't deliver the Democratic line. He hasreferred to both GOP leaders and freshmen as "extreme,"a loaded word. And, like Clinton, he called 1994's Contract withAmerica the "Contract <I>on<I> America,"though he ended up voting for 80 percent of it.

But he doesn't much engage in ethics wars or deliver late-nightC-Span sermons. His response to Democratic and Republican scandalsis generally the same - let the judicial system work - and reportersand staffers learn early he doesn't appreciate private denigratingof colleagues.

In July, the most negative comment a reporter could draw fromhim was in response to persistent fishing about what he reallythought of California Rep. Bob Dornan, he of the flaming TV soliloquies.

"He's one of a kind," Stenholm said, quietly adding,"Thank goodness."
Dornan takes that as high praise, a member of his staff says.

Stenholm has not enjoyed life in the minority, at the mercyof a Republican leadership he believes wanted division and thechaos of a government shutdown.

Democrats were given little or no input into bills, he complains,while House Speaker Newt Gingrich allowed revolution-minded GOPfreshman to set the no-compromise agenda.

"I found myself asking some of my friends on the other sideof the aisle, 'Did I treat you like this when we were in the majority?'"he said.

Stenholm insists he did not, that in subcommittees he chairedhe sought Republican input. But he admits Democrats as a wholebecame victims of what they themselves wrought over 40 years ofHouse rule.

"We allowed a very vocal minority, an ultra-liberal element,to rule our party," he said. "Republicans did not learnfrom our mistakes."

But he says Democrats have learned. Though he still believes Bonioris too liberal and partisan for the party's leadership, he creditsMinority Leader Dick Gephardt with giving conservatives a voice.And it's worth noting the Democratic Party agenda and platformthis year has moderated.

Republican leaders call that a fraudulent facade, however. Andwhatever Stenholm may have done in the Reagan era, they now considerhim one of the guilty architects of that facade. And the criticismof him will likely grow in coming weeks.

Though GOP leaders mostly stayed out of his district in 1994,they'll be paying visits on behalf of Izzard's challenge. U.S.Rep. Sam Johnson of Dallas is scheduled, and Gingrich himselfmay make a stop.

Both will voice similar charges to one made by House MajorityLeader Dick Armey earlier this year - that Stenholm has lost allcredibility with conservatives.

For conservative Republicans the last straw was in 1993, whenStenholm voted for a Clinton tax-hike budget version in exchangefor entitlement controls Republicans considered meaningless. Hetook several other conservative Democrats with him. Though Stenholmvoted against the final Clinton bill, GOP leaders decided hisbattle to "move the party to the center" was a fraud.

Gingrich compared Stenholm to the Washington Generals, thebasketball team that travels with and always loses to the HarlemGlobetrotters.

"Their job is to make it look interesting, make it look closeeven, but in the end to lose gracefully," he said.

One of his persistent critics, Americans for Tax Reform head GroverNorquist, says conservatives in the past five years have givenup taking Stenholm's battles with his party leadership seriously.

"After a while you begin to figure it's a fixed fight, thathe's actually working with them and his job was to make them lookgood for the moderate Democrats while at the end of the day, Clintongets the tax increase he wants," said Norquist, whom Stenholmand his staff dismisses as a far-right conservative with personalanimosity against the congressman for some reason.

"Stenholm should either quit the party or quit trying topretend he's a conservative Democrat," Norquist said. "Becauseif he really is one it's been tearing him to shreds internallyto do all this stuff all these years. He ought to stop the internalbleeding."

U.S. Rep. Pete Geren, who is retiring from Congress after fourterms, said Republican charges Stenholm has lost credibility areuntrue.

"I think he's respected even by the people who disagree withhim," Geren said. "He's just really one of the veryfew people who works across the political spectrum.

"This place for the most part is everybody's in one campand everybody else is in the other camp and they throw bombs backand forth. Charlie is a consensus builder. He has the credibilityto be able to do that."

But Geren, who is returning to Fort Worth, has become a symbolfor Stenholm's critics. Geren, they note, is what a congressmanshould be: someone who serves a few years, then returns to hiscommunity.

Stenholm, who opposes term limits, believes tenure creates animportant institutional memory in Congress. He routinely tellsaudiences he hated the seniority system when he was first elected,but now that his seniority has grown, "I like it more everyday."

For all the debate about where he really stands, longevityin office may be Stenholm's greatest vulnerability. And Stenholm'sbehavior and statements sometimes boost the image of a Washingtoninsider.

It's standard for challengers to note that Stenholm was amongthose who wrote overdrafts on the House bank several years ago,that he's flipped on controversial positions, most recently onan amendment to ban flag-burning.

He praises good lobbyists, telling audiences the best of themare indispensable. Likewise, he steadily reels in political actioncommittee contributions, and considers PACs useful tools for smallbusinesses and individuals to make their concerns known. As hisAg Committee seniority grows, he has become even more of a magnetfor agribusiness money.

Stenholm over the years has been noted as a well-traveled congressman,earning "frequent flier" designation from Common Causefor accepting trips for lobby speeches, often combined with golftournaments in sunny climes. He defends the trips and the speeches,arguing that opportunities to push his views help him become morethan one vote.

Lobby events led to recent criticism for missing a memorial servicefor Dyess Air Force Base airmen killed while helping to transportequipment from Clinton's Wyoming vacation.

Stenholm had engagements speaking to sugar growers in Minnesotaand peanut growers in Alabama, groups that have long contributedto him. By the time he learned of the memorial service schedule,he said, he was unable to get plane transportation back to Abileneand sent his district manager in his place.

He argues he would have been equally criticized if he had spentmoney to charter a plane or use Air Force transportation. Butcritics contend a second- or third-term Stenholm, less concernedwith being a national voice for agrculture would have been there.

Stenholm says he learned years ago there will be times a memberof Congress cannot win, no matter what he does. But he shows fewsigns of wanting to voluntarily change careers or directions.
When asked how long he intends to keep serving, he says only thathe is asking for "another two-year extension of his contract."But should he win a 10th term, the question of how long he'llkeep trying will depend which party controls Congress.

Whatever that outcome, Stenholm is excited about challenges ahead.He's part of a bipartisan group looking for ways to tone downthe partisanship in Congress, perhaps with such simple measuresas a friendly get-together among members before the politicalwars begin.

Less simple is entitlement reform. Stenholm is co-chair of a pensionreform conference addressing Social Security and Medicaid.

"We've got just a few more years to make those constructivechanges" he said. "If we don't, our sons and grandsonsand daughters and granddaughters won't think too highly of us.I don't know many people in 17th District who don't realize we'vegot problems ahead."

He denies life in the minority has made him less effective, lessinfluential among moderates. In fact, by his reading of pollsa number of House GOP freshmen will lose re-election and be replacedby his kind of people, moderate-to-conservative Democrats, potentialBlue Dogs.

"Both parties have learned from their mistakes," hesaid. "I think we're definitely at a pivotal moment."

All content copyright 1996, Richard Horn,The Abilene Reporter-Newsand Reporter OnLine