The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. MacNeil: Good evening. I'm Robert MacNeil in New York.

MR. LEHRER: And I'm Jim Lehrer in Washington. After our summary of the news this Monday, we talk to five incoming members of the House of Representatives, the outgoing Secretary of Education, Lamar Alexander is here for a conversation, and we end with a Jim Fisher essay about one woman's newspaper. NEWS SUMMARY

MR. MacNeil: The United States will begin withdrawing some of its forces from Somalia later this month, but Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said the majority of U.S. troops will remain. He said the situation in Somalia remains too dangerous to hand over to U.N. peacekeepers. Mr. Cheney made the remarks as informal peace talks opened in Ethiopia among the 14 leaders of warring Somali factions. U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the participants to end the anarchy in their famine-stricken nation. The U.S. Army is investigating the killing of British relief worker Sean Devereux who worked for the United Nations in Somalia. He was gunned down on Saturday evening as he left his office in the port city of Kismayu. The army's also investigating the deaths of some 15 Somalis. Their bodies were found Saturday in a mass grave near the airport in Kismayu. Jim.

MR. LEHRER: International mediators Cyrus Vance and David Owen offered a new Bosnia peace plan at a conference in Geneva today. It would divide Bosnia into 10 autonomous provinces overseen by a centralgovernment. Lord Owen said Bosnia's Muslim leaders were willing to accept parts of the plan but questioned the new boundaries. Bosnian Serbs said they had to consult with other Serbs before officially responding. Gaby Rado of Independent Television News reports.

MR. RADO: The Bosnian Muslim President Ali Izebegovich arrived at the talks knowing he'd come under pressure from both the Serbia and Croatian sides to accept the principle of cantonization. The Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been putting an optimistic gloss on the talks, hoping they'll legitimize Serbian control of a large section of Bosnia. A great deal of wrangling followed over the border suggested by the co-chairman of the conference. The greatest reluctance came from the Muslim side for whom cantonization means the end of their long-term hopes for a unitary state. What the Muslims would be gaining is a timetable for ending hostilities. The Owen/Vance plan envisages carving up the unitary state of Bosnia into ten autonomous provinces. Though it's not meant to be an ethnic division, it does reflect the military realities on the ground. Areas under Serbian control would cover some 50 percent of Bosnia. The Croatians have also been given effective control of several large areas, while the Muslims, 44 percent of the original population, are left with relatively little land. Sarajevo would become a multi-ethnic province. Immediate arguments center around northern territories. The Muslims say they need a larger area around Bihac, while the Serbs object to the Croats being given a northern province which effectively cuts off Serbian access to Belgrade. This corridor has for the past nine months been the life line for the main part of Serbian-occupied Bosnia, and some of the most bitter fighting of the civil war has been over the control of this key strip of land. Later this afternoon the Bosnian leader presented the conference with an ultimatum. The Serbian side had to agree to Bosnia becoming an independent sovereign state, and they had to put heavy weapons under U.N. control or the peace talks would fail. Tonight's news that the Geneva talks have been adjourned prolongs the distress of the people of Bosnia now struggling to survive the winter cold. Their hopes have been raised in the past three days that peace could be achieved at the conference table. But according to today's evidence, the distance between the Serb and Muslim positions is still very substantial.

MR. LEHRER: The peace talks are to resume come Sunday.

MR. MacNeil: Bill Clinton spoke to Russian President Boris Yeltsin today about the newly signed START II Treaty. The President-elect said it was a historic achievement, and he promised to push for early Senate ratification. The agreement calls for deep cuts in the nuclear arsenals of both countries. During the 20- minute phone call, the two man also began making plans for a face- to-face meeting to take place after the Clinton inauguration, but no date was set.

MR. LEHRER: At least 24 people died when a tourist bus crashed yesterday in Mexico. The bus was carrying American and other foreign tourists from Cancun to the site of Mayan ruins. It overturned on a rain-slick road and ran into a high voltage electrical transformer. Police said the driver was going too fast. They said today that as many as fourteen Americans and four Canadians are believed to be among the dead.

MR. MacNeil: That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to the newest of the new Congress, Secretary of Education Alexander, and essayist Jim Fisher. FOCUS - FRESHMAN CLASS

MR. LEHRER: We go first tonight to the people who have come to Washington to make everything better, to restore all ethics and all gridlock, solve all problems. They are, of course, the newly- elected members of the 103rd Congress, which convenes tomorrow. We'll talk with five of the new House members right after this backgrounder by our Congressional Correspondent Kwame Holman.

MR. HOLMAN: There are 110 members of the freshman class, the largest in more than 40 years. The group of 63 Democrats and 47 Republicans includes a record number of women, 24, and of minorities, among them 14 blacks and 9 Hispanics. To varying degrees, they embody public displeasure with a Congress that had a bad two years, from legislative gridlock to the House banking scandal. The size of the new freshman class alone prompted House Democratic leaders to take unprecedented action. Shortly after the election, they invited new members from their side of the aisle to regional get-acquainted meetings in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta, rather than wait for the traditional week of orientation in Washington. Steny Hoyer is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

MR. HOLMAN: Was there the feeling of leeriness or fear of the power of this group?

REP. STENY HOYER, Chairman, House Democratic Caucus: I don't think it was so much fear or leeriness of the power of this group, although there was some speculation that they would be sort of like the Watergate class of '74 with an agenda to sort of shake up the institution, and so there was the feeling that we needed to talk to them about what they wanted to do I think for a legitimate reason. We want to be responsive to that. They make up 25 percent of our caucus.

MR. HOLMAN: Whatever the motives behind the meetings, new members were encouraged.

MEL REYNOLDS, [D] Illinois: My name is Mel Reynolds from the Second Congressional District in Illinois. I'm here to say today that based on the meetings that we've had this morning and conversations I've had since March, since the primary, that the leadership in the Congress have really heard the message of the people and are welcoming the freshman class and will include the freshman class in key roles in the Congress, and I think that's going to be helpful to all of us and to this country.

MR. HOLMAN: But as encouraged as Chicago's Mel Reynolds was in November, he was equally overwhelmed once he arrived on Capitol Hill in December.

MEL REYNOLDS: I had twenty-one meetings in three days, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week, and then they had the steering and policy meeting on Monday, and you were biting your nails to see if you got selected for the committee you wanted, and on top of all that, you're trying to learn your way around and getting lost in all the buildings. These buildings are like a maze. It's unbelievable.

MR. HOLMAN: The Republicans' freshman class is smaller, but a group of them got together in Omaha in November to plan their strategy.

DEBORAH PRYCE, [R] Ohio: By sheer force of our numbers we have terrific potential to do great things, and that's a very unique situation to be in, and I don't think that we can discount it, nor can our leaders discount it, nor can the Democrats discount it, and we must take the opportunity and use it the best that we can.

MR. HOLMAN: Deborah Pryce from Columbus, Ohio, also was enthusiastic about the potential of the freshman class. But once in Washington, she too was swamped with hundreds of resumes and endless meetings.

SPOKESMAN: No. 71.

MR. HOLMAN: And choosing 71st in the office lottery meant she would choose from a list of the least desirable work spaces.

MR. HOLMAN: Could you be happy in a place like this?

DEBORAH PRYCE: This makes me happy. It's comfortable. It's close to where I'm living. It's close to the entrance.

MR. HOLMAN: Pryce, who gave up her seat on a county court bench to run for Congress, said she was anxious to put housekeeping chores behind her and begin working toward restoring Congress's reputation.

DEBORAH PRYCE: I think that we need some people in here that are ready to turn over the apple cart, and it's good for the institution to at least examine some of the proposals I think, and sometimes it takes a few insurgents to get those really examined and looked at like we should.

MR. HOLMAN: Republican Scott Klug of Wisconsin was one such insurgent from the last freshman class. He was a member of the so- called "Gang of Seven," freshman Republicans whose push for congressional reform led to full disclosure of the House check bouncing scandal.

REP. SCOTT KLUG, [R] Wisconsin: We were lucky. I mean, it was a situation where it was easy for freshmen to break out of the pack. And that's not always going to happen. And I think most people who come here have very tempered expectations. You've got to pick your fights carefully and you've got to know that even of that small group that you pick you're only going to win some of them.

MR. HOLMAN: Reynolds of Chicago says he, for one, isn't about to start throwing bombs.

MEL REYNOLDS: You know, it's been interesting, because we came in, we said we wanted three members, freshman members, on steering and policy, the committee that makes all the decisions on committees. They initially, it was, well, I don't know, maybe one; we got three. We wanted to meet with the chairmen. I don't know if they're all going to be available. We requested some meetings. They all showed up.

MR. HOLMAN: It should be noted Reynolds was awarded a coveted assignment to the House Ways & Means Committee.

MEL REYNOLDS: So we're looking at about eight freshmen on the Democratic side that are really serving on some important committees, so we've gotten -- someone said to me, why haven't there been more protests and knocking down the walls -- because every time we go and knock on a door, they open it.

REP. STENY HOYER: I think Mel Reynolds is exactly right. I think they expected some, some opposition, some resistance, some perhaps defensiveness, and I don't think they found that. But on the other hand, I think we expected a more assaultive behavior of the institution, and what we found was they don't expect miracles, they don't expect us to solve some very difficult problems overnight, but they do expect us to stop yapping and start working, and I think that's what the freshmen reflect.

MR. LEHRER: And now to five of those freshmen, three Democrats and two Republicans. The Democrats are Eva Clayton, 58-years-old, the first black elected to Congress from North Carolina since reconstruction. She's the owner of a community planning consulting firm, a county commissioner for eight years, until 1990, she also served as the assistant secretary for community development in North Carolina. Her congressional peers elected her president of the freshman Democratic class. Dan Hamburg, 44-years-old, is a longtime civic and community activist from Northern California. He served on the city planning commission and county board of supervisors. Prior to his election, he was the executive director of a community development agency. Karen Shepherd, 52-years-old, expected to join us in a moment, she's the second woman ever elected to Congress from Utah, a state senator since 1990. She's the former director of development and community relations at the University of Utah's Business School. She also helped found Utah's Women Political Caucus. The Republicans are Stephen Buyer, a 34- year-old lawyer and a former Indiana deputy attorney general, an army reservist. He was called to active duty during the Persian Gulf war and was decorated for his service during Operation Desert Storm, and Lincoln Diaz-Balart from Florida is the second Cuban- American to serve in the House of representatives. A 38-year-old attorney, Diaz-Balart is a former Democrat. He switched parties when he entered politics in 1986. That year he was elected to the Florida House. In 1989, he won a special election to the state senate. In 1991, he was the first Hispanic and the first Republican to chair the Dade County delegation to the state legislature. Mr. Hamburg, do you feel you have been sent here with a special mission?

MR. HAMBURG: Well, I definitely feel that way. I ran for office feeling that after 12 years of Republican administrations that there was a tremendous crying out for change in the country. As a county official and before that as a city official, I watched the deterioration of government and community services on the local level. And I felt that a lot of that had to do with the Reagan and Bush administrations and with their failure to understand the kinds of problems that were existing on the lower level.

MR. LEHRER: And you're going to change all of that, you, Mr. Hamburg from California? You came here to do that?

MR. HAMBURG: Well, you know, it's interesting, when I began my campaign, I felt that when I won -- you always run for these offices expecting to win, otherwise you wouldn't put up with the rigors of the campaign -- I felt that I'd be serving under George Bush. I mean, I began running right after Operation Desert Storm and in the heyday of the Bush popularity. I felt that that was the best I could hope for. But now with the political turnaround over the last five or six months, we've seen a Democrat elected, we've seen a cabinet selected that I think is much more promising than anything we could have hoped for. So, yes, I feel like this freshman class, this Democratic Caucus, this 103rd Congress can achieve a real turnaround.

MR. LEHRER: Well, Mr. Buyer, as a Republican then, where does that put you? What did you come here to do?

MR. BUYER: First of all, I can say I disagree with exactly what my colleague's already say. One thing of which people all across America, Jim, realize is that when they talk about gridlock, yes, people want to make our form of institution work. We have great pride in our form of government. And what upset people all across America was, was when we saw the institution called the Congress deteriorate. That upsets us because we have that pride. And I think, you know, a lot of us, myself included, is coming to the Congress to restore the faith of the American people and the integrity of the institution called Congress. I didn't come here - -

MR. LEHRER: Excuse me. Go ahead. You came here -- that is your No. 1 priority, is to restore --

MR. BUYER: Well, to restore the faith of the American people in our system of government. You bet. We had a President that wanted to return to the White House and members on Capitol Hill that wanted to return to Capitol Hill. And my colleague wants to blame the Reagan-Bush years. I disagree with that. I mean, we've got a Congress that's been controlledby one party for many, many years, my entire lifetime, when I came into this world, they've been in control. So we have to make people -- we have to make it work, our system work.

MR. LEHRER: Ms. Clayton did you come here with a mission?

MS. CLAYTON: Yes. I came with a mission to make sure that this government was more responsive to the people who are often left out. I came with a mission that I could bring the kind of representation that will allow, will speak to the quality of their lives. I knew that Congress did not enjoy the very best reputation, but I thought it only deserved the best opportunity to have people who represented the interests of their constituents. I did not run against Congress. I did not run against the President. I ran because I felt the people in our district deserved the best quality of representation, speaking to their private lives. People were suffering. People wanted change. They wanted -- certainly they were concerned that their quality of life was not, the quality of their representation was not what they wanted, but they were hurting for jobs. Their children were hurting. So I came to include in that representation the hope that so many constituents did not see their elected persons speaking to their needs. So I think I've come with a mission, and that mission is to be the very best representative that my constituents could have.

MR. LEHRER: Ms. Shepherd, who has joined us, do you feel that the people in your district sent you here to do one specific thing? Is it a specific piece of legislation, or is it more general, as the others have said?

MS. SHEPHERD: No, in our case it's very general. I believe that the people of my district think that government doesn't work for them anymore. And I believe they're sick and tired of hearing the President blame the Congress and the Congress blame the President, and that we all know there's plenty of blame to go around, that blaming doesn't solve anybody's problems. What we have to do is make government work again, and that is my goal. And I think it is the goal of the freshman class.

MR. LEHRER: But how do you do that? What are you going to go -- how are you going to be judged by the people back home in Utah that say, okay, Congresswoman Shepherd did what she said she was going to do? How are they going to judge you, by what standard?

MS. SHEPHERD: What I asked them to look at was how hard I worked on campaign financing reform, how hard I worked on rules reform in terms of systemic change within the Congress, itself, how close we come to reducing the budget deficit in the next two years, and then more than that in the next four years, the next six years, the next eight years. Those are very concrete measurements, and I think it's clear what they've asked us to do. They want the government to be fiscally responsible, and they want legislation to move through Congress at a reasonable rate, and in my district, although people would like it to be faster, they don't expect miracles. They just respect -- they expect accountability.

MR. LEHRER: Speaking of accountability, now you're a Republican. Have you come here -- do you see yourself as part of a team in government to make things work, or are you coming here as a Republican to make sure that the Democratic leadership, whether now it be at the White House or in the Congress, doesn't foul things up?

MR. DIAZ-BALART: I come here to represent my constituency to the best of my ability and hopefully effectively. I think that essentially the Congress has two roles, obviously to legislate and to oversee. I think it's perhaps maybe a little easier if you're in the majority to legislate, but maybe it's a little easier, surely not more difficult, if you're in the minority, in the opposition to oversee, to make sure that laws are executed correctly and that they are well executed, and that when the executive proposes measures that are in the interest of the country, I think he'll have the loyal opposition's support. When he proposes measures that we view to be contrary to the interests of the country, then he will have our forthright and vigorous opposition.

MR. LEHRER: But you specifically, how do you, how do you think you will be judged by the folks back in Florida?

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Well, they want somebody who -- I wasn't here to go along and get along, that's for sure.

MR. LEHRER: And they know that.

MR. DIAZ-BALART: They know that. I had to sue to get a district where our community could elect a Congressman of its choice, and we were successful in federal court. If we would have left it up to the state legislature, we wouldn't have obtained fair representation in Congress or at the state legislative level.

MR. LEHRER: This is the Cuban-American community.

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Yes, and the black community. Interestingly enough, there are three black representatives from Florida for the first time since reconstruction, and it was we, the Cuban-American legislators, that filed a lawsuit that brought that about. So we feel pretty proud about it.

MR. LEHRER: Well, they're not expecting you to come home in two years with a piece of legislation, look, here's a piece of legislation I got through the Congress of the United States, or look here, it's cleaner up here than it used to be because of me. It's just, you've got a different mission.

MR. DIAZ-BALART: They know that I'm going to represent them to the best of my ability. I'm going to fight for them and I'm going to do the best I can. They know that, and it's my mission to live up to that confidence.

MR. LEHRER: Mr. Buyer, you told our reporter that Congress is considered a joke by most people in this country right now. Why would you want to be part of a joke?

MR. BUYER: That's the challenge. The challenge is to restore the faith and integrity of the American people in that institution called Congress.

MR. LEHRER: But how do you do that? I mean, what are you going to do that's different than the other five hundred and so -- well, it'll be three hundred and some that are already there?

MR. BUYER: You've got 110 of those that sweep in, who come from all across America. I want to comment on something that Linc said. When he said he didn't come here to go along, to get along, I'd say there's an incredible pressure when you come inside this beltway. We'll be sworn in tomorrow, but we've already felt that pressure of trying to go along to get along in this system already. I'm sure you felt it in the Democratic Caucus. We challenged some House rules in the Republican Caucus, and --

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Successfully.

MR. BUYER: And we successfully challenged them, but, but I understand those pressures. The people of Indiana are very pragmatic and a lot of Americans are very pragmatic and realistic, and they know that there is no such thing as a silver bullet that any of us could fire at that Congress and reform it in one shot. It'll be reformed by the many little battles we win over time, and people understand that.

MR. LEHRER: But Mr. Hamburg, some people would say one of the problems with this Congress that you all ran against -- you say you didn't run against, Ms. Clayton, but everybody else ran against, and everybody else knocked, was that it wouldn't go along. In other words, things didn't happen that should have happened. Do you want to put in a good word for going along?

MR. HAMBURG: Well, certainly not, Jim, but I was not a candidate running against Congress. I ran against an incumbent who tried his best as a member of the Gang of Seven to tear down the institution of Congress. It was interesting that in our campaign he often hid behind the very institution that he spent so much time attacking as a member. I ran on economic issues. I ran on health care and education. I didn't run on, on trying to tear down the institution. Now, I can't disagree entirely with what my colleague on the left has said. There is that tender trap of coming to Congress, and there is a certain way that you are addressed and treated and taught to be a part of the system that can be very entrapping. But I think, on the other hand, we all know that we have a very big job to do that, in a sense, time is running out on some of the ideals of our country. People have ceased to believe that the government can be affected, that the government can solve some of these problems. And I think Ronald Reagan is the one who helped to, to bring that about with his theory that government was the enemy. We've had government run by people who felt antagonistic toward government, and I believe that has to change.

MR. LEHRER: Ms. Clayton, do you see as one of your jobs as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives to implement the programs on which Bill Clinton and Al Gore were elected President and Vice President?

MS. CLAYTON: Oh, I think it's an opportunity we have to certainly get his program the benefit of the doubt. And I think he will receive a welcome support and examination from this Congresswoman. I'm excited about the fact that he's there, but it does not relinquish the responsibility I have to examine every proposal that comes before me.

MR. LEHRER: Do you --

MS. CLAYTON: I expect great things out of Bill Clinton and Al Gore, so I don't have any reason to think that there's any conflict, but I do not acquiesce the responsibility that I have to examine those things. And I think people expect me to come here to work with my President to make sure that the change they want to see in their communities, in their lives, is a reality, and that I should be part of that team, but at the same time, they don't expect me just to, to rubber stamp everything that comes over. There are a lot of things that will be going that I'd like to support.

MR. LEHRER: Do you see yourself as a member of a Democratic team, both Congressional and executive?

MS. SHEPHERD: I believe in teams, and in my experience in organizations, teams are the only things that ever really work and really cause the place to be effective. So I'm very cheered by what's happened in our freshman Congress, our Caucus. Eva Clayton is president of our caucus. That in and of itself is unusual. I'm cheered because we went to Democratic House leadership and said that we don't know enough about these rules that we've only seen for one day to know whether or not this is all we want to do about rules change. We'll come back to you in 90 days, and we'll tell you what else we want, or how we want them modified. And we have a team, of which I'm a member, doing that. We will go back to House leadership in 90 days.

MR. LEHRER: But is that -- is that what you would call going along?

MR. BUYER: Karen, we will share with you the changes that we made in the Republican Caucus. We'll be more than happy to share those with you to effectuate the changes in the Democratic Caucus. Those are good for the institution.

MR. LEHRER: But do you think it's a mistake for the Democratic members of the House -- these folks to see themselves as a member of a team with the Clinton/Gore folks? I mean, is that going along? Is that the problem you were talking about before?

MR. BUYER: Well, I think that there are some responsibilities among the party that's in the majority. And I'm not going to define that as the going along, get along. They're going to have tremendous pressures, as opposed to Lincoln and I. We are freshmen in a minority party. The responsibilities are a lot tougher right now upon my Democratic colleagues.

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Well, I don't know, Steve. I think --

MR. BUYER: I they can be --

MR. DIAZ-BALART: -- there are great responsibilities in the oversight inherent in opposition. I mean, we have to be very vigilant.

MR. BUYER: I agree. I agree with you on that, but I can see that --

MS. CLAYTON: I think your role is going to be more than just to be the loyal opposition. I hope your role is going to be proposing some new ideas and make sure --

MR. BUYER: Without a doubt.

MS. CLAYTON: -- American's going to change --

MR. BUYER: I can see the Democratic leadership turning to you as the freshman class president on the Democratic side and saying, here's what you're going to need to do.

MS. CLAYTON: Well, I think the leadership --

MR. BUYER: That is the going along, getting along.

MS. CLAYTON: Well, I think the leadership of the Democratic Party also know what it means to have 65 new Democrats there, so they'll be turning to us, yes, but they'll also be asking our recommendation, and we expect we will be making proposals to them as well.

MR. LEHRER: Wouldn't you, Mr. Diaz-Balart, do the same thing though if the Republican leadership, Bob Michel, comes to you and says, hey, look, this is a Republican issue, this is a big deal, we need your support, this is a team thing here?

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Certainly due tremendous consideration, respect, attention and study, but nobody is here, is elected to rubber stamp anybody. I mean, we're here not to rubber stamp any leadership, any executive, or whatever, because we would be doing a disservice to our constituency and to the country.

MR. LEHRER: Well, to some people -- you say rubber stamp -- that's already been used a couple of times here, but other people say that's just good politics; that's loyalty. That's getting things done. That's breaking the gridlock.

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Loyalty's important, but I mean, you have to be ultimately loyal to the people that elect you, and I think that's what's important.

MS. CLAYTON: I think also you're going to see more commonality among the freshmen as a group, whether we come from the South or the West and whether we're Republicans or Democrats, women or male, because I think all of us come with the mandate we should be for change. Now the find distinction as to how that change is modified is where we're going to have some opportunity to differ, but I don't think you're going to find as much initially as territorial responsibility. At least I hope -- I would hope that part of your loyal responsibility as the opposition is to put proposals on the table and that the freshman class as a whole, regardless of where we came from, can be about head start. But I think --

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Tremendously important.

MS. CLAYTON: Well, I just want to know. Now are you for children?

MR. BUYER: I agree with Karen when she talks about team. I mean, obviously America's first here. I understand that.

MS. CLAYTON: Can we get a team to work for children in this country?

MR. BUYER: Well, you could go down all kinds of a laundry list, because there will be coalitions --

MS. CLAYTON: There are some things we can work for.

MR. BUYER: I think the power brokers -- power brokers in Washington, D.C. now are going to be with the conservatives in the Democratic Party who sustained a lot of vetoes for George Bush. Those are the ones who are going to be able to hold the line on any type of liberal agenda coming out of the White House, or out of the leadership of the Democratic majority.

MS. CLAYTON: I think America cares whether it's liberal or conservative.

MR. BUYER: Sure, they do.

MS. CLAYTON: Well, hear me out now. I think America cares if we are fiscally responsible, and I don't know that fiscal responsibility has a title by saying I'm a liberal or saying you're a conservative. I think it means that we have to be accountable, that we invest money that's going to make the change in America.

MR. LEHRER: Let me ask you, let me ask you that question, Ms. Shepherd, and we'll go around on this. Do you feel that this election, not only your election, but this entire election was, in fact, about changing a lot of very basic things and the way the government operations and like health care and all of that? Are you -- do you see that that is part of which -- on which you're going to be judged and all of these folks, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservative, something's got to happen here the next couple of years or so, or even sooner?

MS. SHEPHERD: Absolutely, yes, and I can only speak for Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, but in Salt Lake City, Utah, conservative terms, conservative and liberal just don't work anymore, because if you're talking about health care, for example, we cannot balance the national budget without fixing it, period. It can't be done, but those solutions are regarded as "liberal solutions," so you have got to get a team together, build a coalition, negotiate to the best possible answer all around, and go as far as you can to balance the budget by fixing health care and to get access to everybody. We are stuck with that problem, and it's too complex to simply be labeled liberal and conservative.

MR. LEHRER: Do you agree with that? Is your that part of your mandate that you came here to do?

MR. DIAZ-BALART: I've never gotten involved in those semantic quagmires. I do think though that perhaps the issues may be, may be if the administration's going to seek a lot of new taxes, there's going to be a reality that will divide us if the administration seeks a lot of new taxes or if the administration, as I am hopeful it will do, addresses what Karen is talking about, the national debt problem. I mean, that's hopefully not a partisan issue. I tend to believe -- I really don't want to be dogmatic about this -- but I really believe that if we don't address the national debt problem, it's going to get out of hand, and it's going to argentinize our economy.

MR. LEHRER: But what about health care, for instance? That's one that everybody seems to agree on. Do you agree on that? Is that part of -- in other words, do you want the folks in your district to say -- who may be watching this tonight -- that you are going to be, you are going to be part of some legislation or a process that's going to lead to reforming the health care system?

MR. DIAZ-BALART: If I were to have simply limited myself to the fact that I was in the opposition in the Florida legislature, I wouldn't have been able to pass many bills, and I got a lot of bills passed, and the key is the majority plus one, and an idea. So I would hope that on many ideas we'll be able to get consensus or at least the majority plus one. I think health care is a fundamental issue. It's a -- it's a great concern, of great concern in my district, and hopefully, we can move as a society toward consensus on some of the solutions.

MR. LEHRER: And is moving toward a consensus on issues like that part of what you came here to do, to help them move toward a consensus, or what? If not that, what?

MR. HAMBURG: Well, of course, I like to think of myself as a team player. I like to work with other people. I think I'm effective in working with other people, and I don't think that I could have been elected to Congress in the kind of diverse district that I was elected in, unless I could forge coalitions among groups that have traditionally been at odds. But let's not kid ourselves here. There is an ideological divide. In this country, we call it Republicans and Democrats. But even within the Republican Party or within the Democratic Party, we have significant differences of opinion. Now, the Republicans, in spite of the fact that they have not controlled the House of Representatives, or the Senate since, I guess since 1982, although they did continue to control the Senate until 1986, had been able to control the agenda of the nation by controlling the White House. There's no question that the White House is "the" bully pulpit. The Presidency is the forum from which policies in this country flow. What people did in November was vote against those Republican supply side policies, they said that this country should not continue to be a society or tend toward a society of haves and have-not's of the very rich and more and more people very poor. I think people want significant change, and as James Cargill said, "It's the economy, stupid." It is the economy. It's about distribution. It's about creating some justice in the American economy. That's fundamentally, I believe, what people want, and fundamentally what I am going to be working for here.

MR. LEHRER: Mr. Buyer, do you see your mandate the same way?

MR. BUYER: Well --

MR. LEHRER: The change.

MR. BUYER: Well, the change -- I couldn't -- I was thinking about a word called "judgment" as I was listening to Dan speak, and we're going, we're going to be held accountable on the judgment we exercise, and the people back in Indiana, I'm sure all across America in your districts too don't really care about whether you've sided with a conservative or liberal or Democrat. It's the coalition and this team building that Karen talked about, but that can effectuate the change. If Karen has, has a policy or Eva does or Dan of which they want to try to garnish support from, you're going to come to us. Likewise, we're going to come to you and say, you know, how do you feel about this?

MR. LEHRER: Isn't Mr. Hamburg right? Isn't it very unlikely that the two of you are going to agree on a solution say to health care coming from where the two of you come from politically as a practical matter?

MR. HAMBURG: It's going to be hard enough for Bill Clinton and I to agree on health care, let alone for Stephen and I agree on health care. I mean, I'm for single payer national health care. Bill Clinton is for something called managed competition. I will bet, you know, dollars to doughnuts that neither of my Republican colleagues believe in anything even close to going as far as Bill Clinton wants to go.

MR. BUYER: I come into this tomorrow with a tremendous amount of optimism, but it's also cautious. It is. I mean, we're all in here very optimistic. But we do -- we all come from different walks of life from all across America, each of you are very dynamic individuals of your own right, and try and bring it altogether to make it work. That's the unique success story about the American government. And I'm sure there are some things that Dan and I might find in particular, and when you mentioned getting along with President-elect Clinton, you know, he and I are at odds already. I hadn't even been sworn in. In my district in Indiana, it is called the Culver Military Academy, they've been in nine consecutive inaugural parades. They had 80 black Stallions called the Culver Military Academy Black Horse Troops, nine consecutive inaugurals. They were not invited to this inaugural parade. And in their stead on that day will be a reggae band, no offense, a reggae band, two Elvis impersonators, a precision drill team and the Gay Lesbian Band of America. Now I am at odds with the President-elect before we ever start, because what kind of a message is he sending to these brilliant young men and women of our high schools that being out of the mainstream is more important than pursuit of excellence?

MR. HAMBURG: Well, what kind of a message has it sent that there has never before been these other elements in an inaugural parade, and for nine consecutive parades Culver has been able to make an appearance? I mean, the times they are a changing. George Bush is not President anymore. The Republicans are not in power any more. There is a change here, and I think it's going to be very much a change for the better. Let the sun shine in.

MR. LEHRER: We don't have any time anymore, so --

MR. DIAZ-BALART: Maybe adding to the parade is better than cutting.

MR. LEHRER: Maybe adding to the parade is better than a cut. Okay. But I can't do -- I can't add time. So we have to go. Thank you and good luck to all five of you, and we'll talk to you again. Bye-bye.

MR. MacNeil: Still ahead on the NewsHour, the outgoing Secretary of Education and a Jim Fisher look at a Missouri publisher. SERIES - PARTING WORDS

MR. MacNeil: Over the next few weeks as the Bush administration prepares to hand over the reins of power, we ask some of its top officials where they see the biggest challenges in the years ahead. We begin with a man who set the education agenda for Mr. Bush, who once campaigned as the education President. Education Sec. Lamar Alexander crafted the education reform plan known as America 2000. Its centerpiece, a school voucher plan, would have allowed parents to take federal funds to private and parochial schools. Sec. Alexander joins us now. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Alexander.

SEC. ALEXANDER: It's good to be here.

MR. MacNeil: Being Secretary of Education must have been quite an education for you. What is the -- what are the biggest lessons you've learned?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Well, that's exactly what it was. It was a wonderful education. I stood on the street corner in East Los Angeles outside Hollendbeck Junior High School with the principal there, Evelyn Lucerno, watching the gangs form in the afternoon and wondering why we still send children home at 3 o'clock in the afternoon to empty houses through streets we wouldn't walk along. I saw how big this country is, how badly our schools need to change. I never went into a school that I didn't see something inspiring, and I never left a school without wishing that we would give the teachers and the students and the communities some of the best schools in the world with which to help our children.

MR. MacNeil: Did you come up with the answer, why do we send children home at 3 o'clock in the afternoon along streets that aren't safe?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Well, yes, I think I know the answer to that. I think it's a combination of things. One is we haven't paid attention to it. We -- those of us who are outside the schools -- think what was good enough is good enough for our kids, and it's not. Two, we have a lot of people who are in control of things in education today, like where kids go to school, like what they're taught who don't want to give that control up. And so when President Bush and I and others came along and said, let's give parents more choices of schools, let's create break-the-mold schools, let's deregulate the schools, let's invite the private sector to come in and not just create missiles that will go down smokestacks but help us create the best schools in the world, all these people say, no, we don't want to lose control. So all those Congressmen we just heard talking, the Democratic Congressmen who were elected based upon change, really will be under great pressure to vote for less change when they vote on education this year.

MR. MacNeil: Do you leave your office, or will you leave in a couple of weeks, confident that this country can get its education system up to the standards of its international competitors by the turn of the century?

SEC. ALEXANDER: I don't have any doubt about that, but it can't be done from Washington. It can be done in Portland, Michigan, for example, which is one of the first school districts to fully integrate into the schools. The math standards that the President and math teachers and governors all believe all schools ought to be adopting, they've done that. They've retrained the teachers. They don't spend as much per student as most schools, yet, by changing what they teach, those kids are now moving to the top in Michigan in terms of what they know. And by the mid '90s, as a result of what we've been doing, working with the governors and others, we'll have new standards not only in math but in the sciences, history, several other basic core subjects, and that will change for the first time in our country's history what we are teaching.

MR. MacNeil: Diane Ravich in your department has been working on those, your assistant secretary, working on those.

SEC. ALEXANDER: Diane Ravich is the leader.

MR. MacNeil: And so how far have you got in, in -- what will you be able to hand over to the Clinton administration as how nearly completed are those standards in other words?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Well, in, in the sciences, history, English, geography, civics, arts, and on Friday in foreign languages, we will have funded and organized task forces that will have come to a consensus about what children ought to know and be able to do in all those subjects by the mid '90s. That's funded, organized and done and it's inevitable now will have those standards. No federal law about it, but we've already begun to see in Portland, Michigan, what happens when schools adopt them.

MR. MacNeil: Are you -- there's a lot of resistance to enforcing standards, isn't there, I mean, from all sorts of quarters?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Yeah.

MR. MacNeil: Where -- how do you -- and some people want quite severe or heavy carrots and sticks to make school districts if they don't do it voluntarily, adopt these national standards that you and the governors have promulgated. What is your own opinion, as you leave office and are free of the politics now, on how they should be if enforced is the wrong word, brought to effective use in the American schools?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Well, my position hasn't really changed on that now that I'm leaving office. Employers should enforce them. They should ask to see a transcript from a prospective employee to find out whether the student knows any math or any history. They are already doing it. If Saturn wants to make a car to sell in Japan, you've got to know mathematics and estimation in order to do that.

MR. MacNeil: Are any employers actually doing that already?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Oh, I think most employers are having to invite, they're having to find out what their employees know. For example, if I'm a chief executive officer of an oil company, and I'm having to live under the criminal penalties of the environmental laws of this country, I want to make darned sure that anyone I hire to deal with oil spills knows something about what they're doing, so many employers are, are doing that. Universities are increasingly requiring students to show what they know when they re-apply for admission. And we need to create even higher standards with our colleges and universities. That really helps all students when we do that.

MR. MacNeil: How directly is the future of the American standard of living tied to this business of reforming, revitalizing, whatever the word is, the American public education system?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Well, the best example -- the best way to answer that is to give an example. The Saturn automobile plants in my home state in Tennessee, they're doing pretty well today while General Motors is having problems. They're making cars to sell in Japan. You want a job there, you have to know math, science, estimation. You have to be able to speak and communicate well in English or the UAW workers don't want you on their team. In other words, you've got to know more and be able to do more in order to keep a job today, and it's absolutely tied to the picture of America that we want for our country by the year 2000.

MR. MacNeil: Do you leave office convinced that the American public at large -- you referred a moment ago to people outside education -- really gets that, that sees it in those stark terms?

SEC. ALEXANDER: No, I don't think so. Still our biggest problem is people say, well, the nation is at risk, we see that on television, but I am okay. People think that what they learned in seventh grade is enough for their kids. But if they go open their seventh grader's math textbook, most parents today couldn't help the child with math because children today need to learn much more. So we have many obstacles outside the classroom, just as many there as we do inside.

MR. MacNeil: So you would -- I don't know whether you're familiar -- had a chance to read yet -- there's a survey just published by Science Magazine that shows that American students in math are lagging as far behind Japanese and Taiwan's -- Taiwanese students as they were in 1980, and many of the same students were included in the survey, but they make another point, that the achievement gap, they say, won't diminish without a change in American attitudes to education. Do you agree with that? Is there still an attitude problem?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Well, I absolutely do. I mean, all we've been trying to do, the President working with the governors on education, is fundamentally to change our attitudes about education. That's why we have new goals. That's why we have 2700 communities working every month on those goals. That's why we want to create break-the-mold schools, because if communities start from scratch to create a school that really works today, they'll change their own minds. I mean, they'll want schools that are open literally all the time, that teach higher standards, that use new technology, that don't look anything like the schools that our grandfathers and that we attended. We have a big problem in causing the community at large to understand the dimensions of, of change. We want, we need much more change in our schools than most people are comfortable with, not just the unions, people outside of the classroom as well.

MR. MacNeil: So this, this study, you would agree with this quote, "American parents appeared to be no more likely in 1990 and '92 than they were in 1980 to believe there's an urgent need for educational reform." Is that true that after all that's been said and the education summit that President Bush had a few years ago and everything else? It's hard to believe that it doesn't get through.

SEC. ALEXANDER: I would say '92 I think they know a little more. The truth is the '80s were a disappointment. We learned a lot; we talked a lot; we tried a lot of things; and we seemed too timid. But now things are beginning to change. I mean, there are Portland, Michigan, examples popping up all over the place where, where new standards are producing better results. A wonderfully courageous superintendent in Baltimore, Walter Amphree, is using the private sector to create totally different kinds of schools. Miami is rebuilding after the hurricane to create 60 of the best schools in the world, elementary schools and hospitals, schools that open at 5 in the morning and close at 8 at night, schools that involve the parents, that get into the lives of families, and more and more families are getting choices of schools so, so we are beginning to see these changes, but it's like 100,000 Desert Storms, not just one. And it takes a while.

MR. MacNeil: You worked with Bill Clinton when you were governor and you also worked, I guess, with Richard Reilly, his choice to succeed you. What hopes do you have -- how would you rate their chances of being able to carry this forward with the kind of Congress they're going to have and everything else?

SEC. ALEXANDER: Well, they really have a wonderful opportunity. You know, I was -- Bill Clinton and Dick Reilly and I all were elected governor the same day in 1978, and we served together in adjacent states for eight years. We worked on the same problems all through that time. Our states were trying to catch up, and we saw how education was the underpinning of all that. They know what needs to be done because they've been working on it. They now have a Congress of their own party, and my hope would be that they would continue this partnership that the President and the governors have created, which is very bipartisan, America 2000, Nebraska 2000, San Antonio 2000, and that they would get out ahead of their constituents, the people who elected them, and really break up the system, change it radically, come from within that system, and don't just when the union says, don't give parent choices of schools, don't create break-the-mold schools, don't let the private sector in and say, no, we've got to do that, because all children need that kind of change. They can do that. They're able, competent people, good human beings, and they have a wonderful opportunity, and they'll enjoy it. I've enjoyed every minute of this.

MR. MacNeil: Well, Lamar Alexander, thank you for joining us.

SEC. ALEXANDER: Thank you. ESSAY - BLACK WATCH

MR. LEHRER: We close tonight with an essay. This fall, Jim Fisher of the Kansas City Star, met a newspaper publisher with a mission.

JIM FISHER: Late fall in rural Missouri, cold sunlight slanting across fallow fields, old tile silos, plastic-wrapped hay bales, storage bins filled with the fall corn harvest. Cattle feeding on the leftover stubble, rural America, the Middle West, the heartland, and not far away in the towns, ordinary folks, plain folks, white folks. Black folks? Oh, they're here in Booneville and Fayette and Macon, and other towns off the big, impersonal interstate that cleaves through this state. How many in this farm country, or at least to a stranger, black folks seem an anomaly? Try fifteen thousand. Not all of that many, but here all the same, living mostly in enclaves. Folks who survived, men, women and children, who came to the mid-sized Missouri towns, after their little hard scrabble farms proved too small, after the railroads stopped hiring porters, after the local mule traders went out of business with the coming of the tractors, and who for the longest time have been all but invisible, but not to this woman, meet Rose Nolen, veteran of the 1960s civil rights movements, mother, voracious reader, student of history, and columnist for the Columbia, Missouri Daily Tribune, and would-be newspaper mogul. Sound impossible? Where would Rose, tied to a salary, get the big bucks to buy a newspaper, acquire a printing plant, or hire compositors? No problem. The answer is inside the tiny Central Missouri news offices. Not surprisingly, there are computers there, ones that owner Mary Vincent now and then rents to Rose. And not surprisingly, that's how Rose, using what's called desktop publishing, is putting out "Mid Missouri Black Watch," a new community Herald for black folks in this part of Missouri, circulation several hundred and growing. It's also a response to what Rose, who absolutely nobody would ever call conservative, sees as media bias.

ROSE NOLEN, Journalist: I was researching one particular newspaper, and out of thirty-five issues, I only saw five stories about African-Americans that did not concern crime, or other negative news such as violence, and so that was, I found that to be very disturbing because there are so many good things going on and positive things going on in the African-American community.

MR. FISHER: So Rose set out to present something more positive, something that filled the news vacuum left in the old tradition of black family gatherings, some that went back to the days of slavery began to fade.

ROSE NOLEN: We were great ones for having things like basket dinners. These were church suppers where people would come from all around and virtually every town had a traditional Sunday out of the year when people pile in their cars and everybody would be saying, well, what's the news in Fayette, what's the news in Bownston? And that was our newspaper, and as I think about it now, it's just about what newspaper is today, except that it wasn't written down. We just passed it along by word of mouth.

MR. FISHER: For Rose, re-establishing that communication hasn't been easy. Integration, such as it is, has fragmented many black institutions, schools, social clubs, black community centers. Take this town, Columbia, Missouri, about the only place that blacks get together outside their churches is the T&H Restaurant. Missouri has lots of African-Americans. Who's to say that other editions of "Black Watch" won't succeed around Ft.Leonard Wood, Missouri, in the Missouri boot heel, down around Joplin and Springfield? For an aspiring mogul, that isn't so far fetched.

ROSE NOLEN: I've been around the newspaper business long enough, and I have a good feel for how news is managed, and the majority press that I do not see eye to eye in terms of what constitutes good news judgment, and so somebody told me that the only way to have a free press is to buy one, and so I took it for what it's worth, and that's one of the reasons why I decided to start "Black Watch." Now I have a free press.

MR. FISHER: I'm Jim Fisher. RECAP

MR. MacNeil: Again, the main stories of this Monday, some U.S. forces will begin withdrawing from Somalia later this month but Defense Sec. Dick Cheney said most will stay because the situation is too dangerous to hand over to U.N. peacekeepers. International mediators offered a new peace plan for Bosnia at a conference in Geneva. The talks have recessed until Sunday. Good night, Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Good night, Robin. We'll see you tomorrow night with an interview with outgoing CIA Director Robert Gates, among other things. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.