Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1100404
Members of Congress oen appear self-serving as they pursue their political careers and represent interests and reflect values that are controversial." 24 Polls over the years have consistently viewed the Congress negatively, dipping as low as 10 percent approval. Sourness about politics has not been confined, of course, to just the average citizen. In the political science literature, negative views of the body have been chron- icled regularly among academics, within the national news media, and certainly among campaign hopefuls– the latter ever ready to boost their own reputations at the expense of our own crass political institutions by "running against Washington." Individual congressmen are forever disassociating themselves from the Con- gress itself. e tradition is long-lived. In the archetype of con- gressional films, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the pattern is set with a once-venerated Sen. Paine (Claude Rains) reduced to the role of a party hack and subject to the whims of a coarse political boss (fig. 11). In the 1947 farce e Senator Was Indiscreet (1947), the lead is the bumbling Sen. Ashton (William Powell) who undertakes a run for the presidency with no qualifica- tions for the office. In Born Yesterday (1950), a toady- ing congressman seeks largesse from a barely literate trash magnate. In Elia Kazan's biting drama A Face in the Crowd (1957), a cowed senator looks to be made media-savvy by a ruthless, populist hick, played malev- olently by Andy Griffith. e Manchurian Candidate (1962) offers one of the more obtuse and odious legislators on film, modeled on Sen. Joseph McCarthy at his coarsest. In the same year Advise and Consent presents a parade of Senate types, including Sen. Van Ackerman (George Grizzard), a venomous character who turns to blackmail to get a favored cabinet nominee approved (fig. 12). e God- father, Part II (1974) features a slimy Nevada senator who has been bought by the Corleone family to help establish their gaming industry in the state. e list could go on—and does. More recent exam- Fig. 11. Sen. Joseph Paine (Claude Raines, le) confronts Sen. Jeff Smith (Jimmy Stewart) on the Senate floor in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the most iconic Washington movie ever made. THE CAPITOL DOME 13