Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: The House Recruits a General; Administrator's Mission: Clean Up After Bank,
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 04:44:31 EST
Message-ID: <43.1992Nov19.044432@AmeriCast.com>

The House Recruits a General; Administrator's Mission: Clean Up
After Bank, Postal Scandals<By Kenneth J. Cooper=Washington Post
Staff Writer=

A general is coming to clean up the House.

By bipartisan agreement, retired Army Lt.  Gen. Leonard P.
Wishart III takes command in the next Congress of the nonlegisla-
tive services that in the past year tarnished the House's reputa-
tion - its 11 restaurants, postal operations and the payroll
functions of the defunct House Bank.

Members authorized the hiring of the first professional House ad-
ministrator in April amid an uproar over House Bank overdrafts,
and House leaders recruited Wishart after a six-month national
search conducted with help from an executive personnel firm based
here, Korn/Ferry International Inc.

Wishart, 58, retired from the Army last fall after a 34-year
career that included stints as a combat officer in Vietnam, a
staff officer at the Pentagon and a top commander of two posts in
Kansas, Forts Leavenworth and Riley. When he assumed his first
command - at Fort Leavenworth in 1983 - Wishart succeeded Colin
L. Powell, who had left for Washington to begin his rise to
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Rep. Jim Slattery (D-Kan.) met Wishart in Kansas several years
ago and touted him for the House post.

"He's a first-class professional, a first-class soldier. I think
he'll be appreciated and admired on both sides of the aisle,"
Slattery said.  Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), Majority
Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Minority Leader Robert H.
Michel (R-Ill.) said they hired Wishart because of his "progres-
sive leadership and management experience." A spokeswoman for
Michel said the GOP leader also favored the retired general as an
"outsider" on Capitol Hill.

Wishart said he became interested in the job when the media first
reported on the House's plans to hire a professional administra-
tor.  Since retiring, he has worked as a business consultant for
Burdeshaw Associates Ltd. in Bethesda.

"My wife and I were sitting at the table in the spring, when all
this broke," said Wishart, a resident of Burke, Va. "I said,

At a time when voters' esteem for Congress has fallen, Wishart
described his new post as a patriotic way to help the House carry
out its legislative duties without worring about housekeeping
matters involving the operation of several restaurants and
cafeterias.

"I believe in our Congress," he said.  Wishart's experience in a
military service known for its standard procedures contrasts with
a House where customs, favors and whims have governed nonlegisla-
tive affairs.

A 1957 West Point graduate and holder of a master's degree in nu-
clear physics from the University of Virginia, Wishart joins a
new breed of professional managers in replacing patronage employ-
ees who worked their way up from low-skilled House jobs.

The acting sergeant-at-arms, Werner W. Brandt, received a history
degree from Hamilton College in New York and was a Foreign Ser-
vice officer for a decade. Michael J. Shinay, the acting postmas-
ter, spent two decades as a U.S. Postal Service executive and re-
ceived an MBA at the University of Vermont. House Clerk Donnald
K. Anderson has a traditional House background, but his office is
regarded as professionally managed.

During the Ford administration, Wishart served as a senior mili-
tary aide to two secretaries of the Army, who are civilian polit-
ical appointees.  One was Howard H. "Bo" Callway, now chairman of
the Colorado Republican Party and a contender to chair the na-
tional party. The other was Martin R. Hoffmann, a former GOP
House aide and now vice president of Digital Equipment Corp.

"I didn't serve a particular personality. I worked for the of-
fice," Wishart said.  "I have no political affiliation. I vote,
and that's it. I'm not registered in any party, and I call myself
an independent."

His last jobs commanding "military communities" with large budg-
ets and staffs, Wishart said, prepared him for the House post. He
will oversee member and staff payrolls, restaurants, internal
mail, barber and beauty shops, and office supplies, among other
functions. In addition, he is to implement personnel policies
that are supposed to end the influence of patronage in the jobs
under his purview.  Next week, Wishart is to meet with Rep. Char-
lie Rose (D-N.C.), chairman of the Committee on House Administra-
tion, which will oversee the new director of nonlegislative af-
fairs. Wishart's hiring will lighten the committee's burden: It
has operated House restaurants since a private contractor left
last year.<02:33 11-19C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)