20 0 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALSUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020WASHINGTON — A conserva-
tive Republican House member
profanely accosts a Democratic
congresswoman as she strides
up the Capitol steps to do her job
during multiple
national calamities.
With expanded
jobless benefits
supporting tens of
millions of fearful
Americans about
to expire and a pandemic raging,
Senate Republicans and the
Trump White House cannot
agree among themselves about
how to respond, let alone begin
to bargain with Democrats.
In a private party session,
archconservative Republicans
ambush their top female leader
and demand her ouster over
political and policy differences.
And that’s just the past few
days.
By nearly any measure, Con-
gress is a toxic mess seemingly
incapable of rising to the occa-
sion even at a time of existential
threats. No one knows that bet-
ter than those who, until recently,
served there.
“Congress has largely become
a dysfunctional institution unable
to meet the critical needs of our
country,” says a new report,
“Congress at a Crossroads,”
produced by the Association of
Former Members of Congress.
Scheduled to be issued publicly
this coming week, it is a damning
indictment of the steady deterio-
ration of a congressional culture
that today rewards power over
progress and conflict over con-
sensus.
And it warns that, while recent
moves to allow Congress to func-
tion safely from a distance dur-
ing the pandemic may be neces-
sary, they could make things
worse.
Based on 40 hours of inter-
views with 30 House members
and a senator who left Congress
after the 2018 elections after
serving a combined 275 years,
the report offers some hope,
asserting that most lawmakers
arrive in Washington yearning to
be constructive.
But overall, it paints a grim
portrait of an institution that has
ceased to work as it should. A
course correction may be more
critical now than ever before, the
report says, as the nation faces
“outsize challenges” that place
congressional shortcomings in
stark relief.
“The pandemic alone is a call
to our elected officials for the
type of leadership and vision we
expect at a moment of crisis,”
says the report, which grew out
of interviews conducted by Leon-
ard Steinhorn, a professor of
communication at American
University, and Mark Sobol, an
author and expert on organiza-
tional development and execu-
tive leadership. “But we are also
facing another reckoning, one
over our nation’s original sin and
the racial inequities that have
beset our country since its found-
ing.”
The study ticks through famil-
iar themes when it comes to
assessing the sorry state of Con-
gress: the lack of any real
across-the-aisle relationships, a
schedule that limits opportuni-
ties for interaction, too much
power concentrated in leader-
ship, constant fund-raising de-
mands, discouragement of bi-
partisanship, the negative influ-
ence of round-the-clock media,
the fact that the most important
election for lawmakers is often
their primary, and the shutting
out of minority-party voices.
It also warns that the shifts
toward a more virtual Congress
as a result of the pandemic, such
as a new system of proxy voting
in the House that allows lawmak-
ers to cast their votes without
traveling to Washington, could
exacerbate the existing prob-
lems. If the idea of a remote
Congress takes hold, the report
suggests, it would be a serious
setback to efforts to enhance
bipartisan interaction.
“Because of the pandemic,
Congress was forced to conduct
much of its business virtually,
and we certainly understand
why,” the report said. “But as
much as that may have been a
necessity, it should not be inter-
preted as a virtue.”
The document says Congress
needs “more and not less in-
person interaction among mem-
bers of Congress. They need to
learn more about each other’s
districts, hold civil conversations
aimed at finding common
ground, build relationships of
trust that can lead understand-
ing and solutions.”
In a week when Representa-
tive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
Democrat of New York, was
verbally assaulted without prov-
ocation by Representative Ted
Yoho, Republican of Florida, and
fellow Republicans ganged up onRepresentative Liz Cheney, Re-
publican of Wyoming, in a hostile
confrontation, the call for civility
rang especially true. At its core,
the report said that the most
important thing lawmakers and
leaders of both parties could do
was to find ways to promote
more communication and under-
standing across the aisle.
It is a longstanding complaint
about Congress that with time
spent in Washington now
deemed a negative, lawmakers
just do not interact socially, and
consequently find it much easier
to dismiss the other side. The
disconnect has been exacerbated
in recent years as the polariza-
tion intensified and Republicans
and Democrats now have little
contact with one another. The
authors say that situation must
change if there is any chance for
Congress to become more func-
tional.
“Those relationships are the
secret sauce for getting things
done, understanding each other
and building bridges across
geography and ideology,” said
Mr. Steinhorn.
One lawmaker who took part
in the study, former Representa-
tive Michael Capuano, Democrat
of Massachusetts, said he had
been struck by the concerted
effort by leaders of both parties
to keep the sides separated from
the start, intentionally discourag-
ing any cross-party bonding.
“I didn’t come into Congress as
a novice, and the concept of
partisanship was not new to me,”
said Mr. Capuano, who was first
elected in 1998. “But the concept
of not even talking to the other
side was new to me. All day long
there was an intention to split
you up. There was not one iota of
an attempt to bring us together.”
And with the most serious
challenge to a sitting lawmaker
coming chiefly from a primary
these days, the incentive to find
common ground is vastly re-
duced, inhibiting the search for
compromise, which has become
a dirty word politically speaking.
“The political reward too often
is to tack hard to the base, not to
seek consensus,” said former
Representative Charlie Dent, a
centrist Republican from Penn-sylvania who saw his ranks
shrink considerably during his 14
years in the House. “Until that
reward is there, I don’t see things
changing. Now if you are in the
middle of the road, it is likely you
are going to get hit.”
The report notes that even the
most partisan members of Con-
gress typically arrive with good
intentions and a desire to be
productive for their communi-
ties. But they are quickly sub-
sumed into a system where
exposure goes to those most
willing to spar.
Recognizing the need for more
communication, the report offers
multiple recommendations,
including encouraging lawmak-
ers to travel as part of congres-
sional delegations, as well as for
field hearings, visits to districts
of lawmakers from the other
party and bipartisan retreats. It
also recommended more social
functions and even scheduled
weekend sessions of Congress to
give lawmakers more time to
interact.
“There is going to be no substi-
tute for connecting with people,
building relationships and stay-
ing connected,” said Mr. Sobol.
“Forging relationships in action
is what we are advocating.”
Given the media’s role in mod-
ern politics, the study even
raises the prospect of a press
operation run jointly by the
parties to highlight biparti-
sanship and promote efforts
across the aisle — an idea that
would seem highly unlikely to
anyone spending significant time
on Capitol Hill these days.
The authors and the lawmak-
ers they interviewed acknowl-
edged that they did not have the
answers or a magic wand to
make the polarization that pro-
motes gridlock and conflict dis-
appear.
“This condition that we find
ourselves in has been decades in
the making,” said Mr. Sobol.
“There is no quick fix.”
Yet the authors and the former
lawmakers who informed them
said the time to make institu-
tional changes is now. Otherwise,
they warn, Congress risks con-
tinuing the downward spiral that
is depleting the trust of the pub-
lic and the capability to serve the
nation at a time when a function-
ing legislature is vital.CARL
HULSE
ON
WASHINGTONCongress Has Become
A Festering Mess.
Can It Be Saved?
By CARL HULSEA body lacking any
real across-the-aisle
relationships.
An openly misogynistic lawyer
who is believed to have killed the
son of a female federal judge in
New Jersey had a list of more than
a dozen other possible targets, in-
cluding three other judges and
two doctors, three people with
knowledge of the matter said.
The list was found on Monday
inside a rented car on a rural road
in the Catskills in New York,
where the lawyer, Roy Den Hol-
lander, 72, had killed himself.
Hours earlier, law enforcement
officials believe, Mr. Den Holland-
er walked up to a house belonging
to Judge Esther Salas on a subur-
ban street in North Brunswick,
N.J., and fatally shot her 20-year-
old son when he answered the
door. He also critically wounded
her husband. The judge escaped
unharmed.
Investigators have now con-
cluded that Mr. Den Hollander
traveled eight days earlier by
train to California to murder Marc
Angelucci, 52, a men’s rights law-
yer whom he considered a profes-
sional rival. Mr. Angelucci was
also shot on his doorstep.
Judge Salas and Mr. Angelucci
were included on the list found in
the rental car, along with at least
10 other people with whom Mr.
Den Hollander apparently had
scores to settle, including three ju-
rists: New York State’s chief
judge, another federal judge in
New Jersey, and a state judge in
Manhattan who, like Judge Salas,
had presided over a case he
brought.
Also on the list were two oncolo-
gists in Manhattan, at least one of
whom had treated Mr. Den Hol-
lander, two of the people said.
While his precise motive for
making the list remains unclear,Mr. Den Hollander had received a
terminal cancer diagnosis, and
F.B.I. agents earlier this week
were exploring whether that news
set him off on a mission of revenge
against those he believed were his
enemies.
A spokeswoman for the F.B.I.’s
Newark office, which is investi-
gating the shootings with the U. S.
attorney’s office in New Jersey,
declined to comment on the list.
The United States attorney’s of-
fice did not respond to a call seek-
ing comment.
This week, officials acknowl-
edged that information about two
New York state judges and Judge
Salas was discovered in the rental
car, and WNBC reported that in-
vestigators also found material
about Mr. Angelucci and a doctor
who treated Mr. Den Hollander.
But the existence of a list with
more than a dozen names, includ-
ing those of a second doctor and a
second federal judge, has not been
reported before.
Federal investigators believe
Mr. Den Hollander, who had raged
against women in thousands of
pages of vituperative, online
screeds, had dressed as a delivery
man in the attacks.
An empty FedEx package ad-
dressed to Judge Salas was also
found in his rental car after Mr.
Den Hollander’s apparent suicide,
but a search of the car and his
home failed to turn up a uniform,
one of the people with knowledge
of the matter said.
The F.B.I. earlier this week noti-
fied New York State’s chief judge,
Janet M. DiFiore, that Mr. Den
Hollander had her name and
photo in his car, according to a
spokesman for the New York
court system, who said the other
New York judge was also notified.
The two oncologists on the list
also had been notified, a person
with knowledge of the matter said.
On Friday, the sheriff in San
Bernardino County, Calif., where
Mr. Angelucci was fatally shot,
said detectives investigating the
July 11 killing had determined that
it had been committed by Mr. Den
Hollander. (Previously, the F.B.I.
had described him only as a sus-
pect, and California authorities
had said little.)
Mr. Angelucci was the vice pres-
ident of the National Coalition for
Men, a men’s rights group that
had rejected Mr. Den Hollander.
Mr. Den Hollander traveled to
California by train, arriving on
July 7. He then rented a car, drove
it to Mr. Angelucci’s home and
shot him, the sheriff’s office said.
“After the murder, Den Hollander
boarded a train at Union Station in
Los Angeles and left California,”
the sheriff said in a statement.Officials released two pictures
from security camera footage that
they said showed Mr. Den Hol-
lander in the Los Angeles and San
Bernardino train stations.
The pictures show him clad in a
dark sports jacket, slacks and a
collared shirt, wearing a mask. In
one, he is pulling a rolling suitcase
and has a briefcase slung over his
shoulder. In the other, he is walk-
ing toward his luggage carrying a
newspaper and a drink in a paper
cup, with what appears to be a
snack bar in the background.
The gun found near Mr. Den
Hollander’s body on Monday was
a .380-caliber Walther semiauto-
matic pistol, the same caliber
weapon that was used in the
killing of Mr. Angelucci and the
shooting that left Judge Salas’s
son dead and her husband
wounded, law enforcement offi-
cials have said.
The judge was in the basement
at the time of the shooting.
The authorities have conducted
tests on the pistol to determine if it
is the gun that was used in the two
killings, several officials have
said, but the results have not been
made public.
Mr. Den Hol-
lander de-
scribed himself
as an anti-femi-
nist and had
made a career
out of filing
suits, some
frivolous, alleg-
ing discrimina-
tion against
men. He also
published blog posts in 2006 argu-
ing women were inferior to men
and advocating physical violence
against them.
He sued Manhattan nightclubs
for offering ladies’ night discounts
and sued the federal government
over a law that protects women
from violence. He also filed a suit
claiming that Columbia Universi-
ty’s women’s studies program was
unfair to men.
Mr. Den Hollander’s grievances
against Judge Salas and Mr. An-
gelucci apparently stemmed from
the same case. In 2015, he filed a
lawsuit in federal court in Newark
challenging the male-only mili-
tary draft, and the case was as-
signed to Judge Salas. Mr. An-
gelucci had filed a similar suit in
another jurisdiction two years
earlier.
Late last year, a federal court
ruled in Mr. Angelucci’s favor. The
case is now on appeal.
In his online writings, a bitter
Mr. Den Hollander, well aware
that Mr. Angelucci prevailed in his
lawsuit, blamed Judge Salas for
moving too slowly with his case,
insulting her and claiming that
she was a beneficiary of affirma-
tive action.Suspect in Killing of Judge’s Son Had List of Possible Targets
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUMRoy
Den HollanderNicole Hong contributed report-
ing.SEATTLE — After weeks of es-
calating confrontations between
protesters and federal authorities
in Portland, Ore., a crowd of about
2,000 people mobilized in Seattle
on Saturday, marching through
the streets and clashing with the
police.
Three police officers were in-
jured, including one who was hos-
pitalized with a leg injury caused
by an explosive, and 16 protesters
were arrested as of early evening,
the police said.
Carrying signs such as “Feds
Go Home” and shouting chants of
“No justice, no peace,” the pro-
testers stopped at the site of a fu-
ture youth detention center and lit
buildings there on fire. Some
smashed windows of nearby busi-
nesses.
The police confronted the crowd
in the Capitol Hill neighborhood,
deploying flash grenades and pep-
per spray before they began tak-
ing people into custody.
Bipasha Mukherjee, 52, of Kirk-
land, Wash., said she has been
protesting on the streets since
May and said it was worrisome to
her to see such aggressive tactics
by the police.
“This is not the country I immi-
grated to,” said Ms. Mukherjee,
who arrived from India more than
30 years ago. “It feels like we are
rapidly becoming a fascist state
and a police state.”
Michaud Savage of Seattle said
the protests were aimed at both lo-
cal authorities and the deploy-
ment of federal officers who have
waged a crackdown against a
long-running protest in Portland.
Mr. Savage said the law enforce-
ment tactics in Portland, which
have included the use of tear gas
and crowd-control munitions,were dangerous and inappropri-
ate.
“It’s a very hard slide in an ex-
tremely violent direction,” Mr.
Savage said as he washed his eyes
of pepper spray and nursed a
wound on his arm from a flash
grenade.
The death of George Floyd in
police custody in Minneapolis in
May ignited mass protests that
drew millions to the streets in doz-
ens of cities, but those demonstra-
tions have waned in most cities.
Seattle and Portland, however,
have seen extended demonstra-
tions. Seattle protesters at one
point laid claim to several blocks
of the Capitol Hill neighborhood
and declared an autonomous
zone. After a series of shootings
there led the police to clear the
area, protests had subsided.
But Portland has continued pro-
testing, with some of the heaviestprotests around federal buildings
in the city. After President Trump
issued an executive order to pro-
tect statues and federal property,
the Department of Homeland Se-
curity deployed tactical teams to
the city, beginning a series of
clashes that have resulted in in-
jured protesters, inspector gen-
eral investigations and calls from
local leaders for federal agents to
leave.
Protest crowds in that city have
swelled into the thousands, and
demonstrations there were con-
tinuing. In recent days, federal of-
ficials deployed a tactical team to
Seattle, and protesters cited that
development as one reason for
Saturday’s demonstrations.
While the Portland protests
have centered in downtown, the
demonstrations on Saturday
roamed areas east of the down-
town core, where the city’s federal
courthouse is.Protesters in Seattle lit fires at a construction site near a juvenile detention center on Saturday after a tactical team was sent to the city.
TED S. WARREN/ASSOCIATED PRESSFire and Confrontations as Thousands March in Seattle
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