Fattah vote record might be sand trap

WASHINGTON - On Chaka Fattah's desk in his congressional office is a signed photograph from President Bill Clinton showing the two men playing golf. "Nice stroke," Clinton has inscribed.

The Philadelphia Democrat and mayoral aspirant didn't start playing golf until he first came to Congress a dozen years ago. Now he is a fervent hacker - tied for 126th with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in Golf Digest's rankings of 200 of the capital's power players.

Fattah, 50, is so dedicated to the game that when he can't get out to play, he may be found whacking golf balls into a net in the House's members-only gym, four floors below his office in the Rayburn House Office Building.

His devotion to his golf game might be considered unremarkable, except that he has missed more votes during his congressional tenure than any other Philadelphia-area representative. And his opponents have noticed.

"Fattah's political history has always been dominated by his recreational activities, including golf, rather than his legislative delivery to the people," said Jerry Mondesire, president of the local NAACP chapter and an adviser to mayoral candidate Dwight Evans.

Fattah said his love of golf was not to blame for missed House votes.

"I don't believe I've ever missed a vote because of golf," he said in an interview. "With this caveat: If I went out with one of the members at 6 a.m. and there was an unexpected vote on approving the journal or something, that could have happened. I wouldn't remember it if I did."

Beginning with the 105th Congress, which opened in 1997, Fattah has missed an average of 9.2 percent of votes cast. The average for all members in that period is about 4.2 percent.

In the interview, Fattah said he often had to decide whether some other meeting or activity was more important than voting.

On March 7, for example, Fattah missed all seven House votes, including on a huge funding package to aid sewage treatment - which passed easily. He said he had committed to speak at 6:30 p.m. in Philadelphia at an African American law enforcement officers' forum and, when House votes were delayed until after 4:30 p.m., he left to drive to Philadelphia.

The office of the clerk of the House said that votes did not begin until 4:35 on Wednesday and concluded after 5:30.

"Whatever judgments I made because I missed votes or hearings, I'm perfectly willing to be accountable for that," Fattah said. "If someone said that I missed a vote because I was playing golf, I can't imagine that to be true."

Fattah said he played golf an average of 25 times per year, mainly in Philadelphia. He said that last year he played about 10 times and has yet to play in 2007. He is not a member of any club, he said, in Philadelphia or Washington.

Fattah said his signature legislative achievement, the GEAR UP program that has contributed more than $2 billion nationally since 1999 to help low-income students in their college aspirations, owes its passage to a game of golf.

In 1997, Fattah was playing a round with Republican members of his committee and asked them to support his bill. When he began to describe it, one GOP member said, "We don't want to know the details; we'll be available," Fattah said.

The bill passed the GOP-controlled committee, with Fattah's golf buddies either abstaining or voting for passage - against the will of their leadership. While he declined to disclose his partners' names, one of Fattah's GOP colleagues confirms the incident.

Fattah said that when he is in Washington he mainly plays at the Andrews Air Force Base course in Maryland, the East Potomac Golf Course, or the Army-Navy Golf Club in Arlington, Va.

When Fattah succeeded Rep. William H. Gray 3d, the veteran lawmaker advised him to build relationships outside the House with members. Gray suggested an afternoon basketball game in the gym.

"I did that a couple of times," Fattah said. "Some members weren't familiar with basketball as a noncontact sport."

A self-described tennis player when elected to Congress in 1994, the former state legislator was quickly converted to golf by a fellow freshman, now-Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.).

"I told him everyone is too damn old to play tennis," Graham said. "You've got to pick a sport where people can ride in carts."

Fattah took Graham's advice and signed up for lessons at Freeway Golf Course in Sicklerville, N.J., generally believed to be the oldest African-American-owned golf course in the nation.

Teaching pro Bill Bishop said Fattah was a quick study.

"I gave him three or four lessons and he was on his way," Bishop said. "I taught him how to hold a club and how to swing it and what to work on to improve. I see even today he's got a real strong right hand, which overpowers the left and can cause some problems."

Bishop said Fattah seemed to have a good temperament for the game.

"He realizes he's not a pro," Bishop said, "and he has friends he plays with, and as long as he stays in the same category with them or beats them, he's satisfied."

One of those friends is George Burrell, the former senior aide to Mayor Street and now CEO of Innovation Philadelphia, who plays four or five times a season with Fattah at Freeway, Cobbs Creek, St. Davids Country Club, or River Crest Golf Club in Oaks, Pa.

"He's, on average, a mid-90s golfer," Burrell said. "He plays honestly, doesn't try to move the ball. He's comfortable with the experience for its own sake."

The Rev. Herbert Lusk 2d, minister, businessman and former Eagles player, is another golf buddy.

"Chaka has sometimes been called elitist, but he would never improve his lie," Lusk said. "I never played with someone who was so adamant about making sure the score he got was a true score."

If Fattah is elected mayor, Burrell said, "I think he will have time to play golf and I think he will play it in its proper perspective. I don't think he will ever shirk his responsibilities to get in a round of golf."

Fattah enjoyed two memorable rounds with Clinton, including one in which it began to rain and Clinton told Fattah: "Look, we're going to finish these 18 holes. I can't get out that often."

The bell announcing votes rang during the interview, but Fattah didn't seem to notice. Suddenly, his eyes swiveled to the screen in his office showing C-SPAN coverage of House proceedings.

"There's a vote on a motion . . . that I'm missing right now," he said as he rose. "I'll be back."

And Fattah was gone.