1984 Year in Review

Bonnie Urbay: A year of triumph and tragedy on Capitol Hill: triumph for crime-control advocates who passed a mammoth crime-reform package; triumph, too, for opponents of the MX missile and aid to the covert U.S. agents helping Nicaraguan rebels trying to overthrow the Sandinista Government. They managed to put off more funding for both of those projects until next year. But tragedy for supporters of the 1984 Civil Rights Act: the Bill was turned down by the Senate. It would have bolstered enforcement of sex-discrimination violations.

National Women's Political Caucus Director Kathy Wilson was outraged …

Director Kathy Wilson: "These men are cowards. They're scared of justice. They're scared of sharing power."

Bonnie Urbay: Tragedy, too, for Congressman George Hansen of Idaho: the House reprimanded him for failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of assets and loans …

Representative George Hansen: "Now, I'm no different than a lot of the rest of you -- all I am is the precedent for some of you -- and if I were you, I'd be very, very careful about how you vote today.

"We have a colleague that’s taken a lot of abuse in the press the last few days. She's now Vice-Presidential designate for or candidate for the other Party."

Bonnie Urbay: Hansen lost his reelection bid.

Capitol Hill lost some of its favorite figures: former Senator George Aiken from Vermont, a 34-year veteran most famous for coming up with the solution to the Vietnam War problem, telling President Lyndon Johnson to declare victory and get out; and Carl Perkins, a 28-year House veteran and Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee.

Bonnie Urbay, Capitol Hill.

(Music.)