Adele ferguson

I HAD LUNCH with retiring Congressman Norm Dicks the other day which was a bit unusual since we haven’t exactly been buddies his whole 36 years in office.

No, it wasn’t anything I wrote, although I have mentioned that when you’re talking to Norm he’s usually looking over your shoulder to see if somebody more important is coming along. But I have never questioned his ability and his dedication to his district. He’s smart, he works hard and he is much respected by his constituents and his peers. He has succeeded admirably in bringing home the bacon for the Sixth District and the state.

Since the lunch was his idea, not mine, I was curious to find out why. And why, since he was considered as practically unbeatable he decided not to run for reelection.

I heard, I told him, that you might have been influenced by Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson’s unexpected death at age 70 so he was not able to enjoy any retirement years although like you he was practically wedded to the job. Now you’re 70. Was that it?

Well, he said, during his football playing years he had suffered a spinal injury which of late has worsened and that’s part of it. Also, he said, take my 36 years in office and the eight years I spent before as Sen. Warren Magnuson’s aide and that’s a lot of years. It just seemed like the time.

But you’re too much of an on the go guy, I said, what are you going to do instead? I can be of great value as a consultant, he said. True, by law, I can’t deal with anybody in the House for a year after I retire, but I can deal with the Senate. And I know a lot of senators.

You know a lot of people period, I said, But who takes your place in the Washington delegation as the go to guy for defense? You took over after Jackson’s death, now who?

WHAT’S WRONG with Adam Smith? he said. The congressman is on the House Armed Services Committee and he’s a bright and savvy guy.

Well, OK, I said, and I expect you’ll be doing a lot of fishing.

Norm Dicks is nuts about fishing. Salmon fishing in particular. It’s in his blood. His late grandmother, Hilda Parker, was one of the great fisher people at Campbell River. A 68 pound salmon she caught used to hang on the wall of the Bremerton Sport Shop.

Norm raised a lot of eyebrows when he voted against the Persian Gulf war resolution. With all the defense installations in his district, he was expected to stick with the president. Once the resolution was adopted though, he supported it “enthusiastically.”

Back in 1984 he got on the bad side of state Democratic chair Karen Marchioro when he voted for the MX missile. A resolution, said to be aimed at Dicks, passed at the Democratic state convention that year directing the state party to seek congressional candidates who opposed the missile. Marchioro was rumored to be looking for a Democrat who agreed more with her peacenik ideas.

PARTY LEADERS denied it, but Tacoma Mayor Doug Sutherland, who lived in the 6th, admitted she asked him if he wanted to run for Congress. He said no and laughed it off.

Anyway, when we’d finished lunch, Dicks told me he had been going over some columns I had written about him and found at least three that he credited for helping him get reelected. He laughed uproariously over my writing that many of his constituents thought he was being too tough on Judge Boldt. Music to his ears. You remember him, the judge who gave the Indians half the fish? Norm had copies of the column mailed far and wide to let everybody know he was accused of being too tough on the man likely the most hated at the time in his district.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville. Wa., 98340.)