By casting Washington as the nation's scourge, ultimately successful candidates start off at a disadvantage in a system which they helped to incriminate. They need to repair an image that they've so fervently helped tarnish.

Somehow I doubt that resources on the scale used to vilify Washington can be used to vindicate it.

There will always be representatives and senators willing to further undercut the public's perception of Washington. Newt Gingrich, the number-two House Republican, has tried for years to strike down a Democratic House. As long as someone sees a benefit in doing so, the law of politics--myopic as it is--will provide an actor to play the role.

The solution to a steadily-deteriorating respect for Congress is easy to find. Instead of outright rejecting the body which gives them life, candidates need to send messages that they are ready and willing to change Congress for the better.

Unfortunately, as cliched as this notion sounds, it faces serious opposition. Strategists recognize that in an environment of severe public disenchantment with Congress, most challengers' dominant strategies are to vilify Washington's system and all those associated with it. Calls for reform from both incumbents and challengers, in comparison, sound weak and identify the candidate too much with legitimizing an unpopular and undesirable institution.

Candidates campaigning on issues like reducing congressional perks, staff size and term limits try to tap into a weak public desire for reform which is overshadowed by a stronger desire for venting anger. Measures like these merely try to rein in a system widely advertised as out of control, without addressing the reasons why the system itself evolved in that particular way.

Difficult as taking the high road may be, however candidates would do well to watch what they say today, because tomorrow their words could come back to haunt them. For example, Bill Frist, a physician who is seeking to displace Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), may not be using this slogan in a few years, if he wins his seat: "Bill Frist supports term limits to stop career politicians, and the death penalty to stop career criminals."

This will be remembered as the year that Capitol Hill became a bastion of evil, and experienced politicians became as morally objectionable as mass murderers. When one considers that these were selling points for voters, one can't help but wonder at the progress we've made in government.

Patrick S. Chung '96 is a frequent contributor to the Opinion page.