Congress Shows Its Impatience

The contras have always had to fight a war on two fronts: at home, against the Soviet-supplied guns of the Sandinistas, and in Washington, against the doubts and fears of U.S. legislators. To some extent they have been caught in a Catch-22. Their failure to win military victories and popular support in Nicaragua has resulted in fitful and inconsistent support from Congress. That has made it difficult for the contras to do more than irritate the Sandinistas. Now, just as the contras seem ready to galvanize their military efforts with a new supply of direct U.S. aid, they find themselves caught in the undertow of Iranscam, with their support in Washington again ebbing away.

Last week the House voted, 230 to 196, to place a six-month moratorium on aid to the contras, until there is a full accounting by the Administration of money, both public and private, generated on behalf of the rebels, including $27 million in humanitarian aid sent in 1985. The measure, which would withhold the $40 million remaining of the $100 million appropriated last year, was an artful ploy linking opposition to the contras with congressional disgust over the Tower commission's revelations about the Administration's inept and probably illegal efforts on behalf of the contras. "Before we send another dime to the contras," said the bill's chief sponsor, Democrat David Bonior of Michigan, "we must know where the previous funds have gone."

The House vote was largely symbolic. Democratic leaders concede that even if the Senate goes along with the plan, there are not enough votes in either chamber to override the inevitable presidential veto. But the vote signals that Congress is in no mood to approve an additional $105 million in aid, which the Administration is planning to request in the fall. Says House Speaker Jim Wright: "This exercise is very useful in awakening the Administration to the reality that it has to begin to focus on other ways to serve our interests in Central America."

Support for the House bill was spurred by the resignation of Arturo Cruz from the triumvirate that heads the United Nicaraguan Opposition, the contras' political arm. Cruz, a onetime Sandinista who has been a consistent advocate of democratic reforms within the rebel movement, never had much power, but his presence was a symbol that the contras were more than just a collection of embittered former supporters of deposed Dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Cruz's absence creates greater doubts about the caliber of the contra leadership. Elliott Abrams, the State Department's point man on the contra issue, disagrees. "The reform process," he argues, "will go on with or without Arturo Cruz."

Future funding for the contras is likely to depend on their doing something they have never yet managed to do: pose a genuine threat to the Sandinistas, showing once and for all that they are not merely a band on the run. The Administration insists it is optimistic. "We think there are things that can happen between now and the summertime that would be a good influence on receiving the money in September," said White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. Noted Abrams: "By September there will be in excess of 15,000 men inside Nicaragua fighting hard, and I don't think it's going to be so easy for the Democrats to say, 'Let's abandon them.' "