Eye on Washington

We can tell you how the Democrat­ ic leadership's surrender on the budget issue is affecting the state party organizations. We were pres­ ent at an attempted dinner-meeting of the Maryland Democratic Cen­ tral Committee at the Baltimore Holiday Inn. This was the evening after the House Democrats bolted en masse to the Gramm-Lotta com­ promise. Although the party had planned to seat 150 or more, only 80 delegates and observers attend­ ed. The moderate Montgomery County delegation chose to eat at a restaurant in isolation from the rest of the party. After dinner ended at 7:30, the party stalwarts took on the major issue confronting them: their in­ ability to raise the 40 percent at­ tendance required for a quorum. This meeting was the third at­ tempt to hold a legally recognizable central committee meeting, and the party had gone all out. The meeting was widely adver­ tised, dinner was served with eclairs for dessert (dessert being a very important consideration in the state party hierarchy), a seven-foot Uni­ versity of Maryland basketball ce­ lebrity was on hand; former Ken­ nedy activist Karen Kuker-Kiehl, one of the "coming young Demo­ crats," was there in a see-through blouse and a high slit skirt; but still, no quorum could be raised. At 9:00 p.m., an elderly woman was carried in from her sickbed and the Baltimore delegation discov­ ered a few more additional votes without benefit of new bodies en­ tering the meeting room, but there was still no quorum. At this point, a fresh approach was attempted. It was suggested