By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Back in the early 1970s, I split my time between covering politics in San Diego and state government in Sacramento for The San Diego Union.  San Diegan Jim Schmidt served under Gov. Ronald Reagan as an assistant secretary of business and transportation.  Later, he returned to San Diego and rose through the savings and loan industry to become a well-known executive. 

At one point, I covered a meeting in San Diego at which the humorous Schmidt was the featured speaker, and he suddenly pointed to me, telling his audience: "Do you see that reporter back there?  He's the S.O.B. who wrote a story about me and quoted me—ACCURATELY."

I won't be surprised if Congressman Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and members of his Capitol Hill staff  have a similar reaction to the six-part series. "The Hill,"  premiering on the Sundance Channel at 9 p.m. tomorrow night.  However,  if they are tempted to denounce the reporter, even in mock fury, they will have to change the gender reference. 

The producer/ director of the series is Ivy Meeropol, a documentary film maker who toured  festivals around the country two years ago with Heir to an Execution, a personal exploration of the legacy of her grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed over a half century ago following their convictions on charges of espionage.

In six weekly installments, Meeropol follows Wexler and his Chief of Staff Eric Johnson, Communications Director (Press Secretary) Lale Mamaux, Legislative Director Jonathan Katz, and Legislative Assistant Halie Soifer.  At times the pacing and camera work is like that of "The West Wing," but "The Hill"  has none of the issues explication, drama, or story resolution for which the fictional "The West Wing" shall be gratefully remembered.

If the Wexler office had gambled that this series would cause the congressman and his staff to be seen by the public as a smoothly-functioning team, worthy of more important assignments, I'm afraid they will be disappointed.  The first three episodes that I had the opportunity to watch depict the staff as an ambitious, foul-mouthed, highly partisan, emotional, and arrogant group of youngsters whose advice to the congressman, more often than not, seems based more on narrow political considerations than on any aspiration to thoughtfully shape public policy.

This is an office where putting out a press release before 3 p.m. is a crisis.  Why?  Because in the super-competitive atmosphere of the Capitol, where members of Congress want to "make the news," often saying something first substitutes for saying something substantive.

For the most part, Wexler appears in these episodes to be the captive of his frenetic staff, depending on them to brief him on issues, keep his name before the public, and handle constituent matters while he runs from meeting to interview to floor session.

Occasionally, he does insert a little old-fashioned common sense into a discussion, as for example when he advised his staff  that criticizing President Bush for planning to name a Supreme Court nominee would be tantamount to criticizing the man for doing his constitutionally-assigned job.

Wexler is Jewish, and of interest to jewishsightseeing.com readers will be the passing references to the Middle East situation and the concerns of his constituents throughout the series.

In my many years of covering politics, I've come to the conclusion that legislative staff members and campaign staff members essentially are the same kinds of personality  types, regardless of whether they are Republicans or Democrats.  Had Meeropol been granted access to a Republican staff, she would have seen counterparts engaging in the same kind of over-reaching and the same kind of sanctimoniousness that we see culled from many, many hours of filming  the Wexler staff. 

We may never know whether Meeropol ignored scenes that might have reflected more favorably on the staff's commitment to serving broad public interests, in order to show us those in which their motives were more narrowly focused.  Can you imagine inviting someone to your home or work place, to run the camera at all times, and then allowing that person to choose only that footage that she considers to be important or interesting?  How many of us, in unguarded moments, would say things that we too might later regret?

I have a suspicion that Meeropol went into this production knowing that the zealousness of Capitol staffers would be one end product.  According to press materials, she had once worked on "the Hill" herself, thrilling over the fact that, barely out of college, she was able to exert some influence on national policy.

More importantly,  the tragic experience of her grandparents may have influenced what she was looking for. Going into the assignment, she knew, and probably wanted us to understand that the political zealotry that is common among Capitol Hill staffs can be fanned into national hysteria by evil but charismatic figures like the Communist-witch-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy.  From this portrayal, you can be assured that Congressman Wexler is neither evil nor charismatic.