and JASPER REYNOLDS Former U.S. Rep. Lindy Boggs and her daughter, ABC News Washington correspondent Cokie Roberts, were honored as this year's Pappas Fellows by 50 invited students, faculty members and administrators at a 1920 Commons luncheon yesterday. President Sheldon Hackney moderated a lively two hour-long question and answer session after a buffet lunch where members of the University community directed queries at the two members of "the first family of American politics," as Hackney called the Louisiana natives. Hackney -- who has known the two women since his days as Tulane University president -- said Boggs is "the most interesting, powerful and sensitive politician I've ever met." The two women spent the day at the University, giving a lecture at the University Museum and eating dinner at Hackney's home. Boggs was a member of the House of Representatives -- representing the second district of Louisiana -- for 17 years and was the congressional wife of Rep. Hale Boggs for the 23 years before her political debut. She is now a special assistant to the president of Tulane. Hackney called the mother and daughter "extraordinary people." In addition to Roberts' position as a congressional analyst for ABC's various news programs, she is an analyst for National Public Radio. "You'd have to be dead not to know [Cokie Roberts] by now," Hackney said. Members of the president's office said the University was lucky to have such interesting women on campus as Pappas Fellows and to commemorate "20 Years of Women Making a Difference at Penn." Students from the College's departments of international relations, women's studies and political science, the Annenberg School for Communication and the Law School asked Roberts and Boggs questions about the Clinton administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton, affirmative action, race relations and the role of women and the press in politics. In between making jokes that caused the dining room to erupt in laughter, Roberts said the press is "not an interest group in this society which has a great deal of support." Boggs spoke softly about her personal experience in Washington both as a politician and a politician's wife. Secretary Barbara Stevens -- Roberts' college roommate at Wellesley College in the early 1960s -- said that Roberts' "same intelligence, humor and irreverance came through" at the luncheon. She said it is obvious that Boggs and Roberts are kind, generous and "love and have faith in the political system." College senior Liesel Euler said she thought the luncheon was interesting and that the women were knowledgeable and articulate. "I was impressed to hear [Roberts] offer cynical comments," said the women's studies major. "As a woman and a feminist, it was very interesting for me to hear women in power deal with difficult questions." Following the luncheon, Roberts and Boggs each spoke to a larger audience of 200 students, faculty, and community members at the Museum and before answering their questions. Roberts displayed a witty sense of humor as she made several tongue-in-cheek remarks about former presidential candidates Ross Perot and Michael Dukakis and Vice President Al Gore, which produced a steady wave of laughter throughout her speech. "I must say that Ross Perot is back," Roberts said. "I don't know why he buys television time because we put him on [the air] all the time." But Roberts said Perot is no laughing matter in Washington. "People are scared to death of him . . . [and] Clinton to some degree is able to use him to get his programs through Congress as a scare tactic," she said. Roberts said Clinton's greatest advantage when confronting the opposition in Congress is that "he is able to say that two-thirds of the people voted for change [in November]. "The worst epithet that you can have hurled at you in Washington is that you're conducting business as usual," she said. But Roberts cautioned that this tactic could backfire because "every single solitary member of Congress got a greater percentage [of their constituencies' votes] than the President did." Boggs centered her short talk on the idea that Washington will never be free of gridlock. The heated tension that regularly sparks debates between the three branches of government "was planned by the Founding Fathers . . . And despite all the frustration, we have found that this [system] really works" because it keeps government accountable to the people, Boggs said. Audience members particularly praised Roberts for her "candidness" and "objectivity" in stating her opinion. "She was very specific with her comments, but she has the ability to not get lost in detail," said Steve Berman, Engineering assistant dean for external partnerships. College junior Sarah O'Herron said Roberts was "straightforward" in her presentation.
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