What's Driving Miss Shelia?

That 1989 race marked Lee's breakthrough. Isle credits Lee's dogged self-promotion for giving her enough name recognition to beat former city controller Leonel Castillo. Besides that, she had the advantage of a huge black turnout, stimulated by the heated congressional race between Hall and Craig Washington, both high-powered black political figures.

After losing three elections, Lee had finally won. She served two full terms on the Council and won a third. On the day she was sworn in for the third time, she announced that she'd set her sights higher: She was running for Congress against Craig Washington.

Washington, a gifted lawyer but flawed politician, had squandered what might have been a lifetime tenure in his congressional seat. He alienated the downtown business establishment, and his two-term record included questionable hiring practices and office expenditures. He frequently missed House votes; when he did vote, he often opposed projects dear to his district, such as the space station. He was ripe to be challenged, and Lee was bold enough to do it.

"We went up against the [black] establishment," remembers Isles. "She didn't grow up in Fifth Ward, and it's been a Fifth Ward-Third Ward game for years.

"Well, now," he laughs, "that party's over."
Lee trounced Washington in the Democratic primary, sealing her victory with heavy support among white and female voters. And despite her dubious first-term record in Washington and a court-ordered redistricting that reduced the African-American population of the 18th District, Lee easily won a second term last November over nominal opposition.

With her assertive manner and resonant speaking voice, Lee makes a terrific first impression. But that first impression often goes sour.

Of the 13 Democrats first elected to House seats in 1994, Lee appeared to be a star. She was elected president of the Class of '94, and -- unusual for a freshman -- was among a select group of members invited to the White House to discuss policy with President Clinton. According to Lee's former staffers, Clinton soon got his fill of Lee's overamped presentations.

"She was banned from the White House," chuckles Daily. "She was loud, mouthy, trying to get everybody's attention. She's kind of grabby, you know?"

"All she wanted was self-promotion, like getting Clinton to come visit her district," says another former senior aide. "I think [the White House staff] just got tired of it."

Lee's freshman colleagues also grew tired of her and rewrote the rules concerning the presidency of their class. The position, instead of belonging to Lee, would rotate monthly to each freshman.

Another congressmember's chief of staff explains that Lee wasn't helping her classmates. "Part of the deal is, you help others among your freshman class get good assignments, because you are [on the committee] where they are deciding them," he says. Lee, her colleagues felt, wasn't sticking up for them.

Lee proceeded to wear out her welcome with the rest of Congress, which was buffeted by her fusillade of amendments, special orders and minute talks at the day's beginning. Speaking time is a limited commodity in a body with 435 members. Not only were Lee's frequent remarks seen as self-promotion, they also gummed up legislative business, wreaking havoc with debate schedules.

Most members of Congress try to become an expert on one or two issues: health care, for instance, or taxes. "You don't speak on everything to begin with," explains Gene Green of the Houston delegation. During his freshman term, Green recalls, "I spoke on education issues and labor issues that had a relationship to my district. I think I ran with one amendment on the floor of the House." As Green points out, if all 435 members tried to speak on every subject, the House would be paralyzed, a tower of Babel.

But though aides advised Lee to specialize, she refused. "She was just all over the place, speaking on everything," says a former legislative aide. "And as a result, most people saw her as a joke, a jack of all trades but a master in none."

House deputies eventually grew so concerned that one, Bill Richardson of New Mexico (now Clinton's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations), entreated members of the Texas delegation to bring Lee under control. According to one source, Richardson asked Green to convince fellow Democrat Lee to narrow her focus and speak only on a few issues. Green declined, telling Richardson that he did not think Lee would see the advice as constructive.

Eventually, several other members broached the subject with Lee. Says one colleague, "It didn't have any impact. Frankly, her response -- not to me, but to other members -- was that she was sent to Washington to be heard."

Lee denies this account. "I have never had any such dialogue," she says. "I don't even know what you are talking about."