March 2 1998

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Gallup released a poll not long ago showing that a bare 5 percent of Americans harbor "a great deal of confidence" in Congress—down from 42 percent just 30 years ago. When so many Americans see congressmen as self-seeking junketeers in the pocket of special interests, it's refreshing to know one who breaks the mold.

Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is not much at glad-handing, and he shies away from the limelight. For his serene optimism, critics have labeled him na•ve. His travels are not the typical junkets to posh resorts or embassy parties but risky excursions to outposts ravaged by war and famine—especially to places where fellow Christians are persecuted for their faith.

His most recent journey took him to Tibet, where he posed as a tourist, eluded the tour guide by pretending to be ill, and then sneaked out to talk to Tibetans on the street for the real story of Chinese repression. Another expedition took him to Sudan, a nation waging a self-described religious war against its own citizens who are Christians or other non-Muslims through a campaign of torture, starvation, and murder. Sudanese soldiers are literally snatching children from their mothers' arms and selling them into slavery for the price of a few head of cattle. Girls are sold as concubines.

Wolf has journeyed to East Timor to report on massacres conducted by the Indonesian government. He has dodged bombs in Nagorno Karabakh. He has investigated conditions in El Salvador, Bosnia, and Ethiopia. Instead of enjoying the plush accommodations he could command as a government official, Wolf toughs it out with ordinary people for a first-hand sense of their plight.

Before the fall of the Iron Curtain, Wolf tramped throughout Eastern Europe championing for freedom. ...