GOP Aims to Turn Tables on Daschle
By Mark Preston
July 2, 2001
Frustrated that Democrats are ruling the Senate chamber with an iron fist, Republicans are taking crash courses in parliamentary strategy to teach them how to promote their agenda and put the brakes on Majority Leader Thomas Daschle's (D-S.D.) initiatives.
The strategy sessions led by Martin Gold, a former counsel to then Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), are taking place just as bipartisan relations between the two parties are rapidly disintegrating as a result of clashes in their political ideologies.
The first sign of a major schism in the new Senate was exposed last Thursday when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daschle crossed swords on the floor. The lawmakers took personal jabs at each other over the scheduling of the supplemental appropriations bill.
The testy exchange caught Senators and aides by surprise, and Stevens said afterward that this is the most visible partisanship he has witnessed since he was first appointed to his Senate seat in 1968.
"I just think you saw the relationships between the minority and the majority deteriorate to the point I have never seen in my lifetime."
Other Republicans suggest that Daschle is engaging in the same tactics that he frequently accused then Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) of employing when Democrats were in the minority.
"Bipartisanship is a convenient word for Senator Daschle when appealing to the gallery," a senior GOP aide charged. "It is most inconvenient, it seems, to Senator Daschle in practice."
"One definition of bipartisanship might be keeping your word to the American people by finishing a bipartisan bill with bipartisan support when you say you are going to do it," said Anita Dunn, Daschle's spokeswoman. "We realize that is a different definition use than the one the other side had used in the past."
To help combat the Democratic stranglehold over the Senate floor, Senate GOPPolicy Committee Chairman Larry Craig (Idaho) said he enlisted Gold's assistance several weeks ago to help Republican Senators and staffers learn the rules.
"In the Senate the rules truly give the minority an advantage to help shape things," Craig said. "We ought to know them.
"You will start seeing the strategy used on every piece of legislation that comes to the floor," Craig added.
In addition, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) also has asked the former Baker aide to teach GOP legislative directors the nuances of minority tactics and rights, as outlined in the Senate rules.
"Anytime the minority wants to, it can bring the Senate to a grinding halt," said James Whittinghill, a former top aide to then Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who now serves as the senior vice president of legislative affairs for the American Trucking Association.
Gold, who was seriously considered for the Senate Parliamentarian's post when Robert Dove was sacked by Lott earlier this year, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Even though Democrats have been in the majority for a relatively short time, Daschle quickly moved earlier this month to assert his authority over the Senate schedule.
Instead of continuing along on the legislative path outlined by Republicans at the beginning of the year, Daschle quickly placed Democratic priorities, such as a patients' bill of rights, on the front burner.
The new Majority Leader vowed to cut into his colleagues' July Fourth recess unless they finished work on the health care legislation, a threat that angered many Republicans.
Democrats acknowledged that the shift in power has probably caused some hard feelings, but they pledged to work through the differences. "Obviously, this has been a difficult time for a lot of people in the Senate because we have had a change in the control, but Senator Daschle's style is not confrontational," said Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan (N.D.).
The testy words between Daschle and Stevens were sparked by the Majority Leader's refusal to budge on the Alaska Republican's request to shelve the health bill and organizing resolution in favor of passing the supplemental appropriations bill.
Stevens was anxious to pass the bill (which included emergency funding for the military) and head home to Alaska for the Fourth of July recess so he could survey fire damage on the Kenai Peninsula.
"That is where I want to go fishing next week too," Stevens said. "So there is a disaster and the urgent call of the pink salmon to respond to."
Successfully passing a patients' bill of rights is Daschle's first big test as Majority Leader, and the South Dakota Democrat refused to cave into Republican demands that the non-controversial supplemental bill be voted on first. Therefore, Daschle seized upon Stevens' comment and suggested that he would not sanction a recess until an agreement had been worked out on all three issues. For good measure he made a dig at the Alaska Republican's desire to go fishing.
"While there may be some differences on other issues, I would think there would be unanimity that getting the supplemental done is more important than taking a vacation," Daschle said.
Stevens retorted, "[T]hat is a little bit of a cheap shot. I am not taking a vacation. I am willing to stay here as long as any other Senator."
In an interview directly following the exchange, Stevens said, "[Daschle] made a statement, and he has laid down some lines, and that is all there is to it."
Shortly after, Daschle called Stevens to apologize.
"I didn't mean any personal criticism of him," Daschle told a group of reporters after the telephone conversation. "He is a very able Senator and a man I respect immensely."
A Stevens spokeswoman said Friday that Stevens "accepted Daschle's apology."
"He thought it was very gracious of Senator Daschle to call and that they all say things in the heat of battle," said Jen Siciliano, Stevens' spokeswoman for the Appropriations Committee. "He looks forward to working with him in the future."
Lott said Daschle's biggest mistake wasn't a personal insult toward Stevens, but trying to force the Senate and the House to bend to his will and pass three major pieces of legislation in a couple of days.
"Senator Daschle was trying to achieve more than was physically possible," Lott said late last week.
Daschle acknowledged that it is not going to be easy shepherding legislation though a chamber that is divided by the slimmest of margins.
"There are going to be rough spots along the way,"he said. "We just have to get through the rough spots."
Paul Kane contributed to this report.
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