Senate Loss Strips Dems. of Powerful Positions
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Nov. 08, 2002–Tuesday’s elections didn’t just hand Senate control to Republicans. They also stripped Connecticut Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman of their committee chairmanships, significantly reducing the clout of two of Congress’s most influential lawmakers.
Lieberman chaired the Governmental Affairs Committee, and the presidential hopeful was able to use the position to press legislation while maintaining a high profile. But chairmanships go to members of the majority party-and voters turned to Republicans this year.
In losing his chairmanship, Lieberman also loses the power to decide when and where his committee will meet and what it will talk about. He also loses the power and visibility of running its hearings, some of which garner national attention, like those on the Enron crisis and on homeland security.
“Some hearings are very high profile,” said John Fortier, a political analyst with the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute.
Dodd, who is occasionally mentioned as a future presidential candidate, chaired the Rules and Administration Committee, which allowed him to play a key role in reforms of election and campaign finance laws. He also played an important role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Rules subcommittee that deals with Central and South America.
The chairmanship losses will almost certainly result in budget and staff reductions for Lieberman and Dodd.
Both senators continued their silence Thursday about their party’s losing the Senate. Lieberman would also not comment on how the chamber’s new makeup could affect his efforts to eliminate or modify a piece of legislation that would allow President Bush to remove workers within a new Department of Homeland Security from union protection for purposes of national security.
Thus far, disagreement between Democrats and the White House over that authority has kept a homeland security bill from passing.
The White House has placed passage of that bill, as well as the federal budget, as the top priority of a lame-duck legislative session expected to start Tuesday.
“I want it done,” Bush said Thursday. “I want it out of conference and to my desk.”
Fortier said that Democrats will probably acquiesce to Bush’s version of the bill. Not only will Republicans hold both chambers, but the election also provided “a sense of mandate” that will give Bush a “honeymoon period similar to that enjoyed by newly elected presidents to advance their agenda,” Fortier said.
That probably means passage of a homeland security bill in short order, experts say.
“I don’t think Democrats will lift a finger against it,” Fortier said. “I think they’ll roll over and hope the president offers a compromise.”
Despite Republican control of both the chambers of Congress and the White House, the GOP won’t run wild or unchecked with its agenda. It takes 60 votes to pass most legislation in the Senate, and Republicans will probably only hold 51 seats of Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu wins a runoff election Dec. 7.
“You need 60 votes to pass most anything,” Fortier said.
Unlike the House, the Senate “is uniquely organized to allow substantial room for members of the minority party,” with filibusters always possible, said Tom Mann, a political analyst with the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
But in addition to controlling the chairmanship, Republicans will also control the floor schedule and can decide which bills can come to the Senate floor for a vote. Republican control also could mean a wave of approvals for Bush’s nomination of conservative judges, such as controversial nominee Priscilla Owen of Texas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
