Master of the Senate
BARNES, FRED
Master of the Senate Mitch McConnell runs rings around Harry Reid. by Fred Barnes y That prompted Senate \ A / majority leader Harry Reid VV to think he could outma-neuver Republican minority...
...McConnell mustered 46 votes to block the shutoff of the ethics debate...
...He and Republican senators had come up with five separate resolutions...
...Our goal was to have the debate, but in a manner that was fair to both sides...
...I don't think I have to make that judgment now," he said...
...Because Democrats were wary of voting against the Gregg resolution, it was likely to gain more votes than the antiwar, anti-surge resolution...
...The House passed a hike with no tax relief, and he doesn't want the Senate conferees to go along with that...
...To McConnell, fairness meant Reid could not impose his will on Republicans...
...The last three presidents got on average 17 appeals court nominees approved in their final two years, while facing a Senate ruled by the opposite party, McConnell says...
...He recruited Martin Gold, an expert on minority rights in the Senate, to advise senators and their staff...
...So tax relief was added to the minimum wage bill...
...We're going to kill that proudly," he says...
...It won't be a question of shaping...
...In the Iraq debate, McCo-nnell wanted to shape the outcome, not bar a vote on resolutions...
...Republicans are the minority, 49 to 51, but the minority has advantages in the Senate...
...by Fred Barnes y That prompted Senate \ A / majority leader Harry Reid VV to think he could outma-neuver Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell on which Iraq war resolutions would be voted on is anybody's guess...
...On Iraq and every other issue, the struggle in the closely divided Senate comes down to this: McCo-nnell understands the situation and knows how to deal with it far better than Reid does...
...If you don't have 41, you get rolled...
...Even so, Reid was not spared the embarrassment of being asked by Gregg, on the Senate floor, if he would vote for "my resolution...
...They'd look like flip-Hoppers...
...But that's not what happened—not even close...
...To McConnell, fairness meant Reid could not impose his will on Republicans and determine which of their resolutions would be voted on...
...And Republicans sent a message that they wouldn't be pushed around by Reid and the Democrats...
...The filibuster, even in the hands of as skilled a Senate leader as McConnell, has its limits...
...Republicans also used the filibuster to have a say on congressional ethics reform...
...Republicans wanted tax cuts for small businesses that would be affected by the higher wage...
...But the cleverly drafted Gregg resolution stood out...
...Our goal was not to kill the Iraq resolutions," McConnell says...
...A campaign finance reform bill that would have imposed public financing on congressional races had passed both houses of Congress...
...As it turned out, Reid clumsily overreached...
...For the Republican resolution, Reid favored the one authored by Senator John McCain that defended President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq but set rigid benchmarks the Iraqi government must meet...
...the headline they craved, "Senate Rebuffs Bush on Iraq...
...It said, "Congress should not take any action that will endanger United States military forces in the field, including the elimination or reduction of funds...
...The bill died...
...You can block a bill or a resolution or you can "shape" it...
...But if they voted against it, they could be accused of not supporting the troops...
...Reid never had a chance, and he lost badly...
...So Reid refused to allow a vote on the Gregg resolution...
...Letchworth told him three motions must be passed before conferees can be dispatched to iron out differences between the Senate and House bills...
...Now, in the minority once more, McConnell is prepared to filibuster conferees again...
...He's wary of what might happen in a Senate-House conference on the minimum wage increase...
...A poisonous debate on Iraq, attracting massive press coverage that was bound to be unfavorable to Bush and his war plans, was averted...
...Voting for the Gregg resolution would make it more difficult for Democrats to cut off funding later...
...was prevented from proceeding with its planned week of debate on the Iraq war...
...Democrats wanted a "clean" bill with only the wage hike...
...Reid tried twice to halt debate and failed...
...That Republicans won this encounter should have been clear to everyone...
...He succeeded in blocking the second motion...
...The key tool in the hands of the Senate minority is the filibuster, which allows unlimited debate if 41 senators reject cloture, which shuts off debate after 30 hours...
...To be fair, Democrats should allow at least that number to be confirmed now, he argues...
...Six weeks later, Republicans captured the Senate and House in the 1994 landslide...
...That created a unique dilemma," says McConnell...
...McConnell intends to keep Republicans from being rolled...
...The House is built for offense...
...Without much trouble, McConnell collected enough Republican votes, plus Democratic senator Joe Lieber-man's, to block Reid's gambit...
...McConnell insisted Republicans be given a vote on the resolution of their choice...
...If you have 41, you can dictate the process," McConnell says...
...There are two things you can do with 41 or more dissenters," according to McConnell...
...The Senate is built for defense," McCo-nnell says...
...The media played the story as a simple case of Republicans, led by McConnell, blocking a debate on the Iraq war that was certain to be dominated by war critics...
...McConnell responded by mounting a Republican filibuster Democrats couldn't overcome...
...Indeed, it was expected to get more than the 60 votes required for passage...
...In all likelihood, McConnell will get his way...
...So far, he and Republicans have defeated all four Democratic efforts to halt debate...
...McConnell wants a role in shaping the House-passed energy bill too, once it reaches the Senate...
...But of course nobody had ever filibustered those motions before, and she recommended against breaking new ground...
...There's no easy way to extract nominees from committee," he says...
...Under the circumstances, Reid and Democrats decided no resolution and no debate would be preferable to allowing this one to pass...
...Because the judgment, I say to my friend from New Hampshire, is not some diversionary matter...
...Democrats would get a vote on their anti-President Bush, antiwar resolution...
...Reid dodged the issue...
...Reid and Democrats panicked at the thought of having to vote for or against this measure, which didn't express an opinion on Bush's "surge" of 21,500 more troops in Iraq or on the war itself...
...A more succinct way of putting all this is that McCo-nnell won and Reid lost...
...Democrats were denied "Ourgoal was not to kill the Iraq resolutions," McConnell says...
...That will be a lengthy and interesting discussion...
...The issue before this body and the issue before the American people—that's why we're getting hundreds of phone calls in my office and other Senate offices around the country—the issue is, Does the Senate support the president's surge...
...But he is bent on killing the legislation, already approved by the House, that would have the federal government negotiate drug prices in the Medicare prescription drug benefit program...
...And the Senate Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard...
...McConnell, after a dozen years of Republican rule in the Senate, has schooled Republicans on how to operate effectively as a minority...
...That resolution, authored by Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, promised to continue the funding of troops in Iraq...
...They weren't railroaded when a bill boosting the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour reached the Senate floor in January...
...The filibuster that stopped the Iraq debate, Gold says, "was a very early and very important test of whether the McConnell minority would stand up for itself or whether it would fracture...
...It showed Republicans would "not be railroaded...
...f "We'll have to have a discussion of what might come out" of the conference, McConnell says...
...Republicans were, in fact, ready for the ballyhooed week of debate that would include votes on two resolutions...
...For instance, it won't help Republicans win confirmation of federal appeals courts nominees...
...That didn't stop McConnell...
...McConnell's first major venture in exploiting minority rights in the Senate came in 1994 when Democrats still had a majority...
...McConnell consulted Senate secretary Elizabeth Letchworth to find out if there were any options left to block the legislation...
...Our goal was to have the debate, but in a manner that was fair to both sides...
...Thus it might overshadow the Democratic resolution...
Vol. 12 • February 2007 • No. 22
