Bush's Men on the Hill

...Frist stayed active for Bush in the general election campaign, setting up weekly conference calls for his Senate GOP colleagues to speak with top Bush aides and mediating between Congress and the Bush campaign over the details of the patients bill of rights legislation...

...Bush has given Port-man an affectionate nickname: Robby . Portman got his start in electoral politics after leaving the first Bush White House for his native Cincinnati, where he practiced law...

...This stamina will serve him well as he chairs the Senate Republican campaign committeehell be ably assisted by Republican operative Mitch Bainwoland runs interfer -ence for Bush on issues like Medicare and health care reform, where theres already disagreement between Republicans and the White House...

...Portman downplays his own relationship with Bush, saying, I don t hold myself out as a close personal friend...

...During his first term, he labored on a number of important but obscure health issues and often found himself overshadowed by Tennessees other Republi -can senator, Fred Thompson...

...Given the GOPs razor-thin con -gressional majorities, if Frist and Portman can help deliver legislative victories for Bush on their specialty issues, health care and taxes, their relative anonymity will become a thing of the past...

...from a conservative foundation, they emphasize bipartisanship and place a premium achievement...

...Frist, whos not planning to run for reelection in 2006, is said to be positioning himself to run for president...

...His sleep pattern may also explain how, despite his Senate workload, he finds time to write (he co-authored a book, published in 1999, that profiled 17 Tennessee senators), travel (he leads regular medical missions to Africa), and exercise (he runs a marathon about every six months...

...Frists work ethic is the stuff of Senate legend...

...Frist had never run for anything before knocking off a veteran incumbent senator, Jim Sasser, in 1994 (Bushs top political aide, Karl Rove, was among those who encouraged Frist to run...

...But Frist also keeps a peculiar schedule: One night a week he simply goes without sleep, a habit left over from his days as a heart surgeon...

...Frist is best known for his background as a surgeon whos performed over 200 heart and lung transplants (he is the first doctor elected to the Senate since 1928...

...And though a conservative, hes popular with all the House factions...

...Frist was sufficiently unacquainted with Bush that just a few months earlier hed stood in line at a Republican fund-raiser to have his picture taken with the candidate, but he quickly established himself as a Coverdell-like figure who could assume ownership of issues without alienating his famously turf-conscious colleagues...

...Y et in November 1997, long before Bush had made public his presidential plans, he told Port-man, during a ceremony dedicating the Bush library at Texas A&M, of his plans to seek the White House...

...That changed last summer, when Bush made him his Senate liaison following the death of senator Paul Coverdell...

...And all three hold Ivy Is League degrees: Bush went to Yale^li and Harvard Business School, Frist to Princeton and Harvard Medical School, and Portman to Dartmouth...

...Bush has also hired a claque of esteemed congressional staffers to work in his legislative affairs office, a move guaranteed to build goodwill with Republicans...

...That wont be a problem for Portman, who has better connections to the Bush White House than any other member of Congress...

...If Frist has anything to worry about, its that his ties to the new administration are not of long standing...

...Portman and Frist are also like Bush in that they bring a mild-Tiannered approach to politics...

...During last years presidential campaign, home-state loyalties kept Portman neutral until his fellow Ohioan, John Kasich, withdrew from the race...

...One of his unlikely Senate allies may turn out to be Ted Kennedy...

...He also campaigned doggedly for Bush in the primary in Ohio, a key state that voted shortly after John McCains upset victory in Michigan...

...His labors paid off, as Tennessee, Gores ostensible home state, went for Bush...

...As for Portman, his political experience before his election to Congress in 1993 consisted of staff jobs in the Bush White House...

...Portmans tax staffer, Barbara Pate, is a Democrat who once worked for Democratic congressman J.J...

...Portman is often mentioned as a future speaker, or perhaps a vice presidential nominee...

...More important, because he was up for reelection against a weak opponent, he was able to synchronize his advertising with Bushs, giving the Texas governor a little-noticed boost that even the Gore campaign completely missed...

...Partly this reflects the idealism of one still new to politics...

...When Portman arrived late to a recent meeting between Bush and congressional leaders...

...And in the ultimate compliment...

...Anne Phelps, a former Frist staffer now in the White House, will help iron out the differences...

...But Portman prevailed, thanks to a radio ad in which Barbara Bush endorsed him, saying, I always enjoy having Skyline Chili [a local favorite] with Rob Portman when Im in Cincinnati...

...But even more important for Bushs relations with the GOP is who he will be turning to as formal and informal liaisons with Capitol Hill notably senator Bill Frist of Tennessee and representative Rob Portman of Ohio...

...Perhaps most significant of all, Portman took the role of Al Gore as Bush readied for the third presidential debate, and then spent a number of weekends in Wyoming playing Joe Lieberman to help prepare Dick Cheney for the vice presidential debate...

...He counts among his close friends senior Bush staffers Andrew Card, Josh Bolten, and Nick Calioall for -mer colleagues from his time working in the White House for Bush s father (Portman is the only House member to have served in the first Bush administration...

...John Bridgeland is a senior member of the domestic policy council, Joe Hagin is the director of administration, and Melissa Bennett is Cards scheduler...

...Thereafter, he immediately endorsed Bush, and served as a surrogate for him in New Hampshire, where hed gone to college...

...And Bush clearly likes him...

...Portmans efforts will complement those of Roy Blunt, the House GOPs talented chief deputy whip and Bushs official liaison to the House...

...Like Bush, they came late to elective office, yet entered at a high level...

...BY MATTHEW REES WHEN GEORGE W. BUSH was running for president, he maintained an arms-length relationship with congressional Republicans...

...During his first week in office, he met with scores of members, and late last week he attended a GOP retreat in Williams-burg, Virginia...

...When the longtime local congressman...

...Both Frist and Portman command respect from their peers on the Hill and hold leadership positions in their respective caucuses...

...While their roles are still evolving, its clear they will be Bushs eyes and ears in Congress, alerting him and his aides to the mood on Capitol Hill and giving advice on routine matters like whos susceptible to lobbying on Matthew Rees is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, tough votes, when to press forward with particular legislation, and when to pull back...

...And during the Republican convention, he co-chaired the hearings of the platform committee at the request of Josh Bolten, the campaigns policy direc -tor and now a deputy chief of staff in the White House...

...Whats more, a number of Portman staffers now occupy top White House slots...

...Theyve worked together on a number of health care issues, and in a statement given to The Weekly Standard, Kennedy said, I admire Senator Frists ability to set aside partisan differences and work effectively across the aisle on key public health issues...

...P ortman returned the favor a few years later by sponsoring legislation to christen the CIA complex the George Bush Center for Intelligence, a change that became official in April 1999...

...Pickle...

...With Roy Blunt as Bushs formal liaison in the House, Portmans inuence won t always be visible...

...Regardless, both are seen by their colleagues and political observers as rising GOP stars...

...The usually unruly proceedings came off without a hitch, with Frist adroitly navigating the contentious debate on education...

...Representative Chris Shays, a leading GOP moderate, gushes over him, while representative Ben Cardin, a liberal from Baltimore, praises him as an honest broker whos more interested in achievement than partisanship...

...But top White House officials say that given his history of working on a variety of tax and pension issues, his fingerprints will be all over any legislation in those areas...

...Frist-Port-man in 2008...

...Bush jokingly barked, P ortman, what are you doing here, serving coffee...

...Today, hes aggressively courting them...

...Bob McEwen...

...You read it here first...

...Aides regularly receive e-mail missives at 2 or 3 a.m...

...Bill Gradison, resigned from Congress in 1993 to run a health care trade association, Portman jumped into what became a fiercely contested Republican primary, which included a former congressman...

...Frist recently ran unopposed for chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOPs campaign arm, while Portman was tapped by speaker Denny Hastert last month to be chairman of the House leadership, a position that guarantees a White House ally will always be present when House leaders are crafting strategy...

...While little known beyond Congress, Frist and Portman are natural choices...