SOLO FLIGHTS OF FANCY
Sen. John Kerry, according to a Capitol Hill
staffer, is “looking for a moment — the picture that will capture
the imagination of voters” for his presidential campaign. An
opportunity for such a moment may come soon when Democrats attempt
a Senate filibuster over drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife
Refuge.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has promised
an all-out floor blockage of the drilling legislation, and Kerry is
thinking of waging a one-man filibuster, one that could go on for
20 hours. “Seeing him down there on the floor, working it on
C-SPAN, would be pretty cool,” says an occasional Kerry campaign
adviser. “If he pulled it off, it would be like Jimmy Stewart in
‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.’”
Kerry is mulling a solo filibuster as part of his plan to
position himself for a presidential run in 2004. Because he is a
decorated Vietnam veteran, Kerry and his advisers are generally
confident such a run would be well-received. But Kerry also feels
that because he has had to serve in the shadow of his home state’s
senior senator Ted Kennedy, the public is less
aware of him than it should be. A solo filibuster on the major
environmental issue of the day, before what surely would be
national TV coverage, would certainly be one way to attract
unprecedented attention.
One-man filibusters are rare. The longest in modern history was
Strom Thurmond’s back in the 1950s when he took
the floor for more than 24 hours to block civil rights legislation.
If Kerry were to start one, he could not surrender the floor. To do
so, even to a Democratic colleague, would risk ending the
filibuster and any chance Kerry would have to make a lasting
impression on voters.
But the biggest threat to Kerry’s solo chances is Daschle, who
has his own presidential aspirations and wants to orchestrate a
party-wide filibuster on ANWR drilling, not to mention kill any GOP
plans to filibuster campaign finance reform — and he wants to do
all this in such a public way that America will come to see him as
an alternative leader to President Bush. Says a Democratic
leadership aide: “When this session of Congress is over, Daschle
wants America to look at Washington and see two men squaring off on
everything: him and Bush. He wants to be the guy everyone turns to
as an alternate to Bush when it comes to policy and political
questions. If he reaches that point, he’ll be certain about his
political future.”
CROSSOVER CONSULTANT
On person who may be involved in shaping Tom
Daschle’s future is former Republican political consultant
John Weaver, who recently signed on as a
consultant with the Democratic National Committee and with Senate
Majority Leader Daschle. Weaver had been a key consultant to
John McCain during his presidential run, and
oversaw polling on McCain issues like gun control, campaign finance
reform, and a patients bill of rights.
Weaver, who hails from Texas, has found himself locked out of
most other Republican campaigns and issues lobbying and consulting
because his backing of McCain angered Bush strategist Karl
Rove and the Bush White House. “Weaver couldn’t get a
foothold anywhere with potential clients knowing he had no access
to senior Republicans,” says a senior Democratic House staffer, who
is working with Weaver on advising House Democratic leader
Dick Gephardt. “Now we have a guy who probably
understands the Bush team’s mindset better than most of our other
Democratic strategists.”
Weaver isn’t out of Republican politics altogether. He has kept
McCain as a client, much to the dissatisfaction of Republican
Senate leaders. Weaver will be consulting with McCain on campaign
finance reform and patients bill of rights legislation, both issues
on which McCain and Democrats generally agree.
According to a Senate leadership aide, Weaver has made it clear
he’d love to get into a presidential campaign again. “This is an
audition for him,” says the aide. “If things go well, perhaps
Daschle or Gephardt would bring him in for ‘04.”
