It was clear by late last Friday afternoon that Tennessee
surgeon Sen. Bill Frist had wrapped up the votes
for majority leader in the Senate, and that his elevation and the
downfall of Trent Lott will go down as one of the
great political strong-arm jobs of recent memory.
“It was, pardon the pun, a surgical strike,” says a Republican
strategist with ties to the White House. “From the president’ s
comments, to Senator Nickles’ to Secretary Powell’s and Governor
Bush’s, and then Frist on Thursday night, it was like dominos, one
falling on top of Lott after the other. Lott didn’t have a choice
Friday morning, and he knew it.”
While the strategist said that there was nothing close to the
political puppeteering going on in the White House that other media
outlets have made out, there was a basic plan in place to put
verbal pressure on Lott as he dug his heels into the Mississippi
mud. But for all the former leader’s talk of building strong
support inside the caucus, it was all bluster: “Lott had nothing.
We knew it, he knew it. He had to cut a deal.”
That deal apparently involves at least a chairmanship of a
committee for Lott, at the very least deserved and earned on the
basis of his seniority and experience in the leadership. There is
talk that Sen. Pete Domenici would step aside as
chairman of the Energy Committee to make way for Lott. According to
several sources, Lott suggested to several senators he spoke to
late Thursday night and early Friday that he wouldn’t mind being
chairman of the Budget Committee, a slot expected to be filled by
Sen. Don Nickles, who got the ball rolling for
Lott down “step aside” hill.
“That Budget chairmanship suggestion was sheer pettiness on
Lott’s part,” says a White House staffer. “Everyone knows now that
Nickles did the right thing.”
While there may be high-fives in the White House and among Frist
supporters, one place that is sitting back and waiting is the House
of Representatives. There, according to House sources, Republican
Speaker Dennis Hastert and Republican leader
Tom DeLay are angry at what they view as
unprecedented interference by the executive branch in the inner
workings of the legislative branch.
“If the White House thinks that it can just take over the
Senate, control it, dictate terms and put their yes-man in charge,
they aren’t ready for what we can do over here,” says a Ways and
Means Committee staffer. “Frist may do the White House’s bidding,
but we aren’t going to roll over. Frist has to prove he can work
with the House leadership on legislation, and he hasn’t done a lick
of that in his career.”
House leadership staffers say they expect Frist to almost
certainly clash with the House leadership on a series of
legislative issues in the opening days of the 108th Congress.
“There is going to be this natural distrust, that Frist isn’t just
doing the Senate’s bidding, he’s doing the White House’s bidding
too,” says a former House member. “He’s going to have to work
extremely hard to build a relationship with Denny and Tom. If he
doesn’t, DeLay is going to eat his lunch. A lot. He just won’t play
games.”
