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American Morning

Senate Committees to Undergo Transformations

Aired May 25, 2001 - 11:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Senator James Jeffords' decision to leave the Republican Party for the independent ranks could affect legislative decisions from education to the environment.

For more on how Washington is digesting all of this, we are joined from that place by Paul Kane. He writes for the political magazine "Roll Call."

Mr. Kane, good to have you with us.

PAUL KANE, "ROLL CALL": Good morning, Miles; how are you?

O'BRIEN: Good, good.

It seems like certain parts of this transition, if you will, are easy, and some of them are a lot more complicated. Let's talk about the easy stuff first: leadership positions of the committees and of the Senate in general. Is that just, sort of, automatic?

KANE: Yes, miles. When they negotiated this power sharing deal of the 50-50 Senate back in January, they specifically prepared for this instance in which one party of the other could take the majority. And once Jim Jeffords renounced his Republican leanings and becomes an independent, it will be automatic. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle will be recognized by the parliamentarian as the majority leader. It will be considered 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans, one independent.

The committee chairmanships will instantaneously flip over to Democrats. Senator Ted Kennedy, who has been the top Democrat on the Education and Health and Labor Committee, will now be the chairman. That will take place some time in the next week or so after the tax bill is officially sent to the White House.

O'BRIEN: So, if you will, the skids were greased for all of this on the assumption that, for one reason or another, that the balance of power would shift?

KANE: Yes, indeed. I think Democrats, although they won't say this publicly, when they negotiated this bill, were thinking that there were several very old and somewhat ill Republicans. And I think at the time they might have been thinking that's how this would happen, to get power. I'm sure Trent Lott never quite envisioned Senator Jeffords, his good friend and singing partner, that he would be the one to sink the Republican majority.

O'BRIEN: All right, now let's get under the hood a little bit and talk about the organization of all these committees, not just the chairmanships. That's where it get a little more complicated -- how many senators from which parties actually make up these individual committees and how the staffing is all aligned.

Try to walk us through those mine fields.

KANE: Absolutely; now, what happens is, yes, that Ted Kennedy and other Democrats will become the chairmen. But, essentially, the dear reverts everything back to where it was in early January, so that if you are a freshman member of the Senate, your committee slots basically disappear, and those positions all have to be renegotiated; the ratio on the committees have to be renegotiated.

The Finance Committee, which is considered the crown jewel by many, because it oversees tax and trade and entitlement legislation -- that committee is set at 10-10. There are six new members on that committee: two Republicans and four Democrats. They will basically disappear from the committee, and have to renegotiate ratio.

Democrats are signaling they want a two-seat edge, 11-9; Republicans think that's outrageous because they're -- over the entire body there's only a one-seat majority for the Democrats. And Senator Lott is signaling, and probably will again this weekend on the talk shows, that he's going to take a very tough line, and he's going to negotiate what he believes is a fair deal for Republicans. He wants a one-seat Democratic majority; he will not take anything else.

O'BRIEN: All right, Paul, we're just about out of time, here, but I just want people to take away, who are not as familiar with the machinations of the beltway, that what this really signifies is that one party has lost control of the machinery which sets the agenda. The votes might not, necessarily, be any different, right?

KANE: Absolutely; Senator John Kerry made clear yesterday -- he said, the votes for us are the same today as they were yesterday. But Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, Pat Leahy on judiciary, they will be the people that are going to set the agenda, that are going to call up votes, bring committee hearings. And that is going to be very troubling for President Bush.

President Clinton found this out the hard way in 1994 when he lost both chambers and he was no longer able to control the agenda and say when a bill would come up. That's going to be very troubling for President Bush as he moves toward trade legislation and he attempts to overhaul Social Security. Anything like that will now have to be set by Democrats and Tom Daschle in the Senate.

O'BRIEN: The legislative plot thickens in Washington. Paul Kane is with "Roll Call." Thanks very much for being with us and shedding some light on it all.

KANE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: For more now on what folks outside the beltway are thinking about the shakeup in the Senate, let's go to our Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport, who escaped and is actually in New York today.

Look at you in the big city, Frank.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR IN CHIEF: Well, I had some things to do here, and I'm at the CNN bureau; and it's lovely in Manhattan, although a little drizzly.

I saw those words there -- an absolute shock a moment ago from your commentator from Washington. I wouldn't say that's what we're finding from the people. Last night we were out and did a poll, a quick reaction. We can now show you some of the reactions of the American public to what we found in that poll.

First of all, basically, is this good or bad for the country; a very standard question. You can see there, it cuts by party. In fact, it's a mirror image: if you're a Republican, bad; if you're a Democrat, good, you can see there. But notice there are about 14 percent of Republicans who say it's good; maybe those are the moderate Republicans. And independents break a little more for good. So there's a slight plurality saying better rather than worse that this thing happened by Senator Jeffords.

Now look at the conservative issue -- he says he's leaving the Republican Party because it is too conservative under Bush. We asked Americans, do you agree. The key there is not a shock that Democrats would agree, but notice that 20 percent of Republicans agree as well; and that's, again, that moderate wing of the Republican Party. All in all, about half of Americans agree that the Republicans are too conservative.

Now, what impact is this going to have on the country? Well, more gridlock -- Americans agree with that; 50 percent say that's going to happen. But more broadly we said, is this going to make a major difference, a minor difference, or no difference at all to the way that Washington works -- and maybe this shows, Daryn, a little of the cynicism that we have from the American public. But we only had a little more than 1/3 of Americans who say it's going to make a major difference. The rest say either a minor difference or no difference at all. And I'm interpreting that to mean that Americans say there's a lot of problems anyhow, and they don't think this is the end of the world.

All in all, as of last night a lot of Americans, I think, were more focused on Memorial Day weekend than this situation in Washington. So maybe the real impact is going to be down the line a little bit.

Daryn, right now I would say a muted response from the American public.

KAGAN: Very good. Maybe your poll will get a better response if you had, like, beach versus mountains -- people more interested in that.

Frank Newport, thank you very much.

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