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American Morning

Congress Still Reeling from Jeffords Defection

Aired May 25, 2001 - 11:04   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: To Washington now, Congress still reeling from Senator James Jeffords' defection yesterday from the Republican Party. The Senate prepares for a tilt in the balance of power, and the political maneuvering really has just begun. CNN's congressional correspondent Kate Snow is watching all the maneuvering from her perch on Capitol Hill -- Kate, what is the latest?

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, this changeover, this new world in the Senate, is not going to take effect until after tax cut reaches President Bush. That's the way Senator Jeffords wanted it. He said it's not going to be effective until that happens.

So the latest here on Capitol Hill is they are trying to figure out how to get this tax bill done and sent to the president. I just talked to a Republican aide, who is very close to the process. He said they're hoping that they can get it done by tonight. But he said to me, "I'm getting ready to work tomorrow, on Saturday."

They all want to get this done today because, of course, they are headed into a Memorial Day weekend and a recess next week. House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas apparently got a phone call this morning from President Bush, according to one of his aides. He talked with him presumably about the tax cut. President Bush had said he wants Congress to get this done before they think about leaving town.

Right now, Chairman Thomas is meeting with Larry Lindsey, the economic adviser at the White House. He plans to meet later on today with nine senators. I talked with Chairman Thomas last night. And he said it's a little bit difficult now dealing with nine different factions because of Senator Jeffords' decision to leave the Republican Party.

The tax bill being discussed is in two different versions. There's a Senate version and a House version. They're trying to reconcile the differences. It is the discussion in the hallways here, too. A little bit earlier, Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Senator Harry Reid, the number two Democrat in the Senate were talking about the tax cut right in front of us here in the hallway.

I spoke then with Senator Leahy, who you see on the left there. He is going to become Judiciary chairman. And I asked him, how will he deal with President Bush's judicial nominees? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: I'm not going to do what the Republicans did to President Clinton. I thought that was irresponsible. I thought it demeaned the independence of the federal judiciary.

We'll take these one by one. We will not have an ideological court packing. And I think they understand that. But I would like to see a good moderate, middle-of-the-road, credible, independent federal Judiciary. And that would be my touchstone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Senator Leahy obviously from Vermont, a colleague of Senator Jeffords'. He spoke with him this morning. Senator Jeffords is back here in Washington, D.C. now. And Senator Leahy says that he's in good spirits and has no regrets about his decision, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, Kate, I have two questions, the first is the least important. Whose dog was that in the Capitol?

SNOW: Senator Kennedy's dog. And you often see him out here on the lawn tossing sticks with the dog.

O'BRIEN: All right, all right, I assumed it had to be a senator's dog for it to be in the building. Secondly, let me ask you a more substantive question.

I know on the issue of the leadership of these committees, it's sort of a seamless transition. They just sort of rearrange the chairs, if you will, on the committees. When you get under the hood and start looking how they organize these committees, it gets a lot messier. Is there a lot of talk about how committees will break, majority-minority, and who might be on, who might be out, and how long will it take for all that dust to settle?

SNOW: Right. Right. I talked to Senator Leahy about that very point because there had been some speculation that maybe he wouldn't become automatically the chairman of the Judiciary Committee even though he is currently the ranking Democrat. He said to me, no, he is clearly going to become the chair, and that he thinks that in most cases, if not all cases, that the committees will simply go from the person who was the chairman, the Republican, over to the person who is the ranking Democrat currently on the committee, that it will be a pretty smooth transition.

But it is going to take some time, Miles. They plan to use all of next week on this recess, this Memorial Day recess, to sort of sort out some of those details about committees and staff. Most of the staff will stay the same, though. If they were working for a Democrat, they're still going to work for a Democrat. It's just that now they'll be in the majority.

O'BRIEN: All right, I guess you could call it a dog-eat-dog world there. All right, Kate Snow on Capitol Hill. Thanks very much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com