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American Morning
More Changes on Capitol Hill Coming?
Aired June 05, 2001 - 11:32 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to return to Capitol Hill, where our correspondents are strategically posted to monitor the transition of power in the Senate.
Our Jeanne Meserve has been there all morning. And she joins us now.
Jeanne, good morning again.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. A pretty dramatic story up here, this shift in power in the U.S. Senate, but here's another amazing thing: It could happen again, and in pretty short order.
Here to sort out the possible scenarios with me is CNN's senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley.
Candy, first up, Senator Robert Torricelli of New Jersey under investigation for some issues involving his campaign.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Senate campaign contributions, a criminal investigation -- always have to say at the top: Absolutely no charges have been filed, so therefore not even any reason to believe he's guilty of anything at this point.
But if you want to carry this out to what-ifs, what-ifs, what- ifs, there are -- there is a scenario under which perhaps he could make a deal which would involve giving up his Senate seat. There is a scenario under which perhaps it can go to trial. Then do you have a senator sitting in a trial under criminal investigation for campaign contributions? None of this is, as far as we know, anywhere near coming to pass.
But it's -- you know, in this town, where it's now 49-50-1, every scenario is being looked at. And that's one of them.
MESERVE: And one of the others is that you might have a Democrat or two hopping to the Republican side of the fence -- some of the names being mentioned: Ben Nelson, Zell Miller.
CROWLEY: Zell Miller.
And all of them have, you know, in recent days, sworn their allegiance to the Democratic Party. I don't look for party-jumping from the Democratic side at this point. Maybe -- you know, everything changes up here, but right now we've gotten some pretty recent declarations of allegiance to the Democrat Party.
MESERVE: What about further jumps from the Republican side to the Democratic? Lincoln Chafee one named that is mentioned.
CROWLEY: And he is probably the one that, if I were Trent Lott and soon to become the minority leader, I would be most worried about. You know, it's those Northeast Republicans who have very much in common with a lot that the Democratic Party is pushing. So he seems to me the one that you ought to assign a bodyguard to if you're Trent Lott.
MESERVE: And what about that Arizona Republican, John McCain? He says, "I'm not switching." But?
CROWLEY: Another one. And so, too, does Lincoln Chafee, by the way. And we have no reason to disbelieve them. I take both of them at their word.
And with John McCain, one of the problems here is, he's really more effective in what he wants to do if he stays within the Republican Party. He can -- I mean, right now they are paying attention to these people who are doing the complaining. He's certainly the loudest complainer. He's certainly the one that has caused them a lot of the sort of public relations problems. My guess is, he can get a lot more done within the Republican caucus at this point than becoming an independent.
MESERVE: And death, of course, always a possibility.
CROWLEY: Always a possibility and sort of a macabre sort of thing, but we have a 98-year-old senator, Strom Thurmond. We have that others that, in varying ways, seem to be in -- you know, this is an old body here that we're talking about in terms of the median age of the senators. There's always that.
Certainly, Strom Thurmond is one that people have focused most on. And his health is obviously a big deal, less of a big deal now that it's already switched to the Democratic Party in terms of at least politically. The problem here is that, you know, Paul Coverdell, in the middle of the Bush campaign died. You don't know.
MESERVE: You can't predict it.
CROWLEY: It's life. You can't predict this -- and so all kinds of possibilities out there.
MESERVE: Candy Crowley, thanks so much. And now back to Leon and Daryn in Atlanta.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Jeanne and Candy.
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