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American Morning

Democrats, Republicans Planning for Shift in Senate

Aired June 06, 2001 - 10:08   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: For a closer look at the transition, as well as the timber and tone of the partisan strategies, let's turn now to our guest. He is Paul Kane, the Senate beat writer for "Roll Call," which is a must-read publication covering Capitol Hill politics. Excuse me for that loud burst in your ear there, Paul. But thanks for coming in this morning, we appreciate it.

PAUL KANE, "ROLL CALL": No problem, Leon.

HARRIS: You know what I want to heat, I want to hear your take on what you've been hearing behind the scenes, and things that things that haven't been getting reported. What kind of a tone are you detecting behind the scenes here? Did you get a sense that Republicans are embracing for payback or anything here?

KANE: Well, I think as Candy pointed out, in the memo that Trent Lott issued at end of last week, there was a lot of anger and apprehension among Republicans all of last week at fact that they were in the minority. Then, when they came back yesterday, there was sort of a different tone. They sort of settled down and said, all right, we're going to be in the minority. How are we going to go about doing this?

And they, through a series of meetings yesterday, culminating with a meeting at 5:00 with five GOP senators and Tom Daschle, sort of began to lay the groundwork for what appears to be the deal. After that meeting, the five senators, five Republican senators came out and they weren't saying anything. They were being very quiet. That was a quite a contrast to what was partisan week, especially from Trent Lott.

HARRIS: Oh, yes, I heard him say something like waging ideological war or whatever just last week, a couple of days ago.

KANE: Oh, yes, it was a memo that went over the weekend. It was about waging war, essentially saying that it was an immoral Democratic majority built on backroom deals in Washington in the shadows of Washington. So, they came back and the feedback that they were getting, that the Republican leadership was getting was that that might nit be the best tone to set right now.

And they seem to be setting down, right now and they'll be doing it later this afternoon in the Republican conference to hammer out some of these details of what they're going to try to do in setting up the new committee structure.

HARRIS: All right, well, let's cross the aisle then. What about what you've heard behind of the scenes about the Democrats? What have you noticed about them before and after the meetings that they have been holding?

KANE: Well, the Democrats are, while absolutely giddy about being in control of the chamber for the first time really since the 1994 elections, they're a bit tentative. They don't want to appear too strong, too partisan. Tom Daschle is saying all of the sort of things about bipartisanship, about, you know, reaching out and building coalitions.

He's going to the White House later this week to meet with President Bush. But Republicans, you know, they have dealt with Daschle for six years now, and there's a bit of distrust when referring to how Daschle treated the nomination of solicitor general Ted Olson. One GOP aide said to me, that was extremism no matter how sweetly it was said, and that's a veiled reference to Daschle. He has a very soft-spoken way of saying things, but he can be a real partisan.

HARRIS: And that may have a bearing on how smooth this transition actually turns out to be. Paul Kane of "Roll Call," we thank you very much for your insight. We appreciate it.

KANE: Thank you.

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