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American Morning

Senate Set to Convene With New Leadership

Aired June 06, 2001 - 09:01   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: Let's start off with Bob Franken on the Senate shakeup.

Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: OK, the latest news. The very latest news is what went on in the Senate floor about a half- hour ago. You will be very interested to know that the desk -- the one we've been talking about now for a whole day, Senator Jim Jeffords' desk -- has been moved from the Republican side to the Democratic side. And here's the headline: It's been bolted to the floor. The news you've been waiting for. Jim Jeffords is now going to be sitting on the Democratic side. It's official. His desk is in the next to the last row between Democratic Senators Baucus and Kerry of Massachusetts.

So, the desk is there. Now it's time for the Democrats to actually take over. That's going to happen about 11:00 this morning when the Senate pro tem changes from Senator Strom Thurmond, the Republican from South Carolina, and it becomes Senator Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, who will officially designate as Majority Leader, Tom Daschle.

Now Daschle appeared on all the network news shows this morning, and on CNN he talked about the spirit that he wants to set.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: I think that the more we can make the effort, the more we can show goodwill, the more we can demonstrate an empathy for each other, the more we can put partisanship aside, I think the more we can get done. And I really believe that there is a chance of getting a lot done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now remember that the rules of the Senate enforce politeness, so you're going to be hearing a lot of talk about bipartisanship and cooperation. But rest assured that at the very least, Leon, Trent Lott is going to be correct when he says there's going to be a battle of ideas. Emphasis on the word battle.

HARRIS: Well, it's about time for that. Thanks much, Bob Franken, on Capitol Hill. For an in-depth look at the political power shift in the Senate, just log onto our Web site and find out what the Democrats are planning and look at how it all happened. The address is CNN.com/senate.

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