December 12, 2002
SORE LOSERMEN:
Senate May Face Stalemate (Mark Preston, December 12, 2002, Roll Call)Emboldened by Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-La.) win last week, Democrats are prepared to prevent the Senate from organizing in January unless Republicans agree to near-equal committee funding in the 108th Congress.Democrats would not be able to stop Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) from being recognized as Majority Leader on the Senate floor, but they are planning to prevent committees from reconstituting if the GOP does not meet their demands. Such a move would prevent the GOP from hitting the ground running in the new Congress and stall President Bush from scoring some quick legislative victories before his Jan. 28, 2003 State of the Union address.
"If the Republicans don't play ball, they are going to have a real problem getting the Senate organized next year," vowed a top Democratic aide.
And when President Bush goes on television and says that the only thing holding up an extension of unemployment benefits and a prescription drug plan is the Democrats refusal to accept their defeat in November how long can Tom Daschle hold out? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2002 7:00 PM
Shades of the government shutdown in '96 that Clinton got to tar Gingrich with.
Posted by: Buttercup at December 13, 2002 5:32 AMI don't seem to recall the Democrats being so generous when they assumed control of the senate post-Jeffords.
Posted by: Keith Reimer at December 13, 2002 5:57 AMRepublicans should have far more leverage than Democrats in any government shutdown, because Democrats are the ones who live off the government. That's a Democratic bluff Bush can call all Presidency long.
Posted by: pj at December 13, 2002 7:10 AMa shutdown should give the GOP the advantage, but it won't. You can bet the same liberal media that cheered Clinton on and blamed the GOP Congress for the shutdown, will to a total flip flop and this time blame the GOP pres rather than the Dem minority leader. Also, with the recent controversey, the Dem's won't have to be in a big hurry to see him rise to majority leader.
Sure, the GOP were much more charitable when the bribing of Jeffords caused the last power shift without the benefit of election, but that's a more complicated issue and will be buried under all the race-baiting. "stop the racist" plays much better with the sheep than the "let the elected party organize committees" never mind that the first one is false.