CREATURE OF CONGRESS?:

Members Prod Kerry on Agenda (Erin P. Billings and Mark Preston, 7/29/04, Roll Call)

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, said if Kerry takes office, he would urge him to summon leaders of both parties to the White House to craft a new financial plan for the nation.

“First of all try to put together a bipartisan summit ... to try and reach a consensus on a long-term blue print for the budget future because nothing is going to be accomplished as long as the two sides are at war,” Conrad said. “We need to re-institute the budget discipline.”

If elected, Kerry is expected to rely heavily on two of his Massachusetts Democratic colleagues — Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Ed Markey — to act as liaisons to Congressional Democrats particularly in the first few months of his administration. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) said, unlike Bush, Kerry would “bring an appreciation” of Congress and an “understanding of separation of powers and checks and balances.”

“He has served in this branch and he is very much aware that this is the people’s house of Congress,” said Byrd, who accuses the Bush administration of degrading the legislative branch’s role in overseeing the nation’s policy decisions.

Senator Byrd thinks that a president Kerry will be his prison wife, but that he understands the separation of powers? The president isn't a prime minister.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 1, 2004 10:35 AM