been there. done that.

It’s been a busy few weeks in the Senate. Apart from the few Republicans that got beat in the November election, other Senators are leaving of their own accord. Headlined by Barack Obama himself, his Vice President, Joe Biden, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton are all shipping out. Others like Chuck Hagel had had enough. Mel Martinez isn’t standing for re-election in 2010, and Ted Stevens, would like to have stayed but just failed to be the first convicted felon to get re-elected to the Senate. You got to love Alaska’s taste in uncles. As for John McCain, one could easily get the impression that he’s glad to be back, so he can go gently into the night.

Then there are those who are desperate to get in. Everyone from Caroline Kennedy to Jesse Jackson Junior to Al Franken, still counting votes in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The idea that Jesse Jackson Jr. appears at least to some extent to have been prepared to risk the extreme toxicity of Rod Blagojevich to get his shot strikes me as risky in the extreme. But in all these cases, the candidates seem to me to have been captivated by the majesty and history of the place, but forget that the Senate is basically one big, and frankly boring, compromise. It revels in its sham bipartisanship, and unlikely, awkward alliances. It’s no surprise the place is so ineffective in so many ways. A place where Barack Obama can co-sponsor legislation with the most right wing Senators in the Republican Caucus, Tom Coburn, is a place where cooperation trumps the quality of policy making.

All in all, the US Senate is a vainglorious, disappointing place, where the output rarely matches the bluster. Even the best senate resumes seem somewhat thin and massage. It’s a place of rules and procedure, a place where the filibuster and pork rule the day, a place that still places a premium on seniority, as if that is any marker at all of merit. If a company gave the top jobs to the longest serving employees, that company would seen be extinct. The Senate, sadly, cannot go out of business because it’s constitutionally mandated to continue it’s sorry mediocrity for all time and maybe longer. Sure it passes budgets and has hearings, but the former are procedural and the latter are theater. In between, there’s just hot air.

The experience of US Senators tends to fall into a few categories. There are those who revel in the club atmosphere but do little of note, like Larry Craig (well he did something of note but it was in an airport restroom). There are those who become ‘lions’ of the Senate who do a great deal that doesn’t tend to amount to very much except huge federal funds for, say, Alaska (to pick one not so arbitrary example). They also have a minimum age of 75. And finally, there are those like Obama who would have liked to do a great deal but realize that the Senate is a place where getting things done is seen as a middling priority at best.

Obama realized pretty quick that the Senate wasn’t a big enough place for his ambition, and within three years of his arrival he was running for President. For all their fame and profile, both Obama and Hillary Clinton were junior senators who would have had to wait a decade for real senate power. Both of them are too smart for that. Neither of them have the patience to wait it out.

There’s a faint whiff in the air that the Senate is starting to be seen as a jumping off point to somewhere else. Perhaps the new Administration will change that, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. A combination of smarting Republicans, Blue Dog Democrats and the filibuster might be enough to keep the Senate doing what it does best. Not very much.

Share on Facebook

regrets, i've had a few.

The man holding a cardboard Hillary Clinton’s breast is Obama’s chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, 27. This photo appeared on Facebook, and since its discovery has prompted a contrite and totally unsurpising apology by Mr. Favreau to the future Secretary of State of the United States of America.

Youthful indiscretion is something we all go through, but it’s not something we usually expect from the senior echelons of American political life. However, my guess is that scanning Facebook for more examples of drink + youth = stupidity inside the Beltway will probably turn up a much larger crop these days than in the distant past.

The reason? It seems that more than ever, the young footsoldiers are moving on up. Some of Obama’s top field operatives were barely out of their teens, and the Cable networks are full of earnest, fresh faced journalists who probably shave perhaps once a week at best. The Atlantic Monthly in particular seems full of them. Neel Kashkari, the surly and hopeless Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, co-ordinator for the Financial Bailout, and chief dry cleaning pick-up consultant to walnut-brained Hank Paulson is another example.

It’s hard to imagine that even though these neophytes seem really, really smart, that have the life experience or smarts to be able to act on behalf of the nation, but there it is. Frank Rich alluded today that perhaps the “Brightest and the Best”, a term originally forged with irony when referring to the fabulous resumes of the disastrous Kennedy-Johnson years in ‘Nam, could be applied to Obama’s peeps too. It’s certainly a scurrilous and counter-cultural idea, now the press has turned on the gush overdrive in its dealings with “The One”. But often the really smart guys often don’t turn out so smart after all. Maybe they’re too smart. Maybe they’re not street smart. Maybe a character flaw – like arrogance – for example, lets them down. But something about smart is, well, not so smart.

The attack of the young begs a question about the role of seniority in the Senate for example. Young politicians join the Senate, and realize that they have to wait their turn to get stuff done. And when Robert Byrd is still roaming the place at 97, that probably doesn’t bode well for their chances of a legacy on the Hill. So some of them bail early. A good example is the next President. He took one look at the place and said uh-uh. This place is for stiffs only. I’m moving on. And when you’re a US Senator, there’s only two places to go. The White House or the Cabinet.

Joe Lieberman called Obama, a “fine young man” not yet ready for leadership. But the young have arrived and they’re here to stay. Let’s hope that is a good thing.

Share on Facebook

will it fly?

You got to love the press. When they get a word or phrase in their heads they just can’t stop using it. Just after Obama won, the word was “transformative”, as in way transformative election. This week, as Obama starts to put together his cabinet and prepare for government, the word is “trial balloon”.

Here’s a great example of an Obama trial balloon. Yesterday, before Obama confirmed that Eric Holder was to be the new Attorney General, the information about Holder was leaked along with a caveat. That Obama wanted to see whether the black mark against Holder’s name ( that he had signed off on the pardon of Marc Rich on the last day of the Clinton presidency ), would be held against him by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, because he wanted to make sure his Attorney General nominee had broad bipartisan support. The answer came through that the GOP Senators on the committee didn’t have a problem with Holder, so the trial balloon was turned into a big red, white and blue balloon that everyone can be proud of. Sounds smart, right? Maybe not.

Trial balloons are not the kind of thing that a bold fellow would worry about. The truth is that Obama could nominate Eric Holder and know that he’s going to be confirmed by the Democratic Majority, even if every GOP Senator just hates the guy. He’s an experienced, highly able guy, who seems to have the chops necessary to mend the broken reputation of the Justice Department. But for some reason, with the wind at his back, handsome majorities in both houses, Obama still wanted to make sure that the GOP was happy.

This does not bode well. For two reasons. Firstly, now is not the time to be allowing your judgment to be colored by the party you roundly defeated only a few weeks ago, and secondly, if Obama thinks that the GOP won’t try and undermine him the first time that something they don’t like comes to the floor, he’s got another thing coming. Being nice in politics is a ticket to disappointment.

So far Obama’s been one big trial balloon. He hasn’t done much without sniffing the air first. We have to hope that this is not a sign of things to come.

Share on Facebook

You can bet that Obama’s healthcare reform package is going to contain an awful lot that the GOP Senate Caucus is going to hate. In about three seconds all talk of bipartisanship will be off, because they will filibuster. Or at least try to. My guess is that the Dems end with 57, (they will probably win Minnesota by a handful of votes). That means, including Bernie Sanders, and the recently exonerated Joe Lieberman, they’ll have 59 votes. That leaves them one shy to beat the filibuster.

Which is where the fair ladies of Maine come in…

Senator Susan Collins

Senator Olympia Snowe

Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are the two most moderate Republicans left in the Senate, according to the National Review 2007 Vote Ratings. Last year they each voted on the “Liberal” side (according to the National Review Criteria) over 47% of the time. Before Obama starts negotiating with the GOP (never a particularly savory affair), he’ll go to Collins and Snowe first to help him beat the filibuster and get the legislation he wants through Congress intact. They’ll be hearing the words “It’s the President” from their assistants an awful lot in the next couple of years.

Collins and Snowe are pretty much borderline Republicans. A couple more important votes to the left and they might as well be in the Democratic Caucus. And while there are a number of Blue Dog Democrats who might be suspect on some key issues, going to Collins and Snowe first will always strengthen the President’s hand in dealing with his own party.

Collins and Snowe. Get to know those names.  Pretty soon, they’ll be bigger household names than even, I don’t know, Sarah Palin.

Share on Facebook

i am grateful

We now know for sure that Obama wanted to keep Lieberman on board. I’m certain his voice was the key to his survival as chair of the Homeland Security Committee. Obama probably didn’t make his reasons clear, but it seems certain they were straightforwardly tactical. Lieberman is in the Senate for at least four more years. So it’s a good idea for Obama to own him to help him beat GOP filibusters. It’s unlikely he cares much for a turncoat, but the key here is appearances. Who doesn’t like to be forgiven, and who doesn’t like to be seen as forgiving?

Lieberman was kind enough to do his part by saying that he was grateful to Obama for putting in a good word for him, a not so subtle hint that the President-Elect was running the show. The whole episode made Lieberman go all warm and fuzzy inside.  Katie Couric interviewed Lieberman earlier…

He added that he thought the Democratic message on the subject was, “it’s time for us to reconcile, to close ranks.” He added he was “very grateful” and “in some senses feeling closer to the Senate Democratic caucus than I have since the 2000 election.”

For more info go here

Share on Facebook