Across Capitol Hill, lobbyists from liberal interest groups–environmentalists, abortion- and civil-rights activists, Big Labor–fanned out to buttonhole lawmakers. They were agitating with particular vehemence against President-elect Bush’s picks for Justice (Ashcroft), Interior (Gale Norton) and Labor (Linda Chavez). One Democratic staffer described the cabinet trio as “in-your-face nominees.” By choosing such hard-line right-wingers, the liberals argued, the president-elect was acting as if he had won a conservative mandate with a landslide. The only thing to do, the liberal activists urged, was to push back.
Capitol Hill last week was still a long way from the kind of feeding frenzy that consumed earlier ill-fated presidential nominees like Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan’s pick for the Supreme Court, or John Tower, George Bush Sr.’s first choice as Defense secretary. Still, pols and talk-show pundits were beginning to sharpen their knives. Hill Democrats seemed to sense a chance to wound the Bush administration before it ever really gets started. “All the nominees are likely to be confirmed,” acknowledged an aide to a Senate Democratic leader. “But you would have said that two weeks before the Bork hearings or the Tower hearings.”
The Bush team professed only mild concern. The president-elect planned to stay above the fray and stick to his basic message, pushing for education reform and a big tax cut, said a top adviser. The squabbling on Capitol Hill would only turn off voters who are sick of posturing and partisanship, this adviser insisted. “The public’s ready to get beyond the mischief-making phase and get something done,” he declared.
Such optimism may be premature. At least one Capitol Hill sideshow could quickly become the main event. John McCain, the maverick Republican who gave Bush fits during the GOP primaries last winter, declared that he would force Congress to take up campaign-finance reform as soon as Bush was inaugurated. McCain may or may not have the votes to back up his threat, but the Bush forces are already meeting with Senate Republican leader Trent Lott to figure out ways of heading off a full-fledged floor battle.
The Bush team also planned to lull restive senators with a campaign of heavy schmoozing and glad-handing by the controversial nominees. But these maneuvers were essentially defensive. Bush cannot afford to spend his first month in office fending off attacks on his nominees or stalling campaign-finance reform. He needs advisers who can frame a strategy that will capture the media’s attention and set the agenda for fractious lawmakers.
But who? Bush has assembled a White House staff that appears able and practiced at making the trains run on time. Andy Card, the chief of staff, has a bland geniality that rivals underestimate at their peril. The only operative with strategic vision is Karl Rove, whose appointment as special assistant to the president was announced last week. Known as King Karl, Rove was the playful, scheming architect of Bush’s successful presidential campaign. But his reputation as a seer was somewhat clouded when the GOP landslide that Rove so confidently predicted wound up as essentially a tie. A Texan more comfortable in Austin than Washington, Rove will have to learn the capital’s peculiar byways and rhythms. And he will be jockeying for power inside the administration with some formidable old Washington hands, not least Vice President-elect Richard Cheney. Rove wanted a grander job description than he got. Asked about Rove’s White House duties, counselor Karen Hughes assumed, perhaps inadvertently, an aura of superiority. “What we decided for Karl was… ,” she began.
Measured against the chaos of Bill Clinton’s first weeks in Washington, Bush’s early going has been a model of efficiency and discretion. But the president-elect may have miscalculated on the delicate balance of satisfying different constituencies. Bush seems to have believed that if he surrounded himself with veteran pragmatists in the big economic and national-security jobs, he could afford to populate other cabinet posts with right-wing true believers. The appointments of Ashcroft, Norton and Chavez, however, could stir a kind of political “Perfect Storm,” bringing together the phone banks and mailing lists of liberal groups that often work together. Senators could be seen raising their fingers in the wind. When Ashcroft’s appointment was first announced after Christmas, Democrats Joseph Biden and Russ Feingold were swift to announce support for their old Senate colleague. But when Biden and Feingold returnedto Washington–and were besieged by angry interest groups–they began hedging their remarks.
Democratic Senate leaders were emboldened last week, heartened by a deal that will evenly divide up committee seats, reflecting the 50-50 split in the upper house (only the tie-breaking vote of Vice-President-elect Cheney gives the Republicans effective control). Republican conservative lawmakers grumbled that GOP leader Lott had been rolled by his opposite, Democrat Tom Daschle. The Democrats on the Hill seemed to be catching the spirit of President Clinton, who has been, in the acerbic words of Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, a “busy beaver” in his final days in office. Apparently not stopping to sleep, Clinton has been furiously signing executive orders advancing liberal causes, like protecting millions of acres of forest from mining and drilling.
Pat Leahy, the normally statesmanlike top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, intends to take advantage of the Democrats’ brief window of control in the Senate to begin early confirmation hearings on Bush’s choice for attorney general. One of Leahy’s first witnesses, NEWSWEEK has learned, is likely to be Judge Ronnie White–an African-American derailed from the federal bench by the then Senator Ashcroft.
Ashcroft–like Norton and Chavez–is likely to be a poised and genial antagonistic witness. Bush is counting on their charm to disarm the opposition. Last week, when Ashcroft called on Leahy at his Senate office, the two were all smiles. Then the door closed. When it opened more than an hour later, Ashcroft looked grim. His only comment to the press was a tight-lipped “Happy New Year.” Unless they can find a way to get control of the agenda on Capitol Hill, it could be a bumpy new year for Bush and his team.
