Capital Scene: Senate Quo

SEN. James Jeffords (R., Vt.) enlisted as a sponsor of the Clinton health-care bill in 1993. He voted for national service, family leave, and the Brady Bill, and he opposed the tax cuts in the Contract with America. In 1994, according to the Almanac of American Politics, Jeffords’s vote for a Democratic campaign-finance reform bill so enraged Phil Gramm, who was then chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that he ripped Jeffords’s picture off a wall in the committee’s lobby. Nonetheless, in 1997, Jeffords is set to become a GOP power-broker. He has dodged a potential challenge from Sen. Dan Coats (R., Ind.) and in January will claim the chairmanship of the crucial Senate Labor Committee, while also becoming a brand-new member of another key committee, Finance.

“We were sitting here hoping that Coats would win,” says one Senate staffer, “and all of a sudden Jeffords wins that battle and gets on Finance too, and it’s like, ‘Hmm, what else can we do for Jim today?’ ” Jeffords’s ascendancy in what is the most conservative Senate in well over fifty years is a cautionary sign. Majority Leader Trent Lott seems to have discouraged the more conservative Coats from making a run at Jeffords for the Labor chairmanship in order to avoid a nasty internal fight at the outset of the 105th Congress. Chalk up a victory for one traditional Senate value: collegiality. Then Jeffords got on the marquee Finance Committee thanks to a difficult-to-circumvent formula for awarding assignments to top committees on the basis of a senator’s length of service. A victory for another Senate value: seniority.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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SEN. James Jeffords (R., Vt.) enlisted as a sponsor of the Clinton health-care bill in 1993. He voted for national service, family leave, and the Brady Bill, and he opposed the tax cuts in the Contract with America. In 1994, according to the Almanac of American Politics, Jeffords’s vote for a Democratic campaign-finance reform bill so enraged Phil Gramm, who was then chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that he ripped Jeffords’s picture off a wall in the committee’s lobby. Nonetheless, in 1997, Jeffords is set to become a GOP power-broker. He has dodged a potential challenge from Sen. Dan Coats (R., Ind.) and in January will claim the chairmanship of the crucial Senate Labor Committee, while also becoming a brand-new member of another key committee, Finance.

“We were sitting here hoping that Coats would win,” says one Senate staffer, “and all of a sudden Jeffords wins that battle and gets on Finance too, and it’s like, ‘Hmm, what else can we do for Jim today?’ ” Jeffords’s ascendancy in what is the most conservative Senate in well over fifty years is a cautionary sign. Majority Leader Trent Lott seems to have discouraged the more conservative Coats from making a run at Jeffords for the Labor chairmanship in order to avoid a nasty internal fight at the outset of the 105th Congress. Chalk up a victory for one traditional Senate value: collegiality. Then Jeffords got on the marquee Finance Committee thanks to a difficult-to-circumvent formula for awarding assignments to top committees on the basis of a senator’s length of service. A victory for another Senate value: seniority.