All New Democrats Now?

WHEN Majority Leader Bob Dole resigned from the Senate last year, some twenty Clinton judicial nominees were pending confirmation. Conservative groups had feared Dole would sweep them all through in a final act of bi-partisan comity, and so breathed a sigh of relief when Trent Lott took over. But during July and August Lott pushed most of the judges through, bartering them for Democratic cooperation on the other matters. At one point later in the session Lott wanted to trade the confirmation of another batch of judges for a Republican Federal Election Commission nomination, a deal that was scotched when the FEC nominee himself told Lott it was a rotten trade.

Last year’s action on judges has turned out to be a harbinger: of how Lott would be bent by the same institutional forces that shaped Bob Dole, of how his pragmatism would come to the fore as Senate Majority Leader, of his current tense relations with conservatives. Lott seems a natural as Majority Leader. Says one GOP senator: “He has the potential skills of a Lyndon Johnson.” But, so far, the Majority Leader with whom Trent Lott is being compared most often is Bob Dole-and not always favorably. Republicans had hoped that Lott could help the party stop its headlong retreat; instead he has hastened it.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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WHEN Majority Leader Bob Dole resigned from the Senate last year, some twenty Clinton judicial nominees were pending confirmation. Conservative groups had feared Dole would sweep them all through in a final act of bi-partisan comity, and so breathed a sigh of relief when Trent Lott took over. But during July and August Lott pushed most of the judges through, bartering them for Democratic cooperation on the other matters. At one point later in the session Lott wanted to trade the confirmation of another batch of judges for a Republican Federal Election Commission nomination, a deal that was scotched when the FEC nominee himself told Lott it was a rotten trade.

Last year’s action on judges has turned out to be a harbinger: of how Lott would be bent by the same institutional forces that shaped Bob Dole, of how his pragmatism would come to the fore as Senate Majority Leader, of his current tense relations with conservatives. Lott seems a natural as Majority Leader. Says one GOP senator: “He has the potential skills of a Lyndon Johnson.” But, so far, the Majority Leader with whom Trent Lott is being compared most often is Bob Dole-and not always favorably. Republicans had hoped that Lott could help the party stop its headlong retreat; instead he has hastened it.