from my blog, Basie!
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has made it clear that he will not seek a third term in 2006, leaving a potential opening for his leadership post. Already, one leading candidate has stepped forward, though as Eric Schmitt reports in The New York Times today, this candidate might not be the favorite of the White House.
In an unusual rebuke of a senior senator from his own party, President Bush announced on Friday that by making recess appointments he had completed creation of a nine-member independent commission to review the Pentagon's list of proposed base closings this year.
Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican who strongly opposes the coming round of base closings, has been holding up a vote by the full Senate since last month on Mr. Bush's choice to lead the panel, Anthony J. Principi, a former secretary of veterans affairs, senior Republican aides said. Mr. Lott was expected to do the same to the panel's eight other members if the Senate Armed Services Committee approved them, as expected, as early as next week, the aides said.
But Mr. Bush dashed any plan Mr. Lott may have had to stymie the process, a precursor to the first major round of base closings in a decade, by appointing members to the panel while the Senate was in its spring recess, thus eliminating the requirement of Senate confirmation. The appointments expire at the end of the Senate's session next year, long after the panel is scheduled to finish its work.
This, of course, is not the first time Lott and the White House have not exactly seen
eye to eye...
[T]here is no love lost between Mr. Bush and Mr. Lott, particularly after Mr. Bush rebuked Mr. Lott in December 2002 for his statements that appeared to embrace the segregationist appeals of Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. Mr. Bush distanced himself from Mr. Lott, the incoming Senate majority leader at the time, by declaring that his statements "do not reflect the spirit of our country."
If Lott can round up the support of the GOP caucus behind his bid for Senate Majority Leader -- and it's not clear that Bush would be able to block him a second time -- Bush's final two years might be slightly more difficult than his first six as a semblence of normality will return to the Senate.
Lott is someone who cares deeply about the US Senate and history in general (his comments on Strom Thurmond might have led some to believe him to be a racist, though in reality he is more of a scholar of history in a Robert Byrd model than an overt racist), and his presence in the leadership of the GOP would greatly improve the working conditions in Washington.
Lott's selection is far from assured -- the 2006 elections will undoubtedly affect the face of the Senate, both in partisanship and ideology -- so it might be somewhat hasty to discuss the ramifications of his possible return to power. Nevertheless, it would behoove both sides of the aisle to embrace, rather than shun, Lott, for no matter what one thinks of him, his success at running the Senate efficiently and amicably -- both as Majority Leader and briefly as Minority Leader -- cannot be denied. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day.
check out my political blog, Basie!