BOB DOLE LOVES BEING Senate majority leader so much he’ll try to hang on to the job even if he’s elected president. That’s a joke, first told by Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report. But there’s an element of truth in it. Having captured the GOP presidential nomination, Dole went “back to work” on Capitol Hill. His plan is to build a record of legislative accomplishment that will help him defeat President Clinton. This won’t happen. Instead, Dole has stepped into a political trap that Democrats are poised to spring.
Dole can’t be oblivious to what Democrats have in store for him. Yet he resumed the task of managing mundane Senate business as if nothing else mattered, conferring with Clinton on March 19 about routine appropriations, the farm bill, a debt-limit extension. True, his Senate position gives him a platform from which to speak and churn out press releases (“Assault Weapons Ban — Statement of the Senate Majority Leader”). But there are better platforms for a presidentia l candidate. Dole had tentatively agreed to speak in Hollywood on March 25, :!, Academy Awards day. His remarks were to be a sequel to his powerful speech last May zinging TV and movie producers for turning out . trash and numbing America’s moral sensibility. In fact, a new speech was drafted that would have gotten enormous attention. But Dole canceled.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle has been candid about his intention to prevent Dole from using the Senate to advance his campaign. Democrats are ready to block any legislation, by filibuster if necessary, that might burnish Dole’s reputation or embarrass Clinton. They want to save the president from having to choose between signing popular but conservative bills and vetoing them. And they don’t want Dole to amass a list of personal legislative achievements. “If both parties can’t claim victory [for whatever passes], there won’t be a victory,” says Daschle. In plainer English, a Senate Democrat explains: “They’re not going to give Bob Dole anything. Daschle is playing his cards for the White House. It’s blatant politics, but it’s how the game is played.”
Daschle says the interests of Senate Democrats and Clinton, which often diverged in the past, now coincide. “I feel very comfortable with our relationship,” Daschle insists. “We’re virtually in perfect sync with the White House on the agenda and the strategy.” Worse for Dole, Democrats are unified on most issues. That became clear when they stuck together five times to continue filibusters against prolonging the Whitewater hearings. Those weren’t easy votes for some senators, since they can be accused of obstructing a legitimate congressional investigation. But “I haven’t had one senator come to me and say, “I can’t keep doing this,'” Daschle notes.
If Democrats are willing to kill the Whitewater probe, they’ll have no qualms about thwarting Dole and Republicans on any issue. The truth is they relish the idea of turning the tables on Dole. “Dole’s ability [as minority leader in 1993 and 1994] to rally every Republican used to frustrate us,” says a Democratic offcial. “He was very good at it. Now he’s going to see Daschle’s not bad at it.” Daschle says Democrats “will keep using” the filibuster as a regular legislative tactic, just as Dole did. This way, if only 41 of 47 Senate Democrats join together, they can block any Senate action.
“Dole has set himself up,” says a Democratic aide. He’s cast himself as the fellow who gets things done in Washington. He’s eager to keep Clinton from being able to label him leader of, as House Minority Whip David Bonior puts it, “the do-nothing and delay Congress.” Dole would rather hang the do- nothing label on Clinton, or “Veto Bill,” as he calls the president. But he needs Democratic help to push bills through. Thus, the trap.
If Dole forges a grand budget deal with Clinton, the president will get plenty of the credit. But even if Dole figured this was a worthwhile tradeoff, it’s questionable whether any deal agreeable to the White House would be acceptable to conservative Republicans, especially in the House. On some bills, Dole might attract the support of as many as a dozen moderate Senate Democrats — enough to end a filibuster — but only by watering down Republican legislation. And the chances are great that House Republicans would balk at mushy, bipartisan compromises. “That’s the problem” for Dole, says Bonior.
Consider, for example, the terms Dole would probably have to accept to get Democratic assent to a Medicaid and welfare reform bill. Medicaid would have to be maintained as an entitlement. Limits on cutting people off welfare would have be mandated. Not only would House Republicans refuse to go along with these changes, so would GOP governors who spurred the effort for Medicaid and welfare reform in the first place. Putting Medicaid and welfare in separate bills wouldn’t help either. The governors — and many conservatives want both or nothing.
For Dole, there’s an alternative to immersion in Senate drudgery and humiliation by Democrats: stepping down as majority leader. Dole hates this idea, but it makes political sense. He wouldn’t be stepping down, anyway. He’d be stepping up to a bigger role as presidential nominee and leader of the entire Republican party. From that perch, he could occasionally advise GOP whip Trent Lott on Senate matters, while spending most of his time campaigning and preparing for the presidency. Dole has said if Clinton can perform the dual role of president and candidate, he can handle being Senate leader and candidate. The difference is Clinton has an entire administration to carry out his presidential business. So he campaigns almost full time now. It’s time for Dole to do the same.,
by Fred Barnes
