Claire McCaskill literally sparkled.
Inside a Willard Hotel ballroom packed with visiting Missourians and other well-wishers, Missouri’s newest U.S. senator shared her excitement and expressed gratitude earlier this week to several hundred supporters, including a throng of 55 family members who came to Washington to witness her swearing-in this week.
“I’ll tell you what, having this much fun really ought to be against the law,” joked McCaskill, whose shimmering pink-and-silver pantsuit was outshone only by her beaming grin.
Capping a political career that led her from state legislator to county prosecutor to state auditor, McCaskill defeated incumbent Republican Jim Talent in a close race to become her state’s first female senator. She is the 17th person to hold the seat first occupied by the legendary Thomas Hart Benton and, almost a century later, Harry Truman.
“I will work hard not to disappoint you,” she pledged, to the delight of Show-Me Staters feasting on Kansas City barbeque.
The thrills of inauguration week will quickly give way to serious decisions, however. President Bush is expected to announce a new plan for Iraq next week that includes escalated troop levels in Iraq.
McCaskill — who won in part thanks to the votes of the one-third of Missouri voters who wanted to express opposition to President Bush — cannot abide the president’s policy decision. “I think it’s confusing to call for a surge when there’s no defined mission,” the 53-year-old McCaskill, between posing for photos, told me. “The president is clearly struggling to find an answer that’s not there.”
Whatever the opposite of sparkle is, it is embodied in McCaskill’s Democratic freshman colleague Jon Tester of Montana.
In a town house just a fewblocks from his new offices, Tester attended an understated pre-inauguration cocktail party befitting the small-town, always-dressed-in-earth-tones farmer who catapulted from state senator to U.S. senator in eight short years.
Tester arrives in Washington after unseating three-term Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, who got himself in trouble with ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff who is now serving time in a federal prison. Tester won by fewer than 3,000 votes; in percentage terms, only Democrat Jim Webb’s victory over George Allen in Virginia was closer.
The demure Tester faces many of the same challenges his Missouri colleague does. He is also wary about the president’s plans for Iraq, but will wait for details from the White House before making any final decisions.
“I have been saying all along that we need to do something different in Iraq,” said Tester. “But I want to hear what the president has to say first.”
McCaskill, Tester and their colleagues in the new Senate Democratic caucus of the 110th Congress hold the slimmest of governing majorities. Both senators cite congressional ethics as a top priority, but that’s an easy agenda item to list. The real challenge will be holding together their caucus on tougher issues, like Iraq, but also energy, the environment, health care and taxes.
“I’m not worried about unity in our caucus,” said McCaskill. “What I’m worried about is finding common ground across the aisle. Both parties spend too much time trying to embarrass each other rather than working together.”
“I think we’ll hold together well on most issues, and not on some others,” echoed Tester. “Building bipartisan coalitions will be harder.”
The 2006 elections marked the sixth time since 1900 that both chambers of Congress switched control during the same midterm cycle. The newly elected Democratic majorities ended the 12-year Republican Revolution, which collapsed under the weight of the GOP’s failed promises and runaway deficits.
Thanks to the extremely close 51-49 partisan makeup of the new Senate, McCaskill and Tester immediately assume important roles in deciding the direction of the new Democratic Congress, the Iraq war and the country’s future, despite being rookies.
Thomas F. Schaller is an associate political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of “Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South.”
