WHEN TRENT LOTT became Senate majority leader last year, he at once began striking deals with Democrats in Congress and the White House. He had an inner circle of one: himself. That’s changed. Now Lott meets with a small group of Senate Republicans — he calls it the Council of Trent — with whom he discusses ways to advance the GOP agenda. Six senators attend the meetings: Spence Abraham of Michigan, Paul Coverdell of Georgia, Slade Gorton of Washington, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Connie Mack of Florida, and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Council of Trent meetings are informal, irregular, and often hastily called. Their purpose, says Coverdell, is to “bring order to [Lott’s] thinking.” Hutchison says the majority leader “likes to be able to bounce things off people.” At his request, the group convenes around a circular table in Lott’s inner sanctum in the Capitol. The meetings cover both tactics and policy, and Lott usually works from a piece of paper listing four action items. He does little talking but ensures that no single matter occupies too much time. Thirty minutes is the longest the meetings ever last.
The council has discussed every major subject tackled by the Senate in the nine months Lott has been majority leader, but a few stand out. It was the council, for example, that last September recommended Lott agree to the Clinton administration’s demand for $ 6.5 billion in additional spending in order to get a budget agreement. Some believed Lott was giving away the store, but the logic was that getting a deal would allow Republicans to go back to their districts and campaign. Politically, it was the right decision: Republicans gained two Senate seats.
This year, the council has discussed high-profile concerns like the balanced-budget amendment and an independent counsel, as well as less celebrated issues like product liability and the chemical-weapons treaty. Its influence is clear: In order to unite Republicans feuding over Sen. Fred Thompson’s investigation of campaign financing, council members urged Lott to propose a resolution calling on Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel. Last week, the Senate approved such a resolution. Prior to that, the group successfully urged Lott not to allow modifications to the budget amendment in order to get the one vote needed for its passage. But on other matters related to the Thompson investigation, Lott convened a separate advisory group that included Mitch McConnell, Don Nickles, and Gorton.
Members of the council are notable for having relatively low profiles nationally, claiming little seniority, and being less than uniformly conservative. Lott looks to many other people for help, including top aides Dave Hoppe and Alison Carroll, but these six, like any politician’s inner circle, have a special place. Also notable is who’s not included. While Coverdell, Gorton, and Mack hold elected leadership positions, other members of the leadership — Nickles, McConnell, Larry Craig — are not council members. Neither are committee chairmen. Bruised egos would seem inevitable, though no Senate Republican is known to have expressed displeasure. That’s a testament to Lott, who gives all his colleagues a sense of being team members much more than Bob Dole ever did.
Yet if there’s one member of the GOP hierarchy outside of Lott’s orbit, it’s Nickles. Ever since Lott moved into the leadership after the 1992 election, they’ve been rivals, and Lott’s defeat of the more senior Alan Simpson for the whip’s job two years later intensified the jostling. Nickles politely declined to challenge Lott for majority leader last year, but the two have yet to bond. Unlike many of Lott’s close friends in the Senate, Nickles has no House tenure under his belt. One Senate Republican aide diplomatically characterizes the Lott-Nickles relationship as “one of respect and convenience.”
So what is it that Lott sees in Council of Trent members that distinguishes them from their colleagues? Consider the following:
Connie Mack: Mack is Lott’s closest friend and confidant in the Senate. They’re almost the same age, and both were elected to the upper body in 1988 after serving together in the House, where, along with Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich, and Vin Weber, they were members of a small group of activist conservatives known as The Amigos. As conference chairman, Mack occupies the number-three position in the Senate GOP leadership, and Lott has given him responsibility for communications and message development. Lott also put Mack in charge of a well-received Senate Republican retreat held at the Library of Congress in early January. On policy matters, look for Mack, an ardent supply- sider, to provide economic counsel. How much does Lott trust him? Mack occasionally asks Lott for advice, only to be told, “You’re the conference chairman, you decide.”
Paul Coverdell: Lott sometimes refers to Coverdell as “Mikey” — — like the kid in the Life cereal commercial-because of his willingness to tackle difficult issues like education, health care, and the balancedbudget amendment. For his hustle and hard work, Coverdell has been rewarded by his colleagues with the number-four position in the leadership, conference secretary, though he came to the Senate only in 1992. There’s just one other person in recent memory who’s had such a speedy ascent: Lott.
Having spent 14 years as minority leader in the state senate of Georgia and two years as the state Republican chairman, Coverdell is one of Lott’s trusted lieutenants on strategy and tactics. (When Lott brashly challenged Alan Simpson for the whip’s job in 1994, Coverdell seconded the nomination.) He’s described as uniquely talented at “connecting the dots,” that is, linking disparate thoughts and proposals into a coherent package. In this respect, he’s also seen as a consummate team player, someone who can be forceful but who — unlike many of his colleagues — is also willing to submerge his ego in order to get things done. Lott’s selection of Coverdell to lead the balanced-budget-amendment working group reflected this. Even though many Republicans felt the amendment was their own particular issue, they were willing to defer to the friendly, mild-mannered Georgian. Coverdell’s top aide, Kyle McSlarrow, is also a trusted emissary to Lott, having previously served as his deputy chief of staff.
Slade Gorton: In addition to his council membership, Gorton is one of two senators who attend Lott’s Senate leadership meetings without holding leadership positions (Judd Gregg is the other). Like Lott, he was elected to the Senate in 1988 (Gorton had lost a Senate reelection bid in 1986), and both joined the commerce and armed services committees. “We hit it off almost instantly,” says Gorton. Though Gorton is more liberal on some social issues, Lott places great faith in his tactical skills — his feel for when to bring a bill to the floor, when to file cloture, whether to allow amendments, and so on. “I have a lot of confidence in [Gorton] and his advice,” Lott recently told Congressional Quarterly. “He is one of the best lawyers we have in the Senate.” Product-liability reform and judicial nominations are two areas where Lott has asked Gotton to lead Senate GOP efforts, and the 69- year-old former state attorney general appreciates the attention, noting, “I don’t ever remember being asked for my opinion” in the pre-Lott era.
Spence Abraham: He was Bob Dole’s favorite freshman senator, but that hasn’t prevented Abraham from being elevated to Lott’s kitchen cabinet. Lott made clear his affinity last year by asking Abraham to second his nomination for majority leader. He values Abraham’s advice on the intersection of policy and politics. The cherubic 44-year-old graduate of Harvard Law has a wonkish background: He was a founder of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal network, and is now a fervent tax-cutter and supporter of legal immigration. But Abraham has also devoted much of his adult life to being a Republican operative. He spent seven years as state Republican chairman in Michigan, did a stint as deputy chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, and then ran the House GOP campaign committee. Lott recently asked Abraham to join a task force on campaign finance reform and will seek his counsel on potentially contentious issues like the family tax credit and juvenile justice.
Rick Santorum: Just a few months after being elected to the Senate in 1994, Santorum teamed up with Mack in an attempt to strip Mark Hatfield of his appropriations-committee chairmanship. Hatfield’s offense? Voting against the balanced-budget amendment, which lost by one vote. It took a certain chutzpah for Santorum, then 36 years old, to strike against Hatfield, who had been in the Senate 28 years. But it was reminiscent of Lott’s gutsy challenge to Simpson a few months earlier. Hatfield managed to keep his committee chairmanship, but Lott supported Santorum’s move, and the two have worked closely ever since. Unlike colleagues who dismiss the young Santorum as an upstart, Lott appreciates his energy, particularly on social issues like partial-birth abortion (Lott selected him to lead last year’s effort to override the president’s veto). Lott also appreciates Santorum for winning as a conservative in a state that usually elects moderate Republicans like Arlen Specter and the late John Heinz. Asked what Lott wants from him in the way of advice, Santorum replies: “Honesty.”
Kay Bailey Hutchison: There are two reasons Hutchison is a member of Lott’s inner circle. As the most conservative woman in the Senate, she can provide useful cover for some of the more controversial initiatives Republicans may want to pursue. She’s also the most persistent of all the Senate Republicans. Some colleagues see this as nagging, but Lott recognizes that when she’s with him on an issue he can trust her to lobby waverers fiercely. That’s why she was also a member of his whip team before he became majority leader. Lott is not as personally close to Hutchison as he is to another female Senate Republican, Olympia Snowe (for two years, Lott had an office across the hall from Snowe’s in the Russell Building, and he used to barge in asking, “Where’s Olympia?”), but on substance he will turn to Hutchison, as Republicans tackle pet issues of hers related to the military and regulatory reform.
In the end, the Council of Trent matters because, after 24 years as an elected official in Washington, Lott is passionate about few issues. Though his instincts are conservative, last year’s experience underscored his deep desire to keep the legislative machinery moving, even if this means occasionally sacrificing principle. His allies note that the circumstances are different this year and that Lott doesn’t feel any obligation to make overtures in search of a deal. Indeed, he’s said to be increasingly reliant on advice from those who are whispering in his ear. That’s important because, just as the 16th-century Council of Trent sought no compromise with the Protestant reformers, neither the current Council of Trent nor any other Republican voice is advising Lott to strike a preemptive agreement with the Clinton administration. In other words, expect a stiff posture from Lott in the year ahead.
How long it will endure is anyone’s guess: Lott is still relatively untested, and there’s no telling how much influence the council will have a year from now. Indeed, he’s still discovering the powers available to him and doesn’t discount the likelihood of unilateral action. He recently finished reading a book about Senate majority leaders entitled First Among Equals and excitedly asked a colleague whether he had read it. No, said the Republican, who’s also a member of the council. Lott then asked, “Do you know what it says Senate leaders can do?” and without waiting for an answer, he supplied it himself: “Just about any damn thing they want.”
Matthew Rees is a staff writer for THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
