Nation & world briefing
GOP gears up to enact
ambitious Bush agenda
Jill Zuckman
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
WASHINGTON — Hours after se
curing control of the House and Sen
ate, Republicans began making plans
Wednesday to do everything President
Bush had been denied since Democ
rats seized the Senate last year.
At the top of the list is a strenuous ef
fort to make last year’s tax cuts perma
nent, to allow for greater business ex
pensing and to cut the capital-gains tax.
“I think the tax code is an absolute
abomination that discourages invest
ment and incentives and growth, and
is unfair,” said new Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who was
back at work and on the phone with
Bush early Wednesday morning.
“Just take your pick, there’s so much
we need to do.”
Added House Speaker Dennis
Hastert of Illinois: “No one can plan
their estate with a temporary tax plan.”
In an interview with the Tribune,
Hastert said that Congress needs to
further change the tax code to spur
the economy and prompt people to
make investments in the market.
“There’s a whole menu of things we
can do,” he said.
As Republican senators began
jockeying for committee chairman
ships and conservative special inter
est groups lobbied to place their caus
es on the to-do list, a few Democrats
warned that the new balance of pow
er is no guarantee that Bush, Lott and
Hastert will get all they want.
“We’re not going away,” said Sen.
Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader
from South Dakota. “We’re going to be
fighting for the things we believe in.
We’re going to fight for the issues and
the priorities — the reasons we’re in
the business, in the fight to begin with
—and we’re going to keep doing that,
regardless of whether we’re in the ma
jority or in the minority.”
Republicans expect to have at least
51 seats in the new Senate, while De
mocrats will number at least 48 plus
the vote of one independent. In
Louisiana, Sen, Mary Landrieu, a De
mocrat, must compete in a run-off
election Dec. 7 against Republican
Suzanne Terrell, leaving the final
Senate tally in doubt.
In the House, Republicans upend
ed history, which says the party that
occupies the White House usually
loses ground in a midterm election,
and gained four seats for a total of
227. Democrats won 203 seats and
there is one independent. Results in
four seats are not final.
Despite being relegated to the mi
nority, Democrats could pose a sub
stantial obstacle for Republican plans
in the Senate. That’s because the
rules of the Senate give every law
maker powerful tools to slow, stop
and kill legislation. Anything that is
remotely controversial usually re
quires 60 votes to cut off filibusters
and pass the chamber.
“Most substantive measures will re
quire bipartisan cooperation,” said
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Hl., who was elect
ed to a second term Tuesday. “They
will need Democratic support. ”
© 2002, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.
New Senate expected to give
less scrutiny to war on terror
Frank Davies
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON—Republican con
trol of the presidency and Congress
means less scrutiny and oversight of
the Bush administration’s plans for
war against Iraq and how it combats
terrorism abroad and at home, con
gressional analysts said Wednesday.
The GOP takeover of the Senate
means no more Democratic chair
men holding hearings or probing ad
ministration policies, from the han
dling of intelligence data and analysis
about Iraq to how the Patriot Act is
being used in counterterrorism.
“Inevitably there will be weaker
and more accommodating oversight,
until something goes badly wrong,”
said Thomas Mann, senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution and an au
thority on Congress.
“Holding hearings, focusing atten
tion on Iraq or how the Patriot Act is
working — sometimes that’s as im
portant as legislation, and now that’s
not likely to happen,” said Ross Bak
er, a Rutgers University professor
who has studied the Senate for years.
Lee Hamilton, former chairman of
the House Intelligence Committee
and a Democrat, predicted Congress
will be “much less willing to give
careful scrutiny to what the execu
tive branch is doing.
“The House is already compliant
and now the Senate will be, to a de
gree,” he added.
Some experts see little change in
policy over Iraq after the GOP
takeover, noting that Democrats
were badly divided on the issue and
few Democratic candidates wanted
to raise it during the campaign.
But several changes in the Senate
highlight how the oversight will change:
■ Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida De
mocrat who chaired the Senate Intelli
gence Committee, became an outspo
ken critic of the administration’s
preoccupation with Iraq. Graham and
Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Re
publican and ranking member, pres
sured the CIA to declassify more intel
ligence data. Some of that analysis
contradicted the administration’s as
sertions about the threat from Iraq.
Graham and Shelby, as part of a nor
mal rotation, are leaving the commit
tee. The new chairman is likely to be
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., a more reli
able ally of the administration who de
fended the CIA during recent hearings.
■ Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., gives
up the Senate Armed Services chair
manship to Sen. John Warner, R-Va.,
a staunch Bush ally. Levin voted
against the Iraq resolution and criti
cized “intelligence failures” by the
CIA at last month’s hearings.
■ Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., held
several hearings as Judiciary chairman
on how increased police powers in the
Patriot Act were being used and
sharply questioned some of Attorney
General John Ashcroft’s decisions.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the in
coming chairman, said last summer
that much of the criticism of
Ashcroft was “hysterical.”
© 2002, The Miami Herald. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.
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