Senate Trial Gave a Boost to GOP’s Lott

The yearlong scandal involving President Clinton may have been devoid of any heroes, as pundits are fond of saying, but this last month’s Senate trial has bolstered the stature of at least one major player: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

Although some Americans clearly are unhappy over Clinton’s acquittal, Lott has been winning kudos from both parties--not only for keeping the trial on track, but for avoiding the strident partisanship that plagued the House proceedings last autumn.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who earlier had expressed apprehension that the Senate might go the way of the House, took the floor after the final acquittal vote Friday to praise Lott effusively “for the great, great job he has done.”

“We were thrown into adverse circumstances and we didn’t want to be there, but we feel closer walking out of there,” Daschle said in a post-trial interview. The two had been on opposite sides on almost every issue, but they still managed to work together.

However, the jury is still out on whether Lott’s strategy--to risk angering conservatives now in hopes of protecting the Senate’s 19 GOP incumbents who could face a voter backlash over impeachment in the 2000 elections--will have gained him anything beyond transitory praise.

Lott spent Presidents Day in an effort to put impeachment in the past and map out the future of the GOP agenda by promoting the party’s $743-billion tax cut proposal.

He joined a cadre of Michigan Republicans--Gov. John Engler, Sen. Spencer Abraham and Rep. Joe Knollenberg--for a town hall-type meeting in front of about 400 people. A banner behind them spelled out their slogan: “Listening to America--Tax Cuts for Everyone.”

The gregarious, impeccably dressed Mississippian has managed to hold Republicans together during the impeachment trial, but analysts say he still hasn’t gained any real control of his fractured GOP caucus, which remains badly splintered over issues and strategy.

“Lott’s performance during the impeachment trial demonstrated that he still has a problem with the right wing of his party,” said Jerold Duquette, a political analyst at George Mason University in Virginia. “He was unable to lead them in the direction that he wanted.”

And angry conservative activists already are faulting the majority leader for not being more aggressive in pushing for a fuller airing of the House managers’ case against the president--and for not taking a tougher approach toward Senate Democrats.

Had Few Credits as Senate Leader

David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union, said Lott already “had problems” among conservatives before the Senate trial, but “for reasons fair and unfair, he probably finds himself held in lower regard than he was at the outset.”

“I guess you have to divide it,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political analyst. “Inside the Senate, Lott’s position has been enhanced--at least, for the time being. But outside, a good many Republicans are going to be critical of what he’s done.”

Nevertheless, even the kudos represent a gain for the beleaguered majority leader. Although Lott has held the post since mid-1996, until the impeachment trial he had little to show for it. Republicans were in disarray, and Lott himself was viewed as a man who couldn’t deliver.

When the GOP barely held on to its 55-vote Senate majority in November, Lott’s leadership became the target of criticism. Although he managed to keep his job, there were serious questions about how effective he could be in the new session.

But to many onlookers, Lott’s performance in shepherding the impeachment trial, though not flawless, has resurrected his reputation and left him poised to become a more potent force in shaping policy for the Republicans. He also is in far better favor with Democrats.

Hewing to a middle course that avoided extremes by either side, Lott gingerly fended off pressure from Democrats to cut off the trial early. He rebuffed demands by House managers to call up a long list of witnesses. And he maintained a bipartisan tone to the end.

By deft behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Lott managed to save face for the 13 House prosecutors--a difficult job, considering the inevitable clash between the House managers and the visibly more laid-back Senate--by privately persuading the House team not to call witnesses.

Perhaps most amazingly--in an outcome that undoubtedly will earn the gratitude of all sides--the majority leader fulfilled his pledge to have the Senate complete the impeachment trial by mid-February, a schedule that looked almost impossible even three weeks ago.

To be sure, Lott’s heightened stature has not come without some setbacks. Early on, he prematurely went out on a limb to support a plan that would have cut the trial short and censured Clinton instead--only to have to backpedal when Republicans rebelled.

A few days later, Lott announced plans to push through a GOP proposal for a full-blown trial, complete with testimony from a string of prosecution witnesses. He later backed away from that after moderates appealed for him to scotch the idea.

In another instance, when Senate elder Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) announced a surprise move to dismiss the case entirely, an outraged Lott hastily vowed to block debate on the motion. When Democrats--and even some Republicans--protested, Lott backed down again.

Nevertheless, whether by skill alone or partly by luck, the often-beleaguered majority leader has managed to parlay most such blunders into bridgeheads, enabling him not only to recover but to win medium-term gains as well.

The setback over the early move to cut short the trial helped Lott put together a rare 100-to-0 backing for a bipartisan plan to get through the trial’s first phase. His concession on the Byrd motion helped solidify Republicans, leading to that measure’s defeat.

Perhaps more important, the trial has given Lott an opportunity to bolster his presence as majority leader by forging closer ties, both with his own fractious Republicans and with Democrats--a step that almost certainly will yield dividends in coming months.

Where the Mississippian previously consulted often with only a handful of like-minded Republicans, insiders contend the trial has forced him to deal on an hour-by-hour basis with GOP senators of all stripes and to take their views into account.

“It’s like having to spend time with people in a foxhole--you really get to bond with people like nowhere else,” one GOP staffer said.

Moreover, since the beginning of the trial preparations in December, Lott has reached out more than ever to Democrats, talking regularly with Daschle and other party leaders in an effort to broker compromises.

As a result, while the two parties have split over several key votes, Daschle and other senior Democrats have refrained from dismissing the Senate trial as a partisan exercise, as House Democrats did over their chamber’s handling of the impeachment issue.

Not surprisingly to anyone who knows him, Lott’s approach to the impeachment trial has been based mainly on pragmatism--and election-year mathematics.

The five-seat loss that Republicans suffered in the House in November--and the continuation of nationwide poll results showing that about 70% of Americans wanted Clinton to stay in office--left no doubt that the electorate wouldn’t support a full-scale impeachment trial.

Even more unsettling were the numbers for the 2000 election: Of the 33 senators who will be up for reelection then, 19 are Republicans and 13 of them come from states that Clinton carried in 1996. Losing only six seats could cost Senate Republicans their 55-45 majority.

Trial Hurt Lott ‘Outside the Senate’

How well his strategy will work in the long run remains to be seen, but there is little doubt that conservatives are angry.

“The difference between Trent Lott and a lot of conservatives is that, as a product of the legislative branch, he is always looking for some deal, which almost always disappoints” those outside, said Keene, of the American Conservative Union. “This [trial] has hurt him outside the Senate.”

There also is the question of how long the majority leader’s heightened status will last. Although Lott is basking in praise from all sides right now, the Senate’s Republicans remain splintered and reluctant to toe the line.

But Duquette, of George Mason University, believes the outlook isn’t quite as grim as it may seem.

“I don’t think [the Senate Republicans’ partisanship on the impeachment question] is going to carry over into Social Security and other issues,” he said. “They won’t have the ideological edge that impeachment did and won’t be affected by the bitterness over the president.”

Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this story.