Bipartisan Spirit Had the Feel of History

As all 100 senators convened Friday for an extraordinary session in the Old Senate Chamber, fearful that the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was about to tarnish yet another national institution, it seemed as if the sheer weight of America’s history bore down on them.

In that very room, statesmen Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun had unleashed ringing oratory on the vital issues that divided a young nation. The Missouri Compromise was debated there. A generation later, a senator was severely beaten by a cane-wielding congressman.

On Friday morning, as the winter’s first snowstorm enveloped the capital, the political heirs of Webster, Clay and Calhoun stood on the brink of a total breakdown of bipartisan cooperation.

After nearly three weeks of proposals, counteroffers and now threats, a bitterly divided Senate still could not agree on how to conduct the nation’s second-ever presidential impeachment trial.

In a last-ditch effort to avoid unrestrained partisan rancor heading into the trial next week, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) convened a high-stakes meeting of all 100 senators for a heart-to-heart chat behind the closed doors of the old chamber, just down a Capitol corridor from the current Senate chamber.

“There was a lot of unsaid tension initially,” recalled Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

Yet when the senators emerged two hours later, the spirit of bipartisanship had triumphed and comity had been restored, at least for the time being. By day’s end, with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist presiding, the Senate approved a blueprint for the trial by a stunning vote of 100 to 0.

The meeting’s first speaker was Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.). Eighty-one years old and serving his seventh term, the self-styled Senate historian warned that the Senate itself is now on trial.

“The White House has sullied itself. The House has fallen into the black pit of partisan self-indulgence,” Byrd said. “The Senate is teetering on the brink of that same black pit.”

Byrd and Dodd Talk of Spirits

Looking up from his notes, Byrd slowly surveyed the chamber.

“I believe in all of you. I believe that all of the courage and conviction needed to handle any crisis is present right in this room,” he said, the chamber utterly still. He included these comments in a statement he issued later.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), another white-maned senator, followed by referring to the momentous debates that had occurred in the room where his colleagues now sat. “I think the spirit of Webster and Calhoun and Clay infected us a bit.”

Their words set a conciliatory tone that led to an impeachment trial blueprint that few senators thought was possible when they entered the richly decorated chamber with marbled galleries and crimson draperies.

As can happen only in the traditionally clubby Senate, the warring Republicans and Democrats then quickly coalesced around the plan after two men who could hardly be more polar opposites--conservative Republican Phil Gramm of Texas and liberal Democrat Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts--declared that they were essentially in synch.

The Senate as a whole almost never meets behind closed doors. A rare exception is when members take up sensitive national security matters.

The Old Chamber--last used for official business 140 years ago--is now open to tourists. Otherwise it is used only on rare, ceremonial occasions, such as the “leadership lecture series” recently initiated by Lott.

At Friday’s meeting, Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) took turns describing their proposal for a truncated trial that Lott had floated but quickly withdrew amid protests from conservative Republicans who wanted a full trial.

Gramm, Kennedy Played Key Roles

A lively debate over the details ensued. Finally, the outspoken Gramm stood up and declared that the two sides were “really not very far apart,” as one participant recalled.

Kennedy quickly agreed. “We’re pretty close--up to Jan. 26,” he said, referring to the proposed timetable for when presentations by House Republican prosecutors and lawyers for the White House are expected to conclude. The mood changed as senators realized they could agree for now and put off other decisions.

As the import of Gramm’s and Kennedy’s statements set in, an electricity coursed through the chamber, said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). Several senators near him, he said, muttered under their breaths: “Close the deal!”

“It became obvious that if those two could be in agreement, we probably all could,” added Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.).

Sensing the turning tide, Lott and his Democratic counterpart, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, moved quickly to end the meeting, lest senators talk their way out of the consensus, as Lott put it in good humor.

“As soon as it became clear that we could leave the room without a partisan vote, almost everyone jumped” at Lott’s suggestion to adjourn, said Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).

Gramm’s “very timely presentation,” Lott said later, “turned the whole thing around.”

To be sure, huge fights loom after Jan. 26, when the issue of whether to call witnesses will rise again. But on Friday, at least, an agreement to delay that day of reckoning left senators feeling good about themselves and their institution.

“What 100 senators began to reestablish today [was] trust,” said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.).

An ebullient Lott said: “Today we acted in [the] very best tradition of the Senate.”

To watch a video excerpt of the joint news conference by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) announcing the bipartisan impeachment trial agreement, go to The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/scandal