Sen. Breaux Makes Middle the Power Position

After the Senate voted Friday to approve a tax cut roughly 25% lower than President Bush wanted, Sen. John B. Breaux declared it “a great victory for all Americans . . . a great victory for the American political process.”

His beaming presence at a news conference indicated he also understood it was a great victory for John B. Breaux.

The Louisiana Democrat has yearned for years to be a congressional power broker. And he may finally have achieved that status with Friday’s 65-35 vote.

The $1.2-trillion tax cut called for by the Senate vote was close to the figure Breaux had staked out in an announcement Wednesday, flanked by other Senate centrists following his lead.

And after Friday’s vote, a number of senators paid more tribute to Breaux, 57, than to the Democratic and Republican leaders who were officially in charge of the budget debate.

Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) congratulated him for “an incredible diplomatic achievement.”

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) recalled many of Breaux’s earlier, failed attempts to seize the role of broker, including trying to break the budget logjam that triggered the government shutdowns of 1995-96.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever stood here with victory before,” Chafee said. Laughing, Breaux shot back, “Thanks for reminding me.”

Of course, Cleland and Chafee were also key swing votes in the budget debate. And through most of the week, the main target of the White House’s persuasion campaign was Sen. James M. Jeffords (R-Vt.), a GOP moderate whose holdout clearly signaled that Bush’s $1.6-trillion tax cut was in trouble.

But in the end it was Breaux--who once quipped that his vote was not for sale, “but it is available for rent”--who played lead negotiator with the White House on Friday.

After failing to convince Jeffords to support Bush’s plan, the White House made one final push Friday, turning its sights to four Democrats.

The group included Breaux, Cleland, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Robert Torricelli of New Jersey. Vice President Dick Cheney and other White House negotiators spent much of the morning probing each of these Democrats for legislative soft spots.

A number of them were willing to consider backing a tax cut approaching the president’s recommendation but only if others were prepared to join them and provide political cover.

“Nobody wanted to be the 50th vote” for the Bush plan, said Nick Calio, Bush’s director of legislative affairs.

Seizing the moment, Breaux told the administration he could deliver several Democratic votes for a 10-year tax cut in the $1.2-trillion range that would start in 2002 plus an $85-billion tax rebate this year. This, at least, would provide some bipartisan support for a plan higher than the $900-billion tax cut proposed by the Senate’s Democratic leadership.

The one string Breaux attached was a White House promise not to push for a higher number when the Senate tax cut is reconciled with negotiators from the House later this year, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

The White House refused, deciding it was more important to have freedom to pursue a larger cut later with the aid of House Republicans--who have already approved the $1.6-trillion cut--than strike a binding deal for a lesser cut in the Senate.

Shortly thereafter, Breaux came back offering the votes again but this time without the condition. The White House quickly agreed, having decided that efforts to get closer to the Bush plan would likely fail. As it turned out, 15 Democrats joined the Senate’s 50 Republicans in backing the compromise tax cut.

Asked why Breaux was so ready to drop what had been a key component of his initial proposal, some involved in the negotiations said the terms of the deal may not have been as important to Breaux as being part of it.

Breaux himself is fond of saying that he’d “rather have half of something than a hundred percent of nothing.”

He has an unabashed affinity for the brand of retail politics his home state is known for. Until Friday, his brokering energies had often ended in failure, ranging from attempts to produce a congressional tobacco settlement to efforts to achieve bipartisan Medicare reform.

Breaux’s brand of chameleon politics has helped him cozy up to three presidents. He was a frequent tennis partner of the elder George Bush. He was close, if not tight, with President Clinton. And he was among the few Democratic senators invited to President George W. Bush’s ranch following last year’s election.

Breaux’s wavering loyalties bother some of his colleagues.

“At various points during this week, I considered him a friend and ally,” Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles (R-Okla.) said Friday. “And at various times, I considered him one of our major obstacles.”

But even if colleagues often can’t figure out where he stands, Breaux is now clearly where he wants to be. As he recently told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a Senate split 50-50 between the parties “makes the middle more important, and that’s me.”