Lott Tries to Placate Dissenters

Chastened Republican senators closed ranks behind leader Trent Lott of Mississippi on Friday, as he moved to bring moderates to the leadership table in response to the political defection that cost the GOP its Senate majority.

A day after Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont announced he will leave the Republican Party and hand Senate control to Democrats, GOP senators were still coming to grips with their diminished role.

Democrats, meanwhile, were laying plans to take over the chamber’s committees and the legislative agenda. Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), soon to become majority leader, met Friday with the incoming committee chairmen and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) to develop strategy for the strengthened hand Democrats will have on Capitol Hill.

Jeffords said Thursday that he will become an independent--breaking the 50-50 party split in the Senate and putting Democrats in control--as soon as a broad tax cut bill is sent to President Bush, or on June 5, whichever is later. As of Friday night, it looked like the June 5 date would apply, as Republican leaders pressed ahead with plans to gain final congressional approval of the tax cut measure as early as today.

As part of that effort--and in clear reply to Jeffords’ defection--Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) was invited to Lott’s office as top GOP senators discussed the final shape of the tax cut bill. Specter is the senior member of a dwindling group of Northeasterners to the left of the party’s leadership.

Specter told reporters afterward that he will be taking a regular leadership role he described as “the moderates’ seat.” In the closed-door meeting at Lott’s office, he said he gave other GOP leaders his views on the tax bill, education funding and a proposed “bill of rights” for patients in health maintenance organizations.

Republicans Reach Out to Dissenters in Party

Senate aides said the invitation to Specter was calculated to answer complaints in some quarters that the party has not heeded dissent.

Said Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.): “There are millions of voters across the nation who adhere to a moderate philosophy, many of them in the Republican Party, who are saying, ‘Is there anyone in the Republican leadership who will listen to or espouse moderate views?’ ”

Warner, who will lose the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee as a result of the impending changeover, had sought to broker a last-minute deal to keep Jeffords in the Republican fold. As part of that proposal, Jeffords would have been given a leadership role akin to what Specter now has.

But the Vermont senator severed his lifelong ties to the party, for reasons Republicans were still trying to understand.

“There is a lot of talk around town, about committee chairs and deals and bargains and pledges,” Karl Rove, Bush’s senior political strategist, said on CNN on Thursday. Rove implied that something other than Jeffords’ complaints about the GOP’s policy direction had driven his defection.

Jeffords issued a strongly worded statement Friday knocking down that theory.

His move, Jeffords said, “was not based on aspirations for something else. While some might find it convenient to describe my decision in terms they can understand, such tactics should be seen for what they are. I hope the spinning will stop so that we can all move on.”

Jeffords acknowledged, however, that one of his options in the reconfigured Senate would be to move from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he has headed, to the Environment and Public Works Committee. It has been widely reported that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who is in line to chair the environment panel, would let Jeffords have the gavel. Jeffords’ statement did not address that prospect and Reid has not confirmed it.

Jeffords’ defection followed a series of run-ins with the White House. But new details emerged Friday on frictions between Jeffords and his GOP colleagues.

GOP leaders angered Jeffords by going to unusual lengths to undercut his authority on the education committee, according to Senate sources, who asked not to be named. Like other committee chairs, Jeffords was accustomed to wielding control over amendments offered to committee bills.

But recently, the sources said, GOP leaders forced Jeffords to accept an arrangement in which amendments also had to be cleared with Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a White House ally and staunch conservative who has often jousted with Jeffords on the panel.

The move was designed to prevent the liberal-leaning Jeffords from accommodating Democratic proposals. But it added to a series of slights directed at him by the GOP leadership.

Nonetheless, several GOP senators rushed to Lott’s defense Friday--scuttling speculation that he would face a challenge for a leadership post he has held for five years.

“There isn’t any such discussion,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). “None. Zero.”

Added Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): “None of the leadership is in any trouble. I’ve been in all the meetings and there has been no discussion” of changes.

The consolidation of support for Lott came a day after the No. 2 Republican, Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, raised a mild stir with less-than-categorical answers to questions about whether he may seek the top job.

While questions about Lott’s future appeared to recede Friday, other Republican centrists and mavericks were reaffirming their party affiliation. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he had no cause to leave the party. And by all accounts, GOP Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine are staying put.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who earlier this year joined Jeffords and Specter to force a reduction in the proposed Bush tax cut, said he has no plans to switch. Spokesman Jeff Neal said Chafee “is still optimistic enough to believe that he can make a significant difference by working within the party to moderate its overall image.”

Battle by Moderates ‘Has Long Been Lost’

But many Republicans believe the influence of moderates has been slipping for some time--the Jeffords defection being only the latest sign.

In one closely followed leadership race in December, Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), a pragmatist who represents the party’s old guard, mounted a challenge to Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), a reliable conservative, for the position of Republican policy chairman. Domenici, arguing that the party needed to shift direction after five incumbents were defeated in November, lost 26-24.

“The battle has long been lost by the moderates,” said Steve Bell, Domenici’s chief of staff. The loss to Craig, he said, “should have told everybody where the party was headed in the 107th Congress.”

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Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.