Democrats seek plan for sharing power

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff, 12/6/2000

ASHINGTON - They lost their fight to retake the House of Representatives, and they are clinging to diminishing hopes of hanging on to the White House.

But in the US Senate, the Democrats will not go quietly.

They want more authority, with equal representation on committees at the least, and a sharing of committee chairmanships at best, to reflect an expected 50-50 split in the Senate. They want the same budgets, the same staffing as their Republican counterparts.

More is at stake than mere pride. The makeup of the Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, is critical to both parties since it is this panel that first approves nominees to the US Supreme Court.

With the new Senate evenly divided between the parties, the Democrats are demanding a Northern Ireland-style peace pact: The two sides may not like each other, but they are going to have to work together without one side trampling on the other's rights.

''There will be more Democratic senators in the next Senate session,'' said Senate minority leader Thomas A. Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota. ''We therefore expect more say on how the Senate is run, and that includes everything from deciding what bills are debated on the floor, what goes into conference reports, to deciding committee chairs and ratios and assigning committee space and office staff.''

The dispute stands to strain an already bitterly partisan Congress. While the relationship between Republicans and Democrats often gets testy, it has almost always been very clear who is in charge. Both parties have been secure of their roles as majority or minority.

But next year, the balance of power is murkier. Should Vice President Al Gore become president, Connecticut Senator Joseph I. Lieberman's seat would be filled, presumably, by a Republican named by the state's Republican governor. That would leave the Senate closely divided at 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats.

If George W. Bush prevails, Lieberman would keep his seat and the Senate would be split 50-50, with Dick Cheney, as vice president, breaking the tie when necessary.

The likelihood of a 50-50 split has Democratic senators demanding shared power. Angry at what they call oppressive rule by the Republican majority, the Democrats say they must at least have equal representation on committees, where legislation can be killed or nurtured.

''We just want what is fair,'' said Senator John F. Kerry, as he exited a party caucus meeting yesterday. While ''we shouldn't get hung up on titles,'' there should be some kind of accommodation that gives Democrats equal control over committees, Kerry said, echoing Daschle's suggestion of having dual chairmanships or dividing committee heads between the two parties.

Daschle's demands were not greeted warmly by Senate Republicans. ''It's very hard to drive a car when two people are holding onto the wheel at the same time,'' said assistant majority leader Don Nickles, Republican of Oklahoma.

Some Democratic senators suggested that Bush, if elected president, might feel political pressure to support a power-sharing arrangement in the Senate, to bridge what the election has shown to be a very closely divided nation.

But Bush spokesman Ray Sullivan refused to make any promises, or to even get involved in the thorny issue. ''The governor recognizes that committee organization and makeup is soley determined by the Congress,'' Sullivan said. Bush ''would not tell a separate branch of government how they should be organizing.''

Adding another tangle to an already complicated situation, the Democrats will have a 17-day window of power in the first half of January, after the new Senate is sworn in Jan. 3, but before the new president takes over.

That would mean Gore, as the sitting president of the Senate, would be the tie-breaker on 50-50 votes and could be the person who makes Daschle the majority leader, at least until Jan. 20, when the presidential inauguration takes place.

''I really like the idea of being majority leader, even if it is for 17 days,'' Daschle said yesterday. But senators and political observers said it is unlikely that the Democrats could take major advantage of their brief reign because the Republicans would have the same ability to tie the body up in knots.

Not only is Daschle not likely to get anything significant passed in 17 days, but ''I'm not sure you're going to see much get done in four years,'' said University of North Carolina historian William Leuchtenberg.