U.S. parties drawing strategies

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MAY 25. With the power structure in the United States Senate radically shifting in the switch or defection of the Vermont Senator, Mr. James Jeffords, both Republicans and Democrats are plotting their strategies. And the White House is trying to calm its outraged members who believe that the President's top and close advisors have literally bungled.

The Republicans are smarting under the stunning blow delivered by Mr. Jeffords on Thursday. The fact that neither the President, Mr. George Bush, nor the Senate leadership could sway the thinking of the Vermont politician is testimony to the kind of political environment that has come about within the Grand Old Party. Mr. Jeffords essentially made the point that moderates like him in the GOP were becoming a thing of the past.

Mr. Bush was travelling in Cleveland, Ohio when the political turbulence was going on in Washington D.C. He did not seem outwardly perturbed even if he did have to come to the sober realisation that his domestic and foreign policy agenda had all the potential of being challenged by the Democrats and much more aggressively than in the past.

Mr. Bush made the point that he was elected to get things done for the American people and this mission was not going to be derailed by a Senate now controlled by the Democrats. But he also made it plain that he did not agree with the reasons given by Mr. Jeffords to leave the GOP. ``I was elected to get things on behalf of the American people, and to work with both Republicans and Democrats, and we're doing just that,'' he said.

The Senate gets back from the Memorial Day Weekend on June 5 when all Chair positions of Committees change hands. And it will be the start of a new round of politicking on Capitol Hill - both Republicans and Democrats seemed prepared for this battle, and for the record both sides are talking about the theme of bipartisanship. And the Democrats would be in a world of their own if they take Mr. Jeffords for granted - he will be as difficult to the Democrats as he was to the Republicans, a point he himself emphasised on Thursday.

In all the talk of the changing political and power structure in this City, the focus is on domestics. But Democrats will make all the relevant noises on foreign policy issues. The immediate attention is on the Judicial Nominees where the Democrats have now vowed to challenge the Bush administration nominees.

``The idea of having just bone slate of right wing judges is gone. There will be some conservative judges, but we will exert moderation,'' said the incoming Chairman of the Judiciary Courts Sub-Committee, Mr. Charles Schumer. One of the major changes that is expected under the Democratic leadership is to bring back the process of the American Bar Association in the vetting process of judicial nominees - something that the Bush White House did away with. For their part, the Republicans believe that the Democrats will be more personal in their attacks of the President's judicial nominees.

One of the important things the Republican Senators were able to do after the Jeffords bombshell was to force a vote on the nomination of Mr. Theodore Olson as Solicitor-General. It cleared the full Senate 51 to 47 with two Democrats voting with the Republicans. The leadership of the Democratic Party put a hold on the Olson nomination wanting to learn more of his role in a magazine's investigation of the former President, Mr. Bill Clinton's personal life.

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