Barack Obama

Strange alliances grow

Friday, October 14, 2005

By Kathy Kiely
USA Today

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 1,000 miles away from the Gulf Coast communities that Hurricane Katrina tore apart, the storm created another startling change in the national landscape -- one that many Americans might welcome.

Here in the Senate, one of the Republican Party's most outspoken conservatives has joined forces with one of the Democratic Party's rising stars in an effort to keep government funding for storm victims from being wasted.

"We're fighting a war, we have the largest natural disaster ever in our country and we have a structural deficit," says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., explaining why he reached out to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to co-write a bill requiring an accounting czar for hurricane relief spending. "We're in a time when we need everybody's help."

Another Katrina-spawned couple -- liberal Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican budget hawk from New Hampshire -- introduced legislation last week to create a Gulf Coast Recovery and Disaster Preparedness Agency.vp

The unlikely partnerships illustrate a point often lost about Washington's political battles: Despite -- or perhaps because of -- a series of elections that have underscored how closely and deeply the nation is split along political lines, some of the most passionate advocates on either side of that divide find ways to work together.

Some members of the "Gang of 14," the Republican and Democratic senators who earlier this year avoided a showdown over judicial nominations, think their bipartisan solidarity is one reason President Bush picked Supreme Court nominees who have been able to win support from both parties. John Roberts was confirmed as chief justice 78-22, and nominee Harriet Miers has won praise from both Republicans and Democrats.

"This nomination did not set off alarm bells with any of us, and we're pleased about that," said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and "gang" member.

Some of Washington's current odd couples are marriages of political convenience, created by issues that transcend party lines, such as the fight to keep government from confiscating private property that brought together Rep. Maxine Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat and frequent Bush critic, and Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and presidential ally.

Disarming critics

Some pairings come in response to an overwhelming crisis, like Hurricane Katrina and last year's Asian tsunami, which united former president George H.W. Bush and the man who ousted him from the White House, Bill Clinton, to raise money for victims.

Sometimes it's personal. "You often end up working with people with whom you have a good, positive personal relationship, even though you don't agree on many issues," says Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. She has written bills with three Republicans who may also seek the presidency in 2008: Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Bill Frist of Tennessee and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. And another of the former first lady's legislative partners, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., helped prosecute her husband during his 1999 impeachment trial.

Eye-catching alliances can attract attention and support, and disarm political critics. Obama says he was already interested in putting stricter accounting controls on hurricane relief spending and was happy to hook up with Coburn "to ensure this wasn't perceived as a Democratic attack." But there's a downside to cross-party politics, as demonstrated by the political left and right's firestorm over Miers' nomination.

"Nobody gets passionate about moderate politics," says Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D. He says the only criticism of his rapprochement with Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who once ran against him, has come from interest groups that helped fund their campaigns. "They've got to make people angry to get money and memberships." Still, Johnson adds, he and Thune "were both exhausted by the hostility and negativity."

Common ground

That sense of battle fatigue is sparking other efforts to improve relations among the nation's policymakers. "You've got people who in their heart of hearts want to break out of this, but they are driven by machines," says David Abshire, a veteran of the Nixon and Reagan administrations, who last March co-founded the National Committee to Unite a Divided America, which includes former Republican and Democratic Cabinet officials.

Last month, the Fetzer Institute, a non-partisan spiritual think tank, and the Faith and Politics Institute, an interfaith group that sponsors bipartisan retreats for members of Congress, published a book of essays and sponsored a daylong conference to counter what Fetzer's Mark Nepo calls "a breakdown in honest public exchange."

Rep. Tim Johnson, an Illinois Republican (and no relation to the South Dakota senator ) and Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., this year formed the Center Aisle Caucus. So far, 47 House members have joined the bipartisan group. "It doesn't mean we're moderate," says Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo. "It means we're trying to at least find something in common."