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August 5 - 11, 2002, page 29
‘Lost’ on Capitol Hill
Donald Lambro
Missouri Republicans, lobbyists and a
few election analysts are raising a troubling question about whether
Sen. Jean Carnahan is "lost in the Senate."
Mrs. Carnahan is one of this year's
most vulnerable Democrats. Not only because she has never held elective
office before, but also because of growing criticism that she has little
grasp of the issues and the legislative process.
In one of the most unlikely stories in
modern political history, she was appointed to her Senate seat after her
late husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan, defeated Sen. John Ashcroft
posthumously in the 2000 campaign. Mr. Carnahan and his son were killed
in a plane crash a few weeks before the election. Voters went to the
polls believing that a grieving widow would be named to his seat if he
won.
Now, after 19 months of on-the-job
training, she is running for what would have been the remaining four
years of her husband's term. Her Republican opponent - former four-term
Rep. James Talent - almost won the governorship in 2000 and is running
his Senate campaign on eight years of legislative experience.
She, on the other hand, is telling
voters that if she loses, Republicans will take over the Senate where
Democrats cling to a fragile, one-vote majority.
"And if they can take me down,
then [Senate Republican Leader] Trent Lott can be back in charge
again," she is telling voters.
Since she took her seat, she has had
the political luxury of being virtually off-limits from any criticism,
especially from the Missouri news media. But in D.C., that gentle,
hands-off treatment ended this month when a respected political analyst
suggested that her remedial knowledge of the legislative machinery is a
legitimate issue.
"There is considerable anecdotal
evidence from Missourians and inside-the-Beltway types of both parties
that Carnahan sometimes seems lost in the Senate," election analyst
Charlie Cook wrote in the National Journal.
"As one Missouri Democrat who came
to Washington to lobby Carnahan on a legislative issue said, 'I didn't
expect for her to understand our issues, but she didn't understand the
[legislative] process," ' Mr. Cook wrote.
"As harsh as this may sound, it's
fair to question someone who has never served in elective office and is
appointed to a job as big as U.S. senator," he said.
Since her appointment, Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle has "teed up issues for her to help her build a
record of accomplishment, but that's not the same as being on top of the
job," he said.
Mrs. Carnahan's press secretary, Tony
Wyche, says such charges are "patently untrue. She has been very
active. Pushing bills through the process and getting them signed by the
president is a clear indication that she understands the process,"
he told me.
But that is not the view of a number of
top legislative lobbyists I have talked to recently who confirm Mr.
Cook's account of the senator. They told me she was not fully familiar
with many issues and suffered from a weak staff. Many of the bills she
claimed as her own were sometimes bills she merely cosponsored with
other senators or were handed to her by the leadership to introduce as
her own, they said.
"I have heard a lot of people say
this is a woman who is totally lost up here," one business lobbyist
told me. "Others have told me that she doesn't understand the
issues in any depth."
Another top Capitol Hill lobbyist said
he found her "unprepared on some issues and relies heavily on her
staff."
In one case, she had to change her vote
during consideration of permanent repeal of the death tax after she was
seen talking to Mr. Daschle in the midst of the roll call. The Wall
Street Journal editorial page said her earlier indecision on permanently
repealing the estate tax "sounds to us as if she's waiting for
orders from Mr. Daschle." She finally voted with Mr. Daschle
against permanent repeal.
You would think Mr. Cook's report,
which triggered a lot of buzz here, would have found its way somewhere
in the Missouri news media. The state GOP sent out a news release,
titled "Lost in the Senate," which recounted Mr. Cook's story.
But a Republican official said "not one word" was reported in
the state.
This points up one of the biggest
political obstacles Mr. Talent faces in the race. "Carnahan
receives fawning coverage from the state's press corps, while those same
journalists rarely miss an opportunity to stick it to him," Mr.
Cook said.
Mr. Talent, who served on the House
Armed Services Committee, knows he cannot afford to openly question Mrs.
Carnahan's competence without appearing mean and insensitive.
Instead, "he believes the voters
are going to determine who has the most experience in the race. That's
how he answers that question," says Mr. Talent's campaign press
secretary Rich Chrismer.
Mr. Talent believes that if the race is
decided on the experience issue, he will win. Mrs. Carnahan, on the
other hand, is running to keep the Senate in Democratic hands. As of
last week, the contest was considered a tossup. |
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