Word: caucused
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...Republican caucus late Thursday afternoon, some members argued for total war--a party-line vote to proceed however they chose. The Democrats were doing Clinton's bidding, they argued, and would never go along with a bipartisan deal; they were counting on a long trial to make Republicans look partisan and obsessed. The fear of a voter backlash was no reason to abandon principle. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who won with just 49% of the vote in 1994, told the conference, "I'm up in 2000. And if you read the papers, I'm an endangered Republican species...
...Senate is by definition symbolic. But on an issue as explosive as the trial of a popular President during an age of vengeance in a Senate controlled by the opposition party, no vote is easy. There are surely votes ahead that will divide the caucus, strain party loyalties, test principle against politics and test both against the law. But this vote was much harder than the final tally suggests...
...Lott to succeed with his or any other plan, he'll have to placate not only Hyde and his fellow House prosecutors but also conservatives within his own caucus in the Senate. Suspicious that their leader is in the process of cutting an accommodating prefab deal--just as he did during last year's budget negotiations--some conservatives, like Inhofe, are already rebelling. To be done with the unpleasant duty of the trial, they claim, Lott is running roughshod over the Constitution and the rule of law, all in the service of rescuing the President. "Trent cannot be perceived...
...Democratic counterpart, Tom Daschle, took turns assuring reporters they were doing their best to bring bipartisanship back from the brink in time for the trial. Both men were optimistic about a full Senate get-together Friday morning, but the sticking point still stuck -- Daschle held firm to his caucus's stand against witnesses, while Lott refused to rule them out. The "98 other senators" that Lott referred to so ominously will have a lot to talk about...
There was a long pause. "I'd rather not say," I finally replied. You can't give the entire system away to these foreigners. I told Nigel we might get to that question someday, once I was satisfied that he understood the structure of the Iowa caucus system...