Word: lott
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...wonder they were in a good mood. The debate was unscripted, a reminder of how the place operated in the freewheeling days when Senators actually used the brass spittoons under the antique desks. Such spontaneity is rare under majority leader Trent Lott, who does his best to precook and shrink-wrap bills before they reach the floor. But in this debate, neither side knew in advance what amendments the other was putting forward, and no one knew how most of the votes would come out. "I couldn't tell you today whether [an amendment] is going to get 20 votes...
...will have the votes," Lott declared, and at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, designated tie-breaker Dick Cheney and his old, old heart snapped to attention. On Friday, the hot wind on the Senate floor was again swirling around tax cuts, surpluses and national priorities, and after keeping to the sidelines while McCain accepted his Holy Grail, George W. Bush can get back to the fundamental question of his presidency thus far: Is changing the tone of Washington really worth compromising...
...There could be some Thursday-night connection between what John McCain wanted - a victory for campaign finance reform - and what Trent Lott wanted, which was a few Republican moderates to help send his president off on Easter recess with a brand-new budget. In any case, a foot-dragging Tom Daschle got the budget disruption he wanted by spilling McCain-Feingold over into next week, but whatever magic the Republicans worked to get their tally to 50 will go down as Lott's great coup...
...Lott - and Bush - have the $60 billion and the $1.6 trillion back where they want them: together. And the ability of Republicans to ram Bush's back-loaded tax cut through gives them the upper hand in dictating what gets into voters' wallets this year - and what they can demand from Democrats as the price of a crowd-pleasing 2001 rebate...
...there was much talk of compromise. It was only last Tuesday that Bush was getting behind a retroactive cut, Larry Lindsey was putting death-tax repeal on the block to pay for it, and it looked as if Bush would use the economy as an excuse to let Lott do what he had to to get 10 Democrats on board...