Alexander joins leadership, talks bipartisanship

by Matthew Hay Brown

On winning the election today to become the new chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, Sen. Lamar Alexander suggested a new tone in a chamber growing increasingly rancorous as the 2007 session draws to a close.

“Back in Tennessee, I often say that I have been nominated by the Republicans and I serve by the grace of the Democrats and the independents,” Alexander told reporters after the vote. “And that sums up my job, I believe, as chairman of the Republican Conference.

“My job is to help our caucus express our beliefs and our principles in a way that rallies Republicans, but attracts Democrats and independents. And I believe I can help do that. I've spent a long time doing that.”

He’ll have some work to do.

He joins the Republican leadership during a week when Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor that his GOP colleagues were “puppets” of President Bush. That comment drew a rebuke from Sen. Arlen Specter, who accused Reid of violating Senate rules on decorum.

Today, Senate Democrats continued to complain of what they say is GOP obstructionism on the Farm Bill, the Alternative Minimum Tax, and the spending bills they hope to finish before they break for the holidays.

“The United States Senate is now divided between two distinct camps,” Reid said. “One camp of senators who are committed to change. Another camp, the Republicans, who want to keep things the way the are.”

Alexander beat Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina 31-16 in the special leadership election to become the No. 3 Republican in the Senate. He succeeds Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, who was unopposed in his bid for the No. 2 slot, minority whip, left vacant by the surprise resignation of Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi.

Kyl called Lott “a very hard person to follow.”

“When you have a great leader depart, as Trent Lott has been, causes us to look within ourselves to determine how we can best proceed to succeed,” he said. “The Republican Conference under Mitch McConnell's leadership is very united to work on behalf of the American people to try to bring this session to a conclusion in a very successful way and then to move forward next year with our Republican agenda, working as hard as we can with our friends on the Democratic side on behalf of the American people.”