Read Online What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Richard Ben Cramer
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exclaim, and then with his good arm raised, his left hand in a fist, his thumb jutting up, pumping the air, he’d rasp out:
“ Rice! Rice! Rice! Rice! ... ” Like he was cheering for the guy and his rice bill. But he wasn’t cheering. He was getting by before the guy could pin him for something.
Dole always spotted them first. In a crowded room, his gaze was constantly darting. He had the nervous eyes of a basketball guard, the playmaker who brings the ball up: he had to watch the whole court, he had to know first how the play would develop. Meanwhile, he had to keep dribbling.
“Agh, kinda hot ... need some rayyne ...”
“ Howydooon ...”
“Hey, Bob Dohhhlh ... Gooda meetcha ...”
In fact, that was his job in the Senate, as the Leader, Majority Leader: to push the play, make something happen, meanwhile keeping track of his votes, what the White House wanted, Cabinet departments, polls, his constituents, the calendar, members’ schedules, their bottom lines when votes were tight, their points of particular pride and fear. Of course, Dole had been Leader only for the last two years, but this was a case of the job finding the man: he’d kept a hundred balls in the air for a couple of decades now.
That’s how it was in the Senate that day, October 8, 1986, when the budget was still hanging fire, and the House couldn’t seem to send over a continuing resolution, just a simple CR to keep the government working for another few days, much less a spending plan for a year, and the bill to go along with it, to raise the debt limit, so the government could borrow; meanwhile, the President was vowing he’d veto any CR that delayed a budget past Friday, two days from now, and the Speaker of the House was threatening a lame-duck session, to reconvene and take up the budget after the midterm election; meanwhile, Goldwater couldn’t get any defense appropriation worked out in conference, and Hatfield, Chairman of Appropriations, was tied up with the CR, so Dole had to schedule Hatfield’s river-gorge bill when he could attend; meanwhile, the Senate was supposed to have a trial, its first impeachment trial in fifty years, of a judge who, in turn, was suing the Senate (and Bob Dole), so they had to pass a resolution to authorize legal counsel and schedule executive session for the trial and, somehow, drag the matter to a vote; meanwhile, thirty members were up for reelection and some were gnashing their teeth to get home, and Metzenbaum let Dole know that Monday next, Yom Kippur, was the holiest day of the year for the Jews, and DeConcini and D’Amato reminded him it was also Columbus Day and they had political commitments at home; and the President was getting ready to go to Reykjavík to meet Gorbachev, and he asked for a one-day ratification of the new defense treaty with Iceland, so he could take that along; and meanwhile, the White House was getting heat on this Iceland summit—the nonsummit summit, no agenda, no plan, no preparation—so Dole was drafting a resolution supporting Ronald Reagan as he went to Iceland, signing on the Senate, so it looked like the government had a plan and spoke with one voice to the Soviets; meanwhile, the House finally sent a CR, a two-day extension so the government could write checks, but someone over there tacked on a requirement to hire back the striking air-traffic controllers, so Dole checked with the White House and found out Reagan would surely veto that, and he sent it back to the House, to get the air controllers re-amended out; meanwhile, he worked out ten consent calendars with Bob Byrd, maybe thirty or forty bills they could agree upon en bloc, and got those taken up, along with Hatfield’s river gorge, and Exon’s used-car Truth-in-Mileage Act, Danforth’s amendment to the Telecommunications Act, and Stevens’s amendment to the Second-Class Postage Law, Simon’s and Sarbanes’s Human Rights Resolution, the conference report on the bill to keep VISTA alive, the
“ Rice! Rice! Rice! Rice! ... ” Like he was cheering for the guy and his rice bill. But he wasn’t cheering. He was getting by before the guy could pin him for something.
Dole always spotted them first. In a crowded room, his gaze was constantly darting. He had the nervous eyes of a basketball guard, the playmaker who brings the ball up: he had to watch the whole court, he had to know first how the play would develop. Meanwhile, he had to keep dribbling.
“Agh, kinda hot ... need some rayyne ...”
“ Howydooon ...”
“Hey, Bob Dohhhlh ... Gooda meetcha ...”
In fact, that was his job in the Senate, as the Leader, Majority Leader: to push the play, make something happen, meanwhile keeping track of his votes, what the White House wanted, Cabinet departments, polls, his constituents, the calendar, members’ schedules, their bottom lines when votes were tight, their points of particular pride and fear. Of course, Dole had been Leader only for the last two years, but this was a case of the job finding the man: he’d kept a hundred balls in the air for a couple of decades now.
That’s how it was in the Senate that day, October 8, 1986, when the budget was still hanging fire, and the House couldn’t seem to send over a continuing resolution, just a simple CR to keep the government working for another few days, much less a spending plan for a year, and the bill to go along with it, to raise the debt limit, so the government could borrow; meanwhile, the President was vowing he’d veto any CR that delayed a budget past Friday, two days from now, and the Speaker of the House was threatening a lame-duck session, to reconvene and take up the budget after the midterm election; meanwhile, Goldwater couldn’t get any defense appropriation worked out in conference, and Hatfield, Chairman of Appropriations, was tied up with the CR, so Dole had to schedule Hatfield’s river-gorge bill when he could attend; meanwhile, the Senate was supposed to have a trial, its first impeachment trial in fifty years, of a judge who, in turn, was suing the Senate (and Bob Dole), so they had to pass a resolution to authorize legal counsel and schedule executive session for the trial and, somehow, drag the matter to a vote; meanwhile, thirty members were up for reelection and some were gnashing their teeth to get home, and Metzenbaum let Dole know that Monday next, Yom Kippur, was the holiest day of the year for the Jews, and DeConcini and D’Amato reminded him it was also Columbus Day and they had political commitments at home; and the President was getting ready to go to Reykjavík to meet Gorbachev, and he asked for a one-day ratification of the new defense treaty with Iceland, so he could take that along; and meanwhile, the White House was getting heat on this Iceland summit—the nonsummit summit, no agenda, no plan, no preparation—so Dole was drafting a resolution supporting Ronald Reagan as he went to Iceland, signing on the Senate, so it looked like the government had a plan and spoke with one voice to the Soviets; meanwhile, the House finally sent a CR, a two-day extension so the government could write checks, but someone over there tacked on a requirement to hire back the striking air-traffic controllers, so Dole checked with the White House and found out Reagan would surely veto that, and he sent it back to the House, to get the air controllers re-amended out; meanwhile, he worked out ten consent calendars with Bob Byrd, maybe thirty or forty bills they could agree upon en bloc, and got those taken up, along with Hatfield’s river gorge, and Exon’s used-car Truth-in-Mileage Act, Danforth’s amendment to the Telecommunications Act, and Stevens’s amendment to the Second-Class Postage Law, Simon’s and Sarbanes’s Human Rights Resolution, the conference report on the bill to keep VISTA alive, the
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