Related Resources On NationalJournal.com Related stories are available to subscribers only: Almanac of American Politics: Sen. Mitch McConnell · National Journal: Herding Wannabes (2/11/06) · The Cook Report: The GOP Leadership Shuffle (1/14/06) · Rules of the Game: Keeping Secrets in McConnell vs. FEC (2/10/03) · National Journal: The Anti-Reformers (2/16/01) [an error occurred while processing this directive] Additional Resources On The Web Project Vote Smart Profile: Sen. Mitch McConnell · Sen. McConnell Testifies on Campaign Finance Reform Before the House Administration Committee (5/1/01) · Sen. McConnell Discusses Campaign Finance Reform on PBS's Newshour (4/2/01) · History of the Office of Majority Whip

By Kirk Victor, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, June 2, 2006

Shortly before Christmas, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was on the spot, the kind that would make even the savviest politician squirm. After several months of blistering congressional debate, the Senate was nearing final passage of a top GOP priority, a major deficit-reduction bill. McConnell, the majority whip, had to determine whether his party had the votes to eke out a victory.

President Bush and congressional Republicans were intent on passing the legislation -- the first serious attempt since 1997 to curb spending on entitlement programs -- to reassure restive core supporters about the party's commitment to fiscal restraint. But after checking and rechecking with his Senate colleagues to see where they stood, McConnell concluded that the vote would be a 50-50 tie.

McConnell didn't hesitate to notify the White House that Vice President Cheney, as Senate president, would have to cast the tiebreaker. Never mind that Cheney was halfway around the world in Afghanistan at a delicate moment in U.S. foreign policy. And never mind that by the time the vice president returned to Washington, his vote might not even be required, because a senator or two might switch positions.

In the end, McConnell's vote count was dead-on. The Senate approved the fiscal 2006 budget reconciliation conference report, 51-50, on December 21. For the seventh time during his vice presidency, Cheney provided the decisive Senate vote.

Other lawmakers might try to grab some glory for pulling off such a feat. Step out before the klieg lights. Enjoy the spotlight. But the low-key McConnell did none of those things. He saw that episode as simply part of his job as the No. 2 to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

"We were working on that vote count for weeks," McConnell recalled during a recent interview at his spacious office just a few strides from the Senate chamber. "We couldn't have the vice president on the other side of the world and lose the only genuine reduction in the deficit since 1997.... So I made the call. I wasn't uncomfortable about it. I'm not afraid to make such a call when necessary."

In other words, the 22-year Senate veteran never sweated it. The budget vote showed that despite McConnell's mild demeanor, he is intense, tenacious, and determined to win. Ten of his colleagues, including several Democrats, all described him in interviews as a hard worker, a keen strategist, a tough in-fighter, and a student of the Senate. Republicans praised him for not showboating and for allowing others to soak up time before the cameras. Call him the consummate inside player.

In fact, McConnell's skills behind the scenes have positioned him, at 64, to become the next Senate GOP leader after Frist retires from the chamber this fall. At this point, McConnell's ascension seems to be as sure a bet as there is in politics, even though other ambitious senators may be waiting in the wings, and even though the Frist-McConnell leadership team has had a somewhat uneven record.

McConnell is "clearly the prohibitive favorite," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in an interview. "He takes care of people's priorities and is also viewed as someone who has a very good understanding of the process, the procedure of the Senate -- someone who is well versed in how to make the Senate function and work effectively, and to use the rules to our advantage."

McConnell is clearly not the stereotypical, backslapping, storytelling Southern pol. His soft-spoken style seems especially incongruous given that he hails from Kentucky, a state known for plentiful tobacco, fast horses, and fine whiskey. In his colleagues' eyes, though, McConnell's understated manner is a good thing.

"Lord knows, you have 100 people here with probably slightly greater-than-normal-sized egos," Thune said. "So [McConnell] is someone who stands out in his ability just to work quietly and effectively."

Likewise, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., noted: "Personally, I prefer somebody who gets things done and focuses on the nuts and bolts of moving things along, to somebody who is just sort of an over-gregarious bullshit artist."

"His word is his bond," added Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "What you see is what you get. He's politically very astute. He's a hard worker. Frankly, he is a gut fighter, too. All those things are important."

Janet Mullins Grissom, McConnell's first chief of staff who managed his first Senate campaign in 1984, described him this way: "He is what he is. He is reserved. And he is intense. And he's the opposite of a backslapper. But he is an incredible politician who has managed over the years to learn to be a man of the people when that is what is called for."

Of course, open leadership contests on Capitol Hill aren't usually slam dunks. Lawmakers seeking top spots can face vigorous challenges. And several GOP senators said they have heard rumblings that Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., might decide to take McConnell on.

Lott, who served as Senate majority leader from June 1996 until June 2001, is also known for his well-honed political skills. He is coy with reporters about his intentions, sometimes giving the impression that he will run for a leadership post, at other times suggesting that he won't.

McConnell's allies, such as Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, seem to be keeping a wary eye on Lott. "I thought Senator Lott was a terrific leader," Bennett said. "He has handled himself extremely well since his fall from power. But I don't see a groundswell to make him the leader again."

A big GOP defeat on Election Day could also block McConnell's path to the top leadership post. If Republicans return to the minority in November, some GOP senators might reappraise the landscape and seek alternatives to anyone in the current leadership.

"Right now, as it stands, Mitch has got this leadership position sewed up," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a fan of McConnell's even though McConnell beat him in a contest to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 1999-2000. "If, in fact, there is a tsunami that hits and wipes out our majority, then I think probably all bets are off. Then you will have a whole new dynamic, and I think Mitch understands that as well."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., agreed. "If there is a wipeout, then you never know what is going to happen," he said. "You don't know how people are going to react to defeat."

McCain offered a respectful assessment of McConnell, even though the two men battled for years over campaign finance reform. "He is a very brilliant political mind," McCain said.

The Un-Frist
Despite all of his colleagues' testimonials, one still might wonder what makes Mitch McConnell the guy to next lead Senate Republicans, especially during a time of high anxiety in GOP political circles, with the party's core supporters disaffected and the public widely unhappy with Congress and Bush.

After all, the Senate Republican Conference has plenty of hard workers -- not to mention a few senators who are more colorful or charismatic. One might even argue that as the whip under Frist, who has been dogged by criticism for his handling of the leadership post, McConnell might not be the logical antidote to the party's ills.

So, when his Republican colleagues are pressed further about McConnell, something else becomes apparent. The one thing they seem to want, without any of them ever saying so explicitly, is an "un-Frist." What does that mean? Take a look at McConnell and Frist, and the contrast could not be more striking.

Back when Frist was a surprise choice for the majority leader's post in December 2002, he was an attractive, youthful-looking 50-year-old with a golden resume as a famous heart-lung transplant surgeon. He was a bit of a legislative outsider, having been in the Senate for just eight years and having made clear he was limiting himself to two terms. He even confessed that he didn't bother to vote until his 30s.

At the time, Republicans had just won back Senate control in the November elections, and Lott was slated to return to the majority leader's post in January. But then Lott made some controversial comments that appeared to show support for the 1948 Dixiecrat presidential campaign of Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. Bush publicly scolded Lott for the comments, and Lott stepped aside. The White House then quietly anointed Frist, who ran unopposed for the top post. (Lott wrote in his book, Herding Cats, that Frist's "power-grab" was a "personal betrayal.")

Today, it is widely assumed that Frist intends to launch a presidential campaign after leaving the Hill. In fact, some Republicans grumble that his thinly veiled national aspirations have unduly influenced his performance as majority leader.

Whereas Frist considers himself a citizen-legislator just passing through the corridors of power, McConnell is a Senate institutionalist through and through. Even now, Frist sometimes seems uncomfortable -- or impatient -- when handling complicated parliamentary maneuvering on the Senate floor. But McConnell is a student of Senate history who has devoted his career to politics.

When he was 22, McConnell served as an intern to his mentor and hero, Sen. John Sherman Cooper, R-Ky. After McConnell graduated from law school, he returned to the Hill as a staffer to Sen. Marlow Cook, R-Ky. It was obvious that the young lawyer could not get enough of politics, Washington, and the United States Senate.

To reach his goal of becoming a senator, McConnell returned to Louisville. In 1977, he narrowly won a race to be Jefferson County judge executive, a post similar to mayor. He was re-elected in 1981 and used the position as a launching pad for a Senate race, just as Cook had done many years before.

In a major upset in 1984, McConnell defeated two-term Sen. Walter (Dee) Huddleston, D-Ky., by an eyelash. He has kept on winning ever since, and last year set the record as the longest-serving Republican senator in Kentucky's history, eclipsing Cooper.

"McConnell knows this place. McConnell loves this place," Bennett said. "McConnell has a zest for the political battle that will stand him in very good stead as a leader, and, yeah, it makes a difference who the leader is."

That McConnell has strong ties to Washington was also demonstrated by his second marriage, in 1993, to Elaine Chao. She is a polished mover and shaker who became the first Asian-American woman to serve in the Cabinet with her confirmation as Labor secretary in 2001. Earlier, Chao had a successful career that included stints as Federal Maritime Commission chairwoman, deputy Transportation secretary, and head of the Peace Corps and the United Way. "Those two are a very powerful force," Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said in an interview.

Loyal Soldier
It is telling that McConnell remained loyal to Lott as he struggled for more than a week in late 2002 to hold on to his post amid a firestorm of controversy over his Thurmond comments. McConnell never made a play for the top job, saying he supported the embattled leader "until the end."

"I didn't feel that the incoming whip ought to try to be a disruptive force in any particular way at a very challenging time for the conference," McConnell said in the recent interview. "I didn't want to begin my tenure as a whip in a kind of adversarial, contentious way. I didn't think that was a good image for the new whip to be taking into the new Congress."

Once the issue was settled and Frist became leader, McConnell sat down with him to work out how best to move ahead. They quickly agreed that "friction was a luxury the conference couldn't afford," McConnell said. "The majority leader's job in the Senate is the hardest job in town. There are enough problems just trying to move the ball in this fractious place, with its rules, without adding on to that some kind of competitive or unhealthy relationship between the top two."

As whip, McConnell has avoided micromanaging on the Senate floor. He deliberately allows Republican bill managers -- typically the committee chairmen who crafted the legislation being debated -- to handle the deliberations and amendments. McConnell explained that looking over their shoulders and second-guessing their strategy "is not something that, shall I say, produces good relations."

Interestingly, McConnell's style as a hardworking legislative insider resembles the background of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid, of course, also served as whip before being elevated to his party's top job after Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., lost his seat in November 2004. Other Democrats, including some who might have been more telegenic media spokesmen for the party, chose not to challenge Reid, who had earned chits with his colleagues for spending countless hours on the Senate floor tirelessly advancing their cause.

"Like Reid, McConnell is somebody who really knows the floor," said political scientist Ross Baker of Rutgers University. "Senators don't want a glamorous national spokesperson, because they are all glamorous national spokespersons.

"What they want is somebody who will run the traps for them, who really understands the floor procedures, has the ability to spring surprises on the opposition, looks after their quality of life, and makes sure that sessions don't run too long," Baker said. "It is a service position. It isn't one that members look to for charismatic inspiration."

McConnell has remained unscathed as critics have zeroed in, with increasing scorn, on Frist's performance as leader. Among other things, Frist has been criticized for advocating congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case last year, for devoting precious floor time to asbestos-reform legislation that went nowhere earlier this year, and for allowing colleagues to lard up the pending Iraq supplemental spending bill with earmarks this spring.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said it would be unfair to lay such problems at McConnell's doorstep, because they stemmed from "presidential politics and some missteps in the front office, not his office."

McConnell is fiercely loyal to Frist, and he ducks questions about his plans in the Senate. The whip simply will not speak publicly about any future claims on the leader's office. He will not publicly disclose any vote commitments that he has rounded up from his colleagues in advance of the GOP leadership elections, which will likely take place behind closed doors in a secret ballot either late this year or early next year.

In that same vein, McConnell won't go near questions about how he would behave as Republican leader or what issues he might pursue. He studiously avoids commenting on anything that betrays presumptuousness.

Still, when pressed on his earlier successes -- he was twice elected NRSC chairman in the 1997-1998 and 1999-2000 election cycles (after losing two previous bids to Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas), and was elected whip in early 2003 (after five GOP incumbents went down in the 2000 election during his tenure as NRSC chairman) -- McConnell suggested that his modus operandi is to move early and quickly to secure commitments from colleagues.

He quoted the legendary Happy Chandler, the former Kentucky governor and senator who also served as baseball commissioner: "Happy used to say, 'You can start too late, but never too soon.' I try never to make that mistake." McConnell's assiduous approach makes him the opposite of an "accidental" leader, as Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., are sometimes called because of the circumstances surrounding their surprising rises to the top rung of the ladder.

At this point, it is an open secret that McConnell has 40 or more solid commitments from his Senate GOP colleagues -- plenty more than he needs should anyone decide to challenge him for the top spot. When pressed on the widely held notion that members of Congress are notorious for lying about how they will vote in leadership contests, he disagreed.

"Sometimes people running for leadership offices don't listen very well and try to hear what they want to hear," McConnell observed. "I am a good listener. The only answer you should put in the yes column is a clear and unequivocal, look-you-in-the-eye 'yes.' If a member is looking at his or her shoes, or saying how good a job you would do, in my view, I don't put 'em in the yes column."

Machiavellian Playbook
Although McConnell is not a well-known national figure, his name registers among the political cognoscenti as the most persistent and prominent opponent of campaign finance reform. He prevented enactment of reform legislation for more than a decade, primarily by waging filibusters.

McConnell was indefatigable in making the case that such reforms, including a ban on unregulated political contributions known as soft money, would obliterate the First Amendment's free-speech protections. Even after he lost the protracted fight on Capitol Hill and Bush signed legislation in March 2002, McConnell continued the battle in the courts until the Supreme Court upheld the law in December 2003.

His single-minded focus in trying to kill that legislation conjures up the image of the bloodhounds in the famous commercial that helped McConnell win his first Senate race in 1984. The dogs were supposedly sniffing around to pick up the scent of his opponent, Huddleston, in popular vacation spots -- making the not-so-subtle point that the incumbent was out raising money elsewhere while the Senate was in session.

That campaign revealed what friends and critics alike say is one of McConnell's notable attributes: an uncanny ability to zero in on an opponent's weakness and rack up victories. His sophisticated political acumen puts him in a class by himself, they say. "He is the smartest political thinker we have in our conference," Hagel said. "He understands the world politically better than anyone else."

Others noted that even when McConnell had the upper hand on campaign finance reform, he managed not to offend those on the other side of the debate. "He is a fierce, fierce ideological partisan, but he doesn't have sharp elbows among his colleagues," observed Marshall Wittmann, a former McCain staffer who is now a senior fellow at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. "He can get engaged in a fight, but he never personalizes things."

Not everyone views McConnell so benignly. His critics see him as so driven by the need to score partisan points that he is less mindful of serving the broader public interest. "He is all politics, all the time," said Joan Claybrook, president of the pro-reform group Public Citizen. "He doesn't have a principled position on anything."

"He is just totally Machiavellian," agreed Bert Emke, the retired chief editorial writer at The Courier-Journal in Louisville. "There probably is a set of core beliefs. But more than anything else, it's the game, the strategy, beating the other guy. He is awfully good at that."

Emke recalled a conference call that McConnell had with the newspaper's editorial board during his tough 1990 Senate race against Democrat Harvey Sloane, a former two-term Louisville mayor. McConnell's keen political analysis blew everybody away, Emke said, even the liberals on the board, which ultimately did not endorse him.

"He assumed we were not going to endorse him. What he was looking for was at least something that was sort of respectful. He talked about the race, how it had gone. He did it like a really good chess player," Emke said. "He talked about how, had he been Harvey, he would have run against himself, Mitch. He had thought it out a lot better than Harvey Sloane ever did.

"He just talked about tactics and strategy and, basically, how you win a race."

"I just thought it was a brilliant performance," Emke continued. "As a matter of fact, afterward, everybody just shook their heads and said, 'This guy is incredible.'"

Principles Or Politics?
McConnell's strategic acuity was reflected in his approach to the fight over campaign finance reform, said Fred Wertheimer, president of the pro-reform group Democracy 21. "He understands, as we understood, the same basic proposition: Reform is not for the short-winded on both sides. He got into this issue very early."

In Wertheimer's view, McConnell saw advantages in making the campaign finance fight his signature issue because his efforts would earn chits with his colleagues. "He realized that when it comes to elections, money is absolutely a central question for members of Congress," Wertheimer observed. "So this is an issue that senators may not be interested in personally spending a lot of their time on legislatively, but it is of immense importance to them."

When pressed on why he expended so much time and energy on the battle, McConnell, who taught law briefly in the mid-1970s as an adjunct professor, said it was a matter of citizens' constitutional rights. "It was an important principle to fight for the right of people to engage in the political process with a minimum amount of government regulation," he said.

McConnell, who consistently ranks among the most conservative senators in National Journal's annual vote ratings, clearly sees himself as a champion of the First Amendment. He even points out that one of the few Senate votes he regrets was in 1989 and 1990, when he backed a constitutional amendment to make it a crime to burn the U.S. flag.

"I remember thinking to myself, this is not a good vote," he said. "I don't have any more respect for flag-burners than anybody else [has]. But what I think they need is a punch in the nose, not a constitutional amendment restricting ... controversial speech for the first time in the history of our country."

So McConnell reversed course and opposed the flag-burning amendment when it resurfaced. He knew his stance would not be popular with his state's many military veterans. In fact, in his 1996 and 2002 re-election bids, "virtually all of my opponents' ads were on that subject," he said. But he easily won both races.

Critics say that McConnell's claims to be a strong defender of the First Amendment will be put to the test by the lobbying and ethics reform legislation, passed in response to the Jack Abramoff scandal, that is pending in a House-Senate conference committee. As one of the conferees, McConnell will have to decide how to deal with a controversial House-approved provision that essentially bans "527" groups, the tax-exempt political organizations that contributed heavily to Democrats during the 2004 election.

Some conservative activist organizations have joined liberal groups in opposing the 527 restrictions as an infringement on free speech. It is hypocritical, these groups suggest, for Republican lawmakers to support new campaign finance limits now, when they voted against such limits in 2002.

Larry Sabato, a politics professor at the University of Virginia, concurred. "It would be hypocritical and partisan for [McConnell] to support regulation of 527s, given his well-expressed views on campaign finance and his principles," Sabato said.

When pressed on how he will deal with the issue, McConnell sounded a pragmatic note. "A conference is a series of compromises," he said. "I have rarely voted on a bill around here that had every provision that I approved of. And we are going to get a bill. Right now, I can't predict whether that [527] provision will be in or out."

As critics accuse McConnell of being driven by political calculation, it is noteworthy that he supported sweeping immigration reform legislation that the Senate passed on May 25, even as many conservative colleagues denounced the bill as "amnesty." McConnell said that Congress has a "responsibility" to tackle this "important issue."

"I personally don't think it is going to be a total winner for either side, or a total loser for either side," he said. "But the American people expect us to address this extraordinarily complex problem."

McConnell also cited other examples in the international relations arena to show that he cannot be neatly pigeonholed: his support for changing the regime in Burma, his early advocacy of NATO expansion into the Baltics, and his willingness to back President Clinton's actions in Kosovo when many Republicans didn't.

"I really don't wake up every morning looking at every one of these issues through a totally partisan lens," he said. "Having said that, I am a conservative Republican and, all things being equal, I would like to advance a conservative agenda."

Signs Of Things To Come
Ironically, despite McConnell's reputation as a fierce political player, some veteran Democrats see him as having the potential to make things better in the oft-dysfunctional Senate if he becomes the next GOP leader.

"He can be a very tough, articulate spokesman for Republicans," Kennedy said. "But Mitch has a feel for the institution, its role, which in today's world is increasingly rare. At times he will say no, and other times he will be interested in seeing what he can do [on an issue]. That is terribly important to this institution."

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., had a similar view. "He's a tough opponent," said Dodd, who worked closely with McConnell in crafting the 2002 election reform law aimed at preventing irregularities seen in the presidential election two years earlier. "He's very careful with every word, every dotted 'i.' But at the end of the day, when you reach your deal, he stays with it. That is all that I can ask for. He's a good legislator -- too good in some cases.

"It will take a lot of leadership to pull things together here," Dodd added. "Doing the bidding of the White House every day is embarrassing. Mitch is a senator. As a senator, he will be tough on a Democratic president and tough on a Republican president. He is a Senate guy. There are very few higher compliments that I can give anyone around here."

In a reflective moment as the hour-long interview with National Journal was ending, McConnell's famous remoteness had melted away. Asked about his health, he said that after heart bypass surgery in 2003, he is doing great. When the conversation shifted to his experiences as a young boy with polio, McConnell let his guard down, just a bit.

After his polio diagnosis, McConnell, then 2 years old, and his mother traveled to Warm Springs, Ga., where she learned physical therapy. The nurses told her that if she didn't want her son to wear a leg brace for the rest of his life, she must persuade him not to walk for a while, even though he could walk. It was a pretty sophisticated notion for such a little boy to grasp, but his mother prevailed, and she provided therapy three times a day.

"My first recollection in life is at age 4, the last trip to Warm Springs, where the nurses told me and my mother that they thought I was going to be able to be a normal kid," McConnell recalled. "As evidence of that, I could buy some low-top shoes. So we stopped in a shoe store in La Grange, Georgia, on the way back home and bought a pair of low-top saddle-oxford shoes, and I had a normal childhood except for not being able to run terribly well."

Although he doesn't recollect many other details from that long-ago period, McConnell said that the incident surely had a huge impact that continues to influence his day-to-day life. "The first and obvious way is that if you apply yourself to something in a highly disciplined way, there is a chance that you will get a good result," he said. "Determination and persistence make it much more likely that you are going to succeed in whatever the endeavor is that you are trying to engage in.

"I have tried," McConnell concluded, "to employ that approach in my career."

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