Southerner To Assume Senate Helm Mississippians Vie For Dole’s Leadership Post

The next Senate majority leader is likely to be a brainy, hard-charging Southern conservative who is a tough partisan - but has a knack for cutting deals with opponents when it serves Republican needs.

Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, an ally and former mentor of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., is the front-runner in a two-person race to succeed Bob Dole when Senate Republicans pick their new leader as early as next week.

Lott’s expected rise to the prestigious post underscores the Dixie flavor of the GOP, which has increasingly bolstered its Southern base as assertive conservatives have gained more and more influence in the party.

The only obstacle now standing in Lott’s way is, ironically, a fellow Mississippian, Sen. Thad Cochran, who is just as conservative in his political stance but not as outspoken in advancing the cause.

Lott’s election to majority leader would put the leadership of both the House and the Senate in Southern Republicans’ hands for the first time in American history. Southerners’ control over the party is further solidified by Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Although the more voluble Lott has the inside track in the leader race, the more courtly Cochran is not conceding an inch.

“However it comes out,” said Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, “it will signal a sea change in the philosophy of the Congress and solidify the Republicans’ spreading popularity in the South.”

Gramm went on to suggest that the Senate, despite its ancient rules that make it difficult for any political viewpoint to eclipse opposing views, would “be more like the House,” where Gingrich & Co. have stamped practically everything with a deeply etched conservative brand.

Cochran, at age 58, is senior to Lott, 54, in Senate service. But both came to Congress at the same time, as House members in 1972. The entire 26-year political career of Lott, a tireless achiever, has been marked by a steady, unbroken ascent to positions of power. He is the only person, for example, who has served as his party’s whip in each chamber.

“One thing Trent knows how to do is count votes,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., whether it entails the rounding up of votes for legislation or for his own reaches for power.

“If there is anything that truly defines Trent Lott,” said a Republican leadership aide, “it is his desire to be a player. He wants in on the action; he likes to make things happen.”

A Democratic staffer, who is not an admirer of Lott’s hard-edged partisanship, acknowledged that his agile mind and deftness for transforming complicated policy issues into easily grasped political slogans poses a problem for Democrats. “He is very verbal, very fast on his feet, very formidable in debate,” the aide said.

In spite of his conservative views, Lott appeals to a broad span of his fellow Republicans, ranging from Texas conservative Gramm to Vermont moderate James Jeffords. That’s why he seems now to be the clear front-runner in the leadership race, a contest that often turns more on personal friendships and feelings than on ideology.

Seizes the moment

His colleagues say Lott’s success is rooted in his political nimbleness. In partisan combat on the House and Senate floor, he is noted for his barbed rhetoric and occasional acerbity. But, behind the scenes, he is often flexible and willing to accommodate conflicting points of view to move legislation.

“He has a talent for bringing people together,” said fellow Mississippian G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery, a Democratic congressman who has known Lott since Lott served as an administrative aide to the late House Rules Committee Chairman William Colmer, D-Miss. When Colmer retired in 1972, Lott seized his chance and ran for the seat - as a Republican - with Colmer’s blessing.

Even a quarter-century ago, Lott had the political savvy to realize that his future lay with the then barely stirring Republican Party in the South.

Pathway to power

Since then, Lott has taken on all the trappings of Southern Republican conservatism: anti-tax, anti-federal government, anti-abortion and a sharp critic of government regulators. He is a stout opponent of gun controls, voting against the assault-weapons ban and the socalled Brady Bill requiring background checks of handgun buyers. He also votes regularly for larger defense budgets.

Although Lott is an outspoken supporter of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, he rarely misses an opportunity to pump federal dollars into his home state. The majority leader’s post is not only a fulcrum of power in its own right but a platform for the party’s legislative agenda. Dole used it, in part, as a pathway to his party’s presidential nomination, before deciding to resign from the Senate.

The majority leader determines which bills are brought to the floor and the timing for doing so. He also is granted the privilege to speak on the floor whenever he asks. Perhaps most important, he can offer amendments to bills virtually at any time, giving him the leverage to block undesirable changes to legislation or to advance his party’s policy interests. And he is normally the arbiter of any compromises struck within his own party and the opposition on major legislation.

The leader earns $148,400 a year, compared with $133,600 for other senators, and is entitled to a leadership staff numbering in the dozens, a spacious suite of offices with an annual staffing and supply allowance of more than $1 million, a security detail and a chauffeured limousine.

He also makes substantial patronage appointments, including the secretary of the Senate and sergeantat-arms, as well as other Senate administrative and cloakroom staff. He is also entitled to as much as $25,000 a year in expense allowances.

2 gracphics: 1. Sen. Trent Lott 2. Sen. Thad Cochran