WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- Daily news notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Leadership: Democrats -- After their loss in Tuesday's elections, the Democrats are rethinking their strategy. First up, changes in the party leadership. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is stepping down as the Democrat's House leader in order to consider a possible 2004 bid for president.
The race to replace him broke out in earnest Wednesday as rumors of his retirement began to circulate and ended almost as quickly. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who is now No. 2 to Gephardt in the leadership, appeared to have the votes to succeed him locked up late Friday.
Rep. Martin Frost of Texas, the No. 3 member of the leadership, quit the race Friday afternoon, saying he believed Pelosi had it sewn up. However, the race is not over. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., the Memphis, Tenn., representative who burst on the national scene when he gave the keynote address at the 2000 Los Angeles Democratic National Convention, stunned Congress-watchers earlier in the week when he began hinting he would also make the race -- something he confirmed Friday at a 3:15 p.m. news conference.
Pelosi comes from the left wing of the Democrat Caucus in the House and will pursue a much more liberal and activist agenda than her immediate predecessor. Ford is more likely to attract support from more moderate and southern members of the caucus.
In the Senate, rumors persist that a coalition of Senate liberals and Senate veterans are trying to convince Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd to challenge South Dakota's Tom Daschle for the post of party leader.
Come January, President George W. Bush may very well have a new set of Democrats looking back at him across the table in the White House Cabinet room when he meets with congressional leaders.
Leadership: Republicans -- Changes are in the works on the GOP side of the aisle. In the House, Texas Rep. Tom DeLay is set to move up to the job of majority leader, replacing fellow Texan Dick Armey who has retired from Congress. Chief Deputy Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri becomes whip.
Over in the Senate, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, who was elected to a fourth term on Tuesday, becomes party whip. Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who is stepping down as chairman of the GOP Policy Committee, announced Thursday that he would not, as rumored, challenge McConnell for the post.
One more change of some note is that for the first time since the Republicans took the majority in the 1980 election, the GOP will put forward a new candidate for president of the Senate Pro Tempore. Largely an honorary post, the president pro tem is third in the line of presidential succession after the vice president and the speaker of the U.S. House.
The post is typically awarded to the longest serving member of the majority party -- which, for 22 years, was Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Now that he has retired, the president pro tem will be, if tradition holds, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.
Stevens first came to the Senate in 1968 by virtue of a gubernatorial appointment.
Leadership: The parties -- Look for changes in the leadership of some of the party committees as a result of Tuesday's election. On the GOP side, Virginia Rep. Tom Davis has to give up the chairmanship of the National Republican Congressional Committee because of term limits even though he led the party to a multi-seat pickup in defiance of historical trends. There are two candidates vying to replace him, New York Rep. Tom Reynolds and Illinois Rep. Jerry Weller -- but the inside betting has Reynolds well ahead among his colleagues.
The status of New York's Nita Lowey, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is unclear though the guessing is that she can keep the job if she wants to -- the Gephardt resignation taking the heat off her in the blame game. It is, however, unlikely that Lowey could move up in the leadership.
On the Senate side, Virginia's George Allen has a lock on the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee as its current chairman, Tennessee's Bill Frist, will not be seeking a second term. Democrat Patty Murray is likely out as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, largely because she must run for re-election in 2004 and her colleagues would probably be uncomfortable if her focus is divided in a presidential year.
At the Republican National Committee, Chairman Marc Racicot of Montana looks to be a lock for another term -- unless he or the White House has something else in mind.
The big question mark is the status of Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe. Clearly viewed by most in the party as "a Clinton guy," McAuliffe could come under fire if other party elders conclude that the de-Clintonization of the party is now required. The Clinton team has been largely unsuccessful in getting their folks into elected positions around the country -- former Clinton DNC Chairman Steve Grossman and Labor Secretary Robert Reich failing badly in the race for governor of Massachusetts; former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles losing the Senate race in North Carolina; former Attorney General Janet Reno coming us short in Florida and so on. With most of the key states, other than Arizona, New Mexico, New York and Pennsylvania, being led by Democrats who are not Clinton-era veterans, the elders may decide its times for a new face.
For the record -- One more historical footnote from the 2002 election: by virtue of his defeat in Tuesday's election, former Vice President Walter "Fritz" Mondale is now the only man in history to lose an election in all fifty states. In the 1984 presidential race, he lost 49 states -- carrying only Minnesota -- where he lost on Tuesday.
Local news -- Republicans are jubilant about the results of the state legislative contests around the country. While a handful of races remain to be decided, the GOP picked up close to 200 seats across the country -- bring them to parity with the Democrats in this key measure of political success for the first time in many decades.
Got a Capital Comment? E-mail [email protected].
