196 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
If there was any deficit anxiety in the electorate, the Gipper had the
elixir. Reagan could have reprised the defining moment of the 1980 de-
bate when he looked the TV camera square in the lens and asked Ameri-
cans, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” But this time
he didn’t need to ask. The economy was sizzling, generating four million
new jobs. Inflation had declined to 3.2 percent, the lowest in 11 years.^17
Reagan was re-elected with nearly 59 percent of the popular vote and
the largest Electoral College margin in history. The flip side was his sur-
prising lack of coattails—a gain of only 14 GOP seats in the House and a
loss of two in the Senate. Tennessee elected Democrat Al Gore Jr. to suc-
ceed the retiring Howard Baker. The election “left the ideological divi-
sions in Congress more raw than ever.”^18
Gorton had voted with his president a “whopping” 85 percent of the
time, The Seattle Times declared, noting that only a handful of staunch
conservatives—including Ted Stevens and Strom Thurmond—had been
more loyal. This was lost on Ronald Reagan, who should have been more
appreciative, but not on Mike Lowry or Brock Adams. The two ambitious
Seattle liberals never missed a chance to style Gorton as a right-wing
Reagan lapdog. Adams had been out of politics since 1979 when Jimmy
Carter requested his resignation as secretary of transportation in a gen-
eral Cabinet housecleaning that largely testified to the disarray in the
White House.^18
Adams believed he alone could beat Gorton.
hetee Af Rt Lection, Bob Dole edged Alaska’s Ted Stevens, the assistant
leader for eight years, in a tense contest to succeed Baker as Senate major-
ity leader. Domenici was eliminated on the second ballot. Gorton, despite
a spirited campaign, lost the race for the No. 2 leadership post, majority
whip, to genial Alan Simpson of Wyoming. “It was a great adventure,”
said Slade. “I learned more about the Senate and more about myself. But
I had the misfortune of running against a man who may be the single
most popular individual in the Senate.”^ He was upbeat as usual, though,
certain he had gained from the loss because people recognized that he
was a go-getter.^19
Gorton and Evans voted for Domenici, but his bipartisanship and zeal
for a balanced budget combined to undermine his bids for leadership
spots during his 36 years in Congress. One of Pete’s keepsakes was a
framed drawing of Sisyphus, the Greek condemned by the gods to push-
ing a huge boulder up a hill, only to have it roll right back down the min-
ute he got to the top. Domenici couldn’t win for trying. Democrats