28832 | Messy and Unpredictable
T
heited un stAtes senAte was the most frustrating place Trent
Lott had ever been. “The process was glacial, messy and unpre-
dictable. All I could do was go along, get along and start making
lists of things I would change when I had the opportunity. But I had a
hidden strength that, before long, would begin to shatter the status quo.”
It was a steering committee of “philosophical buddies”—philosophical in
the sense that they were more conservative and less patient than the Dole
brain trust; buddies because they were loyal to Lott and dedicated to mak-
ing him majority leader.^1
Besides Gorton, who always saw opportunities when things were
messy and unpredictable, the group included John McCain of Arizona,
Dan Coats of Indiana, Don Nickles of Oklahoma and Phil Gramm, the
canny Texan. They helped advance Lott to secretary of the Republican
Conference. Dole was already weighing a challenge to Clinton in 1996.
Lott was thinking big, too. First, however, he told Gorton they needed to
get themselves re-elected. By 1994, things definitely were looking up.
“Most new presidents get a honeymoon from Congress, but Clinton
got a trench war,” Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, ob-
served. Buoyed by his enormous self-confidence, Clinton ignored the flip
side of his campaign anthem, “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow,”
and imagined that 43 percent of the vote actually equaled a mandate. He
was stunned by the vociferous Republican resistance to his complex first
budget. It reduced spending but added a host of new programs. He and
Hillary had over-reached on health care reform and taken on the NRA.
While the economy was improving and the deficit declining, reliable polls
found Americans anxious. Clinton’s approval ratings were tanking; only 28
percent thought Congress was doing a good job. The guy in the last chapter
who dismissed Newt Gingrich as stupid and disorganized was now un-
available for comment.^2
Democrats skedaddled to the middle of the road and agreed with the
Republicans’ cry to get tough on crime by putting 100,000 more cops on