A house divided 287
Chandler did the weeping. Murray took 54 percent of the vote, one of
four female Democrats elected to the U.S. Senate that year. Her friend
from the state Legislature, Maria Cantwell, was elected to Congress, to-
gether with Jennifer Dunn, which gave Washington Republicans some-
thing to cheer about. With assists from Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, James
Carville and Bush’s own haplessness, Democrats not only reclaimed the
White House, they maintained their hold on Congress.
While Democrats at home and on the Hill perceived Gorton to be politi-
cally dead, he was upbeat. At the urging of Lott and the other members of
the Mississippian’s emerging kitchen cabinet, he once again challenged
Alan Simpson for GOP whip. He lost 25-14, but Simpson’s days in leader-
ship were numbered. Lott vowed they’d forge a majority of their own. His
optimism—one part Baptist, one part Jaycees—was infectious.^9
“It was difficult being in the minority with George Bush president,”
Gorton told a reporter on a rainy day at the dawn of the Clinton Adminis-
tration. He leaned back in his chair, plopped his old brown wingtips on a
coffee table, revealing holes in the soles, and seemed unusually sunny.
“Our primary job was upholding his vetoes,” Gorton continued. “Bush
was without new ideas and Reagan’s had played out. That doesn’t leave
you with much room to create a message. This year has been an intensely
liberating experience.”^11
His fund-raising for the ’94 re-election campaign was going great
guns, he said, and his staff was “terrific”—unquestionably one of the best
in Congress. He was traveling home frequently, making thoughtful
speeches. Seattle still had a baseball team. He loved his job.
Gorton judged the new president to be an astute policy wonk and the
most gifted political animal of his generation. Maybe he could solve the
timber crisis. But could he control his party’s appetite for higher taxes
and profligate spending? He wasn’t in Arkansas any more.
On condition of anonymity, a member of Washington State’s congres-
sional delegation told a reporter, “If Bill Clinton runs into problems, it
will be with conservative Democrats in the House and Republicans in the
Senate. Republicans in the House are too stupid and disorganized to
make any trouble for the president.”^12
If Newt Gingrich read that line he surely cackled. With a fertile, fo-
menting mind, he was the conservative equivalent of Che Guevara. Trent
Lott had plans of his own. They included Gorton.