HOW SHE SEES IT Senate welcomes Newt's disciples

By DONNA CASSATA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Call them Newt's disciples.
These hard-charging conservatives learned their political tactics in the House from former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the one-time backbencher-turned-Pied Piper who led the 1994 Republican revolution that swept Congress.
During the past decade, a handful of these conservatives moved to the Senate, determined to push it rightward and break hidebound rules that would inhibit their bare-knuckles House style. Come January, there will be more than a hardy few of them.
Elections from South Dakota to the Carolinas increased their numbers in the Senate and set the stage for a political and legislative tug of war. On one side are conservatives who interpreted the victories of Nov. 2 as validation of their views; on the other, the Senate, a sanctum of compromise and pragmatism.
The question is which one -- the institution or its members -- prevails.
"A couple of characteristics of the Senate will curb their House habits," said John J. Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in California. He mentioned the 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster, bipartisan coalitions that often produce legislation, and the demand on senators from a larger, more diverse population than a single House district.
"A broader range of political pressures will temper their impulses," said Pitney, who still expects the House veterans to see legislating "through the prism of partisan warfare."
After a bitter presidential election and harsh charges in congressional races, the numbers and changes in the Senate indicate plenty of dissent. Republicans will hold 55 seats and Democrats 44, with one Democratic-leaning independent.
Gone are many of the lawmakers with reputations for reaching across the aisle, some of the Southern Democratic moderates and Republican moderates from the West. In their place are GOP conservatives, such as Oklahoma's Tom Coburn, and more liberal Democrats, such as Illinois' Barack Obama.
The numbers
Some 52 senators will be products of the House, including 30 Republicans. Of those GOP members, close to a dozen were in the House when Gingrich was working to reverse 40 years of Democratic rule or were elected shortly after the Republican tidal wave.
"We're now seeing the fruits of the polarization of the House," said Burdett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas. "It predated the Senate. The natural progression is into the Senate."
One of those House veterans is Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who was elected to the Senate in 1994. Two months into his term, Santorum and some GOP senators tried to strip Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., of his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee because of his opposition to a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.
The effort failed but set in motion Republican term limits on committee chairmanships.
Flash ahead to 2004. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is set to step down as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman due to term limits. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is in line to take his place. But the day after the Nov. 2 election, Specter angered conservatives when he said it would be tough for the Senate to confirm anti-abortion judges. The right has demanded that Specter be passed over for the post.
Santorum, a member of the leadership as the Republican Conference chairman, put out a general statement of support for Specter. Republicans will decide next week whether Specter gets the post.
"Santorum has been more co-opted by the system than have the others," said Paul Weyrich, a leading conservative. "I think when they get into leadership they drink a different kind of water."
But Weyrich argued that senators do not like being pressured by outside groups, and bypassing Specter would be seen as a dangerous precedent. "By golly, if these Christians can overthrow a chairmanship," said Weyrich, who expects Specter to become the committee chairman.
Key issues
Conservatives emboldened by the election results, particularly in the Senate, will press for stricter restrictions on abortion and a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
At the center will be Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. A potential presidential candidate in 2008, he faces the demands of making the Senate run and keeping the Republican base content.
"You see someone like Frist or (former Majority Leader Trent) Lott bending to realities from a place farther right than their predecessor," Loomis said. "They've got to make it work. They drag it along in its strange way."
XDonna Cassata is the political editor of The Associated Press.