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Star Wars Loses Its Sheen
By Omar Bin Abdullah
31/05/2001
The departure of Vermont Senator James Jeffords from the Republican ranks has taken more than just the sparkle out of Bush II's administration and political reputation. Jefford's "charm offensive" was supposed to bring bipartisanship to Washington, not cause the GOP to lose control of the Senate.
The most crumbling effect of Jefford's departure will be on Bush's legislative agenda, specifically on issues focusing on future tax cuts, conservative judicial appointments, and national defense. The most telling effect will be on the hallowed Republican project,
Star Wars. With the Democrats taking over the Senate in a 50-49-1 shakeup, the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee has gone to Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), a chief opponent of the Bush missile defense plan.
Jeffords, who serves as Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, had been making waves by opposing the president's $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut. His break with the Republican Party handed Bush his first major legislative defeat and forced a tax relief plan to be whittled down to $1.35 trillion over 11 years.
At the same time, Republicans failed to score an equalizer by whisking away Senator Zell Miller (D-GA), who would have kept Republicans in charge of the Senate.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) consoled his colleagues by saying that the shift in the Senate would still leave "a balanced debate because the House is always going to try to do the right thing."
However, the change may create unhappy moments for Bush who has made no secret of the primary mission of his presidency…to reward those who supported his bid for power.
He has rewarded the oil industry by giving them the Arctic wildlife reserve and abandoned U.S. action on climate change. To the tobacco industry, he has granted an end to federal lawsuits on behalf of smoking victims. To the mining firms, he has pledged to remove laws restricting arsenic in drinking water.
What do you give to the industry that has everything? The arms lobby, a sector that already receives some $200 billion a year from the American taxpayer, has been offered the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, whose $210 billion price tag makes it the most costly arms-procurement program ever dreamed up by America's defense department. In addition to the JSF, is the $62 billion F-22 project.
In a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on May 25th, Bush spelled out his idea of a military transformation: "a future force that is defined less by size and more by mobility and swiftness. One that is easier to deploy and sustain. One that relies more heavily on stealth, precision weaponry and information technology."
Bush also confirmed his administration's keenness to deploy a broad range of anti-missile defenses, suggesting that in the future, sea-based systems might be capable of "defending entire continents" from rogue rockets.
For Bush, like his father, the answer is simple: give the arms companies what they desire most…war.
To this end, and in the name of national security, Bush has pushed to revive the hostility and suspicion that proved lucrative, until the disastrous events of 1989 (the fall of Communism), for the military-dependent private industrial sector. He hopes to scrap the anti-ballistic missile treaty, destabilizing the world's nuclear equilibrium and is
determined to extend NATO to all of Russia's western borders, making the limping, but still dangerous, old Bear feel more threatened than it has in a decade.
And needling from Russia and China has not been enough to sway the administration's position on missile defense, as the Bush team is trying to create opportunities in the South as well, where it has found a willing partner in President Andres Pastrana of Colombia.
At a meeting on April 30th, the European Union (EU) resolved to spend $290 million on "political support" for the "peace process" in Colombia, which involves the establishment of "peace laboratories," contestation of human rights violations and the "relieving [of] the social impact of conflict." However, this uncontroversial looking package has its sinister side.
The EU, when announcing the package, failed to mention that the U.S. is not only giving funds, but is also supervising the project through Marc Grossman, the U.S. Under Secretary of State. They also neglected to mention that the project was initiated at Colombia's request. They blamed the atrocities plaguing the country on Columbian paramilitaries and guerillas without mentioning that many were committed by the Columbian army and condoned by the state.
Political observers say that the new funding represents the plan's "social component," attaching to it U.S. intervention in the hope of making the invasion look like something different. And Spain is prepared to go further still to help the U.S. finance the Colombian army.
The question is: how much will Bush be able to dish out for his financiers and ideological fellow travelers now that Jeffords is gone and there is no Republican majority? He will surely have to compromise with the new Democratic majority in the Senate. The chances of his sweeping in new policies on energy or defense (in their original forms) in Congress now look dim. He will probably also have to compromise even more than he already has on education and strive to win agreement of Democrats on social-security reform.
In addition, Bush will need to fully be on the lookout for other wavering Republican moderates such as Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) and Olympia Snowe (R-WA); and of course pray for Jesse Helms (R-NC), who is in poor health, and Strom Thurmond (R-SC) who is showing his 98 years. He must also try to cool down tempers of hardline Right-wingers who were thinking that Bush, with the former Republican-dominated Senate, had ushered in their political nirvana. And the Republican contingency in the Senate may shrink even further.
Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader, has replaced Republican Trent Lott as the Senate's main power broker. The Democrats have taken over the chairmanship of key Senate committees, which decide the timetable of legislation. It is in the powerful standing committees - including those responsible for the budget, education, the judiciary, and the armed services - that Democratic control will have the most impact.
Bush's most controversial proposals would have had a difficult ride in Congress anyway, but now their prospects look much worse:
The proposed $1.35 trillion tax cut over 10 years has been passed by the Senate, but still needs to be confirmed by a joint meeting of Congress.
The contentious plans to build an anti-ballistic missile shield against a potential attack by "rogue states" could be in doubt. In his Annapolis speech, Bush revealed that some of the thinking behind the sweeping overhaul of the American military being prepared by Donald Rumsfeld, his ambitious Defense Secretary. However, the changes are so vast that many questions remain. Moreover, political battles over defense will be fiercely fought. According to a military think-tank, there is no caucus in Congress which favors transforming the military, but rather, there is an anti-transformation constituency.
So too could Bush's new energy plan, which includes proposals for more oil drilling (even in environmentally sensitive areas including Alaska), coal mining and nuclear energy face fierce Democratic roadblocks. Asked if there was any possibility of reaching a compromise on drilling in the Alaskan refuge, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the assistant majority leader, said, "There is as much chance of compromise on ANWR [Alaskan refuge project] as my turning around and doing a back flip down the stairs."
Bush could also face a difficult ride on education policy as well. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), a passionate and influential Democrat with friends in high places, is expected to take over the chairmanship of the Education Committee formerly headed by Jeffords
The shock delivered by James Merrill Jeffords, who is not up for reelection until 2006, giving Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 1994, should instill a little sense into the spoilt brat that is "W". Perhaps, Bush needs to contemplate the words of Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), "We need to take some inventory here... and maybe make some adjustments.''
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