By KIRK VICTOR
Senators, even those who dislike one another intensely, are known for their formality and graciousness towards one another on the Senate floor. They try to maintain that façade as much as possible in public.
Of course, there have been some famous feuds that burst into the open. Who can forget the bitter hostility between New Jersey Democratic Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Torricelli in the late 1990s? They even got into a well-publicized fight at a Democratic retreat in front of their colleagues and staffers.
But such outbursts are the exception. More often the enmity is submerged, out of view. So it was no surprise that when former Sen. Tom Daschle's name was leaked as the likely new secretary of Health and Human Services, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., hailed the appointment even though the two men had grown to dislike each other intensely before Daschle lost his Senate seat in 2004.
Yesterday, Baucus called President-elect Obama's choice of Daschle "a great nomination" and went on to say, "Having Senator Daschle at HHS and as the point person for the Obama administration on health care would only improve the chances of success."
Yet it wasn't all that long ago, when Daschle, then the Democratic Senate leader, was angry that Baucus had strayed from the party position and supported President Bush's top domestic priority, steep tax cuts. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., described it in his book, The Good Fight, published earlier this year:
Baucus was the only Westerner to vote against [South Dakotan] Daschle in his race for Democratic leader in 1994, which Daschle had only won by a single vote -- and they had been driven farther apart on the issue of taxes. By the end, they really couldn't stand each other, and had had several extremely testy exchanges on the floor and in private as a result.
Fast-forward to today, and it is a tad ironic that Daschle will be going before Baucus' committee, which not only is responsible for his confirmation hearings but also will be a key player in health care reform, a priority for the Obama administration.
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