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Chairmanship, Democratic majority put Leahy back at center stage
06/17/2007
Associated Press
MONTPELIER, Vt. -U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy is back in the limelight.
From
Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects to the dismissal of U.S. attorneys,
he is enjoying a resurgence in power and visibility since the
Democrat-controlled 111th Congress took office in January.
As
a veteran senator in an institution where longevity equals power,
Leahy’s views have taken on added importance now that his party is back
in the majority. With that seniority comes the clout of the
chairmanship of an influential committee that both has been assigned
and has seized the role of probing what Democrats see as the abuses and
shortcomings of the Bush administration.
"There’s a lot of
things I’ve done in the past, but I’ve had to do it at the willingness
of Republicans who set the agenda," said Leahy. "Now, with the
Judiciary Committee, I set the agenda. I’ve set the agenda on this
investigation on the firing of U.S. attorneys. I’ve done it not just to
say, ’Look at what the Bush administration has done,’ but to make it
clear whoever the next president is, if they do something, we’ll point
the spotlight at it."
It’s a spotlight in which Leahy
clearly feels comfortable. A fixture on the Sunday morning TV talk show
circuit, he is often sought out both because of his position and
because he doesn’t shy away from the rough-and-tumble side of politics.
"I
think Leahy knows how to use those chairs, particularly Judiciary, well
in the current political environment, where the objective isn’t so much
to pass legislation as it is to use the Judiciary Committee as a forum
for the Bush administration’s conduct," said Middlebury College
political scientist Eric Davis.
In 32 years on Capitol Hill, Leahy, 67, has developed an interest in a wide array of subjects:
- He’s
been a leader in the fight to control and ban land mines, even though
he’s never been successful in persuading the U.S. military to stop
using them.
- He has pursued efforts to open access to
the federal government through changes to the Freedom of Information
Act, reform of patent laws and attention to how those issues are helped
-- and sometimes hindered -- by new communications technology.
- He
helped establish a fund for war victims that was renamed the Patrick
Leahy War Victims Fund. He’s worked to ensure that money spent by the
U.S. government through foreign aid supports human rights. As chairman
of the Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee overseeing foreign aid,
he blocked the release of $55 million in aid to Colombia in April
because of concerns about the government’s ties to paramilitary groups.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe met with Leahy on the issue again last
week in Leahy’s Capitol Hill office.
- Agriculture long
has been a top interest, particularly getting higher prices to dairy
farmers and boosting assistance through the Food Stamp and Women,
Infants and Children programs.
Those are areas Leahy has
carved out for himself and has helped guide through the Senate with his
growing power, similar to what he and his staff have done on
investigations of the Bush administration, said Rutgers University
political science professor Ross Baker.
Baker, who once spent a sabbatical doing research from Leahy’s Washington office, says Leahy picks his spots carefully.
"What
you do is you pick out targets of opportunity," Baker said. "The
question of U.S. attorneys isn’t something that was on anybody’s radar.
It was something that was picked up" after a flareup over whether Sen.
Pete Domenici, R-N.M., had improperly influenced the federal prosecutor
in New Mexico. "I guess (Leahy) just simply seized on it," Baker said.
"That was sort of enterprise legislating."
That’s the kind of
issue that’s always interested him, says Leahy, a former prosecutor who
is quick to credit his staff for his success on issues.
"I’ve got a superb staff," he said. "I can set broad guidelines and get a lot of it done there."
He
has a range of interests outside the Senate and is well-known for
making visitors sit down and look through pictures of his grandchildren
and his farm in Middlesex. He loves to talk about his wife, Marcelle,
and their adventures with scuba diving, mountain hiking, photography
and snowshoeing.
Sometimes, his attention to other interests
is seen as a liability in a Senate populated by people who live and
breathe politics night and day, Baker said.
"Judged in
Washington terms, he has interests other than this place," Baker said.
"A lot of people up here are just these tremendously one-dimensional
people. If you have a diverse set of interests, they regard you as not
sufficiently ambitious. In the eyes of those for whom Senate politics
is a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year job, he probably doesn’t measure up."
Leahy
hasn’t measured up at home lately, either. Pro-impeachment Vermonters
are unhappy that neither he nor U.S. Bernie Sanders or U.S. Rep. Peter
Welch support the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney.
But Leahy makes no apologies.
"We’d be
setting aside all this investigation of the Department of Justice. We’d
be setting aside all the work on restoring habeas corpus; all the work
on redefining military tribunals so America could regain the high
ground. And that’s just on this one committee," Leahy said.
"For
what? For something that would be symbolic. It wouldn’t be completed
before his term was up. I’d rather be making some positive changes now
and lay some groundwork for the next president. History’s going to
impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney. What I’m trying to do is uncover
everything they’ve done."
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