Replies

Than how did Puff Daschle wind up Majority leader when Jeffords jumped?

Unlike today, where the split is technically 51-49 (the two indies, Lieberman and Sanders, caucus with the Dems), the 2001 Senate came in split exactly 50-50, with Cheney as the tiebreaker. Which was about as unprecedented as things could get.

Puff threatened to force the Senate into running straight party-line and without unanamous consent (forcing the VP to sit in the chamber every day to cast the tie-breaking vote one everything) unless there was an "agreement" to turn power over if the ratio changed (which is why, to this day, I feel that Jeffords switch was planned before the Senate came into session ... or that the Dems were thinking that Strom was going to kick off mid-session). The GOP caved and agreed to it.

With a clear, if (at 51/49) minimal, majority coming in in 2007, the GOP didn't have a leg to stand on to make that sort of demand. So a mid-session power-switch wasn't put into the 2007 organizing resolution.

Correction to my post above. When the 2001 Senate came in, Gore was still VP (and therefore President of the Senate) and would be the tiebreaker on the initial votes. Cheney wouldn’t become VP until later in the month. Which was more leverage that Puff could bring to bear.