As whip, Kyl stays in comfort zone
By: Martin Kady II
Sen. Jon Kyl isn’t leaving his comfort zone.
He doesn’t want to talk about his “style” as Republican whip in the Senate. He’s not interested in discussing future leadership ambitions. And when the cameras start rolling outside the Senate chamber, don’t look for Kyl in the lights.
The Arizonan is more likely to be giving the hard sell on conservative policies to his colleagues — behind closed doors.
Six months into his job as the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, this is where Kyl has settled: ignoring the spotlight he could command in favor of the quiet work of a vote counter, even if costs him the chance to rise to the next level in national GOP politics.
Kyl is operating in the publicity vacuum left by former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), a larger-than-life figure who not only filled reporters’ notebooks with homespun quotes but also developed a reputation as a politician able to cut deals with conservatives, moderates and liberals.
Jon Kyl is not Trent Lott.
“Trent is by nature garrulous and peripatetic, and I’m not,” Kyl said. “We’re using different tactics to play offense. In terms of style, Trent had his and I had mine.”
Since becoming the minority whip, Kyl has often “gone dark,” enabling up-and-coming leaders such as Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Vice Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) to elevate their public profiles by serving as the voice of the Republican Party on issues such as gas prices and war spending.
In a chamber filled by outsized egos and media-driven personalities, Kyl’s decision to let others shine comes at a personal cost. The No. 2 position in the Senate GOP conference usually leads to the No. 1 spot as minority or majority leader, but some Senate observers say that Kyl’s lack of a more public presence may keep him from getting there.
One Democratic aide notes that “Cornyn is the more aggressive voice of authority for their party,” giving a nod to the outspoken Texan who has his eye on higher leadership positions in the near future. And Alexander, a soft-spoken moderate who has always had higher leadership ambitions, has now become the go-to GOP senator for laying out positions on energy conservation and health care.
“Kyl is all about policy,” said one Senate GOP aide. “He really likes the policy role. He’s not as public a person, by disposition, as others.”
Lott says Kyl has been effective on defense in the closely divided Senate, yet he would love to see his replacement play a larger public role in outlining what Republicans are for as much as what they are against.
“He’s very loyal to the leaders,” Lott said. “I wish Jon would be a little more public. I’m worried Republicans do need to do more to state their positions.”
Regarding the core job of the whip — counting votes — Kyl’s colleagues have nothing but praise for him. “Jon Kyl is a great whip,” said Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.). “But he gives people reasons to vote a certain way. He doesn’t just twist arms.”
As Lott points out, as Senate whip, “you’re dealing with 49 independent contractors. For better or for worse, it looks like he’s held the line.”
Indeed, among the roll-call votes he has actively whipped, Kyl has lost just one this year. It was a GI Bill amendment vote on May 22, when 25 Republicans broke from their leaders and let the amendment pass, 75-22.
“The conference was divided,” Kyl admits. “There was simply too much pressure on our members.”
But on most votes, even as Democrats howl “obstruction,” Kyl has delivered the numbers to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“He plays his zone to his utmost ability and plays the job to the letter of the job description,” said Ron Bonjean, a longtime Capitol Hill aide who has worked for several GOP leaders, including Kyl.
“The most valuable trait in leadership is: How do you deal with your colleagues — and do they trust you?” said Jake Logan, an Arizona political consultant who has managed Kyl’s previous Senate campaigns. “He has developed relationships and his personal traits [to] where people trust him.”
If Kyl doesn’t play the deal-cutting role that Lott relished, it may be because his own conservative views often leave him to the right of his own party — not exactly the best place from which to reach across the aisle.
Kyl was one of just 15 no votes on the Farm Bill, one of 14 no votes on a procedural test for a climate change measure, one of 12 no votes on a bipartisan housing bill and one of 13 no votes on a consumer product safety bill.
Kyl also opposed one of the biggest bipartisan domestic policy bills of the year: the economic stimulus legislation that put $600 checks in the hands of millions of Americans. The rest of the GOP leadership team voted for the stimulus bill.
On these runaway bipartisan votes, Kyl says he sticks to his principles and doesn’t try to sway colleagues. “On votes we don’t whip, everyone goes their own way,” he said.
Kyl has never shied from being one of President Bush’s men on the Hill, forcefully articulating the policies of an administration many Republicans are fleeing as the November elections approach.
In fact, on the recent war supplemental spending bill, Kyl seemed more Bush than Bush did, voting against the $186 billion bill because he opposed the extra domestic spending, even though the White House had long since conceded that unemployment benefits and disaster aid were the only ways to dislodge the bill.
That vote was 92-6, with Kyl standing in a lonely corner of no votes with five other conservatives. Kyl complained that the “president is now forced to either sign a bill bloated with unrelated mandatory spending initiatives, or risk withholding the resources our troops urgently need. For this reason, I could not support the domestic spending measure today.”
Bush signed the bill into law Monday.
The closer the election gets, the more Kyl will be tested as whip. Democrats are in no mood to compromise these days, and Kyl will be asking his colleagues to take one for the team more often.
The first big test after the July Fourth recess may be another Medicare vote. Whipping the vote hard, Kyl and McConnell held off a Democratic Medicare bill on Friday by just one vote — the tally was 59-40 — on a procedural motion that required 60 votes.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has made it clear he’s going to make the Republicans do it all over again when the Senate returns from its recess next week.