By Todd J. Gillmkan - The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON As Congress returns today from summer recess Kay Bailey Hutchison opens a final chapter in the Senate assuming she sticks with her vow to quit soon to focus on her bid for Texas governor.
Congress will be focused almost single-mindedly on health care. But Hutchison will be coping with the reality that she is a self-proclaimed lame duck as she tries to complete unfinished business and score a few political points before stepping down.
Its not as if shes a swing vote said Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker a leading congressional scholar. He said that once a politician declares an intention to leave that person doesnt have a lot of clout. The assumption is that youre a short-timer so theres not a particular value attached to working with you.
Hutchison says shell take at least another month before setting a departure date. Aides say shes committed to staying productive in the Senate even as she works to oust Gov. Rick Perry in the March Republican primary.
Aide Lisette Mondello repeated Hutchisons pledge to fight Democratic health care and environmental legislation but she offered few details.
Giving up her seat too soon before Congress finalizes next years federal spending could put at risk hundreds of millions of dollars in spending destined for Texas. As a senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee she has influence in such matters.
Hutchison has not been especially involved in the health care debate. On Friday a half-dozen key senators from both parties met by phone as part of an effort to forge a bipartisan health care plan; Hutchison wasnt one of them.
Shes not one of the players. Shes a vote but shes a definite vote against almost anything. I cant imagine Kay Bailey departing from the vast majority of Republican senators Baker said.
Its possible though that Hutchison plans to come out swinging in coming weeks using her remaining Senate time to court conservative primary voters.
Mondello said that Hutchison also will push a proposal to let prisons jam cellphone transmissions. A tough-on-crime stance can only help when Election Day arrives.
Upcoming tussles
Although health care will be the main focus the Senate will address many matters in coming weeks from a proposal maligned by Republicans to bolster U.S. marketing to overseas tourists to the nomination of Cass Sunstein a controversial legal scholar that President Barack Obama wants as his regulatory czar.
Theres also Obamas desire to close the Guantnamo Bay Cuba detention center by January. Hell need Congress to vote for funding and a plan for relocating enemy combatants. Hutchison like other Texas lawmakers has insisted they go elsewhere and would likely kick up a storm if the administration tries to send them to a Texas facility.
Immigration is one contentious issue on hold. But there will be tussles over strategy and troop strength in Iraq and Afghanistan for instance. Hutchison has long been a top GOP voice on foreign affairs although she has de-emphasized that since focusing on her run for governor.
As for cap and trade an environmental protection measure that is eyed with great suspicion in Texas energy sector the Senate probably wont take it up before the end of 2009. That may rob Hutchison of a chance to score points as a champion of Texas interests.
Hutchison is not obliged to quit to run for governor. But she has declared that she will do so in part to assure supporters that she wont back out.
Republican strategists unaffiliated with either her campaign or Perrys see a trade-off in staying in the Senate much longer.
With Congress back at work shes no longer free to campaign full time in Texas. And one of Perrys central lines of attack is that she is a Washington insider; the longer she stays the easier it is for him to cement that image.
On the other hand she could use the Senate spotlight to her advantage. Theres no way to undo the fact that she has served for 16 years this line of reasoning goes. So she might as well stay on the job and hammer the Obama health care plan day and night. If Republicans defeat it she can return to Texas in triumph.
What little her aides say about her plans supports the idea that shes preparing a freshly combative approach.
Mondello said Hutchison will work on health care with Sen. Jim DeMint the South Carolina Republican who ratcheted up the resistance this summer by declaring that if were able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo.
Federal dollars
But Hutchisons post on the Appropriations Committee may be most relevant to her decision to stay as long as possible.
Congress hasnt finalized any of the dozen bills required to keep the government running next year.
The House approved all 12 before the summer recess. The Senate has approved four.
Among the eight still pending is the one that covers military construction and veterans. Hutchison is the senior Republican on the subcommittee that wrote it so shell be a key player in the floor debate and when the House and Senate hammer out differences.
Beyond that her post as an appropriator gives her far more clout even as a lame duck than ordinary mortals in Congress. Even minority party appropriators have a huge say in how billions of dollars are spent.
If Hutchison quits before the appropriations process is complete it would be painless for colleagues in other states to strip funding for Texas projects to make room in the budget for their own priorities. Texas other senator Republican John Cornyn is not on the Appropriations Committee.
That makes it important for her to defend Texas interests and her own a bit longer.
She would look pretty feeble when her big claim to fame is helping Texas said one longtime Senate GOP strategist. She absolutely still matters on that.
