In Congress, critical moment for moderates

A catastrophic hurricane season is driving wedges deep into both parties on issues ranging from how to pay for the Gulf Coast cleanup to oversight hearings by a GOP-controlled Congress.

But it's also creating a historic opportunity for the vanishing breed of centrists on Capitol Hill, who find themselves in key positions to bridge such gaps between and within parties over what to do next.

In a highly polarized House and Senate, moderates with a record of cooperation with the other side of the aisle are leading probes into government's response to hurricane Katrina. Informally, they're also working to broker bipartisan solutions for how to pay cleanup costs expected to exceed $200 billion.

"My committee is going to ask the hard questions of government at all levels. Our purpose is not to fix blame, but to fix problems," says Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which began its inquiry into the "long predicted" natural disaster Sept. 14.

Rep. Tom Davis (R) of Virginia, another moderate Republican with a record of working with Democrats, is chairing a similar committee in the House. His panel expects to finish by mid-February.

Formally, these are separate investigations. Party leaders in the House and Senate couldn't agree on terms for a bipartisan, bicameral panel, and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California called on her caucus to boycott the House panel.

But below the radar, moderate Sens. Collins and Joseph Lieberman, of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel, are working with Davis to develop witness lists and lines of questioning. "We have a great relationship with him and are going to coordinate efforts," Collins said at a Monitor breakfast this week.

At the same time, moderates are cashing in on their credibility as centrists to reach out to House Democrats. After Rep. Pelosi declined to appoint members to fill the nine Democratic seats on the 20-seat panel, charging that the investigation was a "sham," chairman Davis invited three Democrats from the Gulf region to participate on their own. In a gesture of good will, Davis asked Rep. Gene Taylor (D) of Mississippi, who lost his home in hurricane Katrina, to open questioning in the panel's first oversight hearing on Sept. 22.

"We want both Republicans and Democrats at the table to do this job right," said Davis. "The more voices asking tough questions the better." Democratic Reps. Charlie Melancon and William Jefferson of Louisiana also broke a party boycott to participate on the new panel.

In a sharp contrast to the bipartisan response after the 9/11 attacks, lawmakers largely fell back into partisan positions after hurricane Katrina. With little consultation with Democrats, Republican leaders proposed a bipartisan probe composed of senators and House members. Democrats turned them down, calling instead for an independent investigation along the lines of the 9/11 commission.

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