Republicans pick most bipartisan Democrats

REPUBLICANS

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Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)
“I’ll give you two, although they’re not the only two… One is Jeff
Bingaman — we worked together on the America Competes Act for two
years, and the reason I was able to work with him is that we had the
same goals. And I completely trusted him on the issue. We never
surprised each other. No. 2 is Sen. Lieberman. We created a bipartisan
breakfast which means almost every Tuesday morning, and the reason we
worked together is the same thing: We had the same goal, to create an
opportunity for senators to get together across party lines on a
regular basis. And we don’t surprise each other. So I think having the
same purpose and not surprising each other is the key… I’ll tell you a
little story. In 1980, when Republicans won the Senate, Byrd was the
Democratic leader and Howard Baker was the Republican leader. It was a
sudden switch, and Baker went to Byrd and said, ‘Bob, I know I’ll never
know the rules of the Senate as well as you do, but I’ll make a deal
with you: If you don’t surprise me, I won’t surprise you.’ And Byrd
said to Howard, ‘Let me think about it,’ then came back the next
morning and said, ‘It’s a deal.’ And that’s the way they worked
together.”

John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)
“I like working with Mark Pryor. He’s been terrific, especially
visiting on civility in the Senate. We’ve had a couple of dinners and
lunches to talk about ways the party can work together more. We had an
evening when we went to Vice President Biden’s residence. The idea is
based on Washington’s farewell address and what we need for our nation.
Mark brought it to our first dinner. Sen. Lott told me when I got here
is that what happened is, once they started having senators go home
every weekend, they didn’t move their families here and now spouses
aren’t spending time together, your kids aren’t in the same schools,
you’re not going to church together or standing together at Little
League. So you don’t know each other as well, and you don’t have that
camaraderie. Sen. Lott told me that he and Breaux have developed a
really good relationship that way.”

Bob Bennett (R-Utah)
“Given the work we’re doing on healthcare, I obviously have to say Ron
Wyden. We’re co-sponsors of the Healthy Americans Act. He’s not
ideological. I’ve got a long list of Democratic friends. In my
committee assignments, I get along very well with Byron Dorgan and
Chris Dodd, and just compatibility with Daniel Inouye.”

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.)
“On the Appropriations Committee I’ve worked very closely with Barbara
Mikulski and I’m now working very closely with Patty Murray. I’ve
worked very well with Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd on children’s issues.
I worked very well with many members last year with FISA, to keep it on
track. We don’t have to agree on a lot of things or even if we disagree
on most things, we can work together on the issues where we agree.”

{mosads}Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)
“I’m working with Tom Harkin now, and I’ve worked with him before. He’s
kind of easy to talk to, and he understands that to get something to
move forward, it can’t be too far out there on either side. So I’ve
found Tom good to work with. Interestingly enough, Ted Kennedy — if you
can get his attention and it’s not a core topic. One of the funniest
guys I’ve worked with was Paul Wellstone. He was just passionate. We’d
call each other names for a little while and then we’d go on and work
with each other. He was a lot of fun to work with… He came on to the
floor one day and was yelling at me for saying in an interview that I
believe that every human is beautiful and dignified and unique and
sacred, and that includes Paul Wellstone and Ted Kennedy. He was saying
‘What are you naming me for?’ But what he was really yelling at me for
was that some rankings had just come out on who was the most liberal
and who was the most conservative member of the Senate, and he came on
to the floor and said, ‘You did this to me!’ And I said ‘What?’ and he
said ‘I was the most liberal one here, and because I’ve been working
with you I’m now the second-most liberal member.’ He wanted to be
first. So I told him, ‘Hang around with me, and I’ll get you
reelected.’ ”

Jim Bunning (R-Ky.)
“No.”

Richard Burr (R-N.C.)
“Ted Kennedy that I’d love to co-sponsor every piece of legislation
with. I don’t always have that opportunity because ideologically we
disagree, but I’ve probably co-sponsored more legislation with Ted over
the four years I’ve been here than any other single member. When Ted
says he’s going to do something, he’s committed to it. Also Evan Bayh.”

Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)
“The ones I work with the most — Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor, Ben Nelson. They’re reasonable and fair-minded.”

Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
“Russ Feingold, Evan Bayh, Tom Carper. They’re pretty friendly guys and I guess they’re more on the conservative side.”

Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)
“Sen. Dan Inouye. He and I have served on the Appropriations Committee
for a long time now, and we’ve both been chairman. We are together
probably more in hearings and we’ve worked closely together over a long
period of time. And Pat Leahy on the Agriculture Committee. I’ve been
up to Vermont for hearings on dairy issues. I was chairman of the
committee and he was the ranking Democrat. I think the key is that
we’re all on the Appropriations Committee, and in Pat’s case we’re on
the Agriculture Committee. Tom Harkin is another I work with on
agriculture issues.”

Susan Collins (R-Maine)
“The senator I’ve worked closest with is Joe Lieberman, and we have a
great partnership. He was ranking when I was chairman, so if you want
one name, that’s it. He’s reasonable and he’s open to diverse views.”

Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
“I certainly have enjoyed working with Chris Dodd on the Banking
Committee. He’s been exceptionally good people to work with in that
regard. I’ve co-sponsored a number of things with Claire McCaskill, and
I’m working with Jim Webb on some things. Claire and I have some mutual
interests in legislation that have worked well for us. Jim Webb is a
smart guy and we think a great deal alike. But Chris, really, from the
standpoint of day-in and day-out, I couldn’t have asked for a better
partner.”

John Cornyn (R-Texas)
“It depends on the subject. I’ve found Sen. Leahy, on open-government
issues, to be the easiest to work with because of his concern and, I
think, dedication to open government. It’s an area where we find common
interests and we’ve been working well together. But I’d say it’s more
subject-matter oriented. Sen. Byrd one time said ‘You can have no
permanent friends and no permanent enemies in the Senate, because you
may be voting with one one day and against that person the next day.’ ”

Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
“It’s mostly committee-related, but I work a lot with Blanche Lincoln
and Sen. Baucus. I’ve also worked with Sen. Dodd on issues. They’re
easy to work with. But I’d say Blanche Lincoln and I clearly work the
best together. She and I have known each other for a long time, too, so
it’s a personal thing. We got elected to Congress in the same year, in
1992, and we both got elected to the Senate in the same year, in 1998.
And we’ve served on the same committees in both the House and the
Senate. So she’s clearly the one I’ve known best and worked the most
with.”

Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
“He’s left, but it was Obama. We actually worked on a couple of bills
together. Aside from that, Claire McCaskill has been one of my best
friends. We’ve done earmark reform and stuff like that. She seems to be
more tuned-in to her constituents than interest groups.”

John Ensign (R-Nev.)
“I work with so many different ones, to limit it to one is difficult.
But I’ve teamed up with Barbara Boxer, with Maria Cantwell, with
Hillary Clinton, with Tom Carper, with Chuck Schumer. You take issues.
If somebody’s the same as you on an issue, you go and say, ‘Let’s join
together.’ You know the old saying about ‘There’s no permanent friends,
just permanent issues?’ In the Senate, you have to work across the
aisle if you’re ever going to get anything done. You just do.”

Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.)
“Kennedy. When he’s not here, Sen. Mikulski I guess would be second.
She’s on the same committee I’m on, and she’s handling the same issues.
She’s been very good to work with. She’s very focused and likes to move
things forward. She and Kennedy like to work through the process,
meaning we all work on drafting the bill, we don’t just try to buy some
votes at the end. And we follow the 80 percent rule: If you agree on 80
percent, for the remaining 20 percent you need to find a third way to
do it. It can’t be the Republican way or the Democratic way.”

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
“It depends on the issue. There are a lot of them. Sen. Feingold is a
great one to work with. Sen. Bayh. Sen. Feinstein. There’s a lot. I
think it has to do with your committees, the ones you have personal
friendships with, and the subject matter. Here’s the test: There are
some members of the Senate that you may disagree with 90 percent of the
time but they’re looking for that 10 percent and so are you. And part
of it is attitude. Some senators have a better attitude about finding
that 10 or 20 percent than others.”

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
“I’d have to say Sen. Baucus, but fate has brought us together as
chairman and ranking members of one committee, and you do most of your
work in the committee and you get acquainted with them better than
anybody else. You have ongoing relationships. Every Tuesday that we’ve
been in session since January 2001, whether I’ve been chairman or he’s
been chairman, we’ve been meeting. There are other ones, like the odd
couple like Sen. Grassley and Sen. Sanders, working on some amendments
when we probably disagree on 90 percent of the stuff around here.
Issues bring us together, see? And maybe we’re both what you call
populists, coming at it from different sides. And then you have Leahy
and I sponsoring an anti-fraud bill that came out of Judiciary.”

Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)
“Kent Conrad, with whom I’ve done a lot of things with. Evan Bayh. Joe
Lieberman. On the Appropriations Committee, I’ve worked with Pat Leahy.
They’re thoughtful and reasonable people who, if you’ve got a good
idea, they’re willing to consider it.”

And Schumer. He’s the defender of the rights and prerogatives of his
party in a very aggressive way, but there have been issues we’ve been
able to work together on. When we find those issues, we work together.
We just did food safety legislation a little while ago.”

{mosads}Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
“I’ve found it easy to work with a wide variety of Democrats, from Dodd
to Kennedy to Waxman in the House, we’ve always gotten along very well.
Rangel I work very well. And Dingell is one of the all-time greats, as
is Henry Waxman. These guys feel very strongly about their positions,
but they’re willing to link up and get things done and they’re willing
to acknowledge another person’s point of view. They’re not always easy
to work with, but they’re easy in the end. They’re very bright people
who recognize that to do really good legislation you’ve got to have
intelligence and ability and a doggedness that you don’t see very often
around here. You don’t buckle just because things get tough. But in the
end, really good bipartisan legislation is usually centrist, and
generally not one-sided, at least when I’m involved. And you have to
respect your fellow senators, and show respect for them. Kennedy does
that very well. Baucus has also been somebody I’ve worked very closely
with. Rockefeller. Cantwell has been very good to work with. But I
don’t mean to leave anybody out, and on our side there’s a whole raft
of them that I work with who are different in philosophy. The key is to
keep your word. There are some who don’t keep their word around here,
and it doesn’t take too long to find out who they are. But if you keep
your word, people will respect that and they’ll bend over backwards for
you.”

Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)
“I have really had a great working relationship with Dianne Feinstein,
because we were chairman-and-ranking, respectively, on a Veterans
Affairs-Military Construction subcommittee, and we always worked things
out. Barbara Mikulski is also great to work with. She finds ways to
come to conclusions. They want to have the same result, and they want
things to work. It’s open-mindedness and it’s the ability to come to a
solution where you both are winners.”

James Inhofe (R-Okla.)
“This will surprise you, but I think our new guy that is so
controversial from Chicago [Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.)]. On three
different things, I’ve gone to him to ask him things, and he’s never
said ‘No.’ So he’s my new easy-to-get-along-with.”

Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)
“Kent Conrad comes to mind right away. He’s a good guy, he sticks to
his guns, but he also listens to the other side. Tom Carper is also fun
to work with. Quite frankly, one of the consummate legislator’s
legislator was Ted Kennedy. He likes to get things done, and I like to
get things done. We don’t philosophically agree on a lot of things, but
he is great.”

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.)
“A lot of people I’ve know because I was Agriculture Secretary and a
governor before, and there’s quite a few governors here. So some of
them come very natural: Tom Carper I’ve known for years — a great guy,
kind of a mentor of mine and very easy to work with. Tom Harkin, who
was chairman of the Senate Ag Committee. Just a really good guy. When I
was in the Cabinet and he was unhappy with something, he would tell me
and we just had a very good working relationship.”

Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
“It all depends on what the issue is. I was able to work with Kennedy
on immigration but not much else, for example. So it all depends. It’s
an impossible question. We all have folks we work with.”

Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)
“I’ve found it easy to work with most of the Democrats on the Foreign
Relations or Agriculture committees. On the Foreign Relations
Committee, I worked with Joe Biden and Chris Dodd and John Kerry and
now Bob Casey and I have a nutrition bill. On the Agriculture
Committee, I’ve had a good relationship with Tom Harkin.”

Mel Martinez (R-Fla.)
“I work well with Dianne Feinstein. We’ve done some good things
together. I’ve worked well with Bob Menendez on other issues. Dianne is
very willing to reach out and be a very good partner, if you will. We
seem to get along really well, and I think essentially that’s part of
the ingredients you have to have — personal chemistry. I would say
she’s someone whom I’ve been able to work with well and do some good
things together.”

John McCain (R-Ariz.)
“I don’t find anybody difficult to work with, to be honest with you. If
it’s on the issues, Feingold, obviously. Carl Levin on the Armed
Services Committee. Byron Dorgan on Indian Affairs. A lot of times it
has to do with your interests, but also it has to do with your
committee assignments. Dorgan and I worked together on the Indian
Affairs Committee, on Abramoff. Levin and I, because of Armed Services.
… A willingness to seriously consider the other’s positions.”

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
“The obvious answer is Sen. Reid, with whom I deal multiple times a
day. We’ve got a good working relationship, we’re always straight with
each other, and I consider him a colleague and a good friend.”

Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
“Now that I’m ranking on Energy, Jeff Bingaman is wonderful to work
with. The way Bingaman works is very collaborative. For instance, he’s
working on an initiative regarding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and
he brings in experts instead of him sitting down and making up his own
bill, he invites me to come to the meetings, listen to what the guys
are saying and ask my own questions. We may come to different
conclusions at the end of the day, but he involves me in the process
and I’m part of it. It’s totally great. So from a legislative
perspective, it’s the way things should work.”

Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
“Over the years, it’s Charlie Stenholm of Texas, back when I was on the
Ag Committee in the majority and minority… Daniel Inouye, without
question. He and the much-maligned Ted Stevens saved the American
military in Appropriations, year after year when the Clinton
administration made some very dramatic cuts that were not in the best
interests of the country, and the same way as we went through the Bush
years. It didn’t make any difference. I was on Armed Services and then
later on Intelligence, and I could always go to them and in a
bipartisan way work things out. If it’s under the banner of national
security, you can’t get any higher than that.”

Jim Risch (R-Idaho)
“There’s several, but the first one that I’ve worked with was Ron
Wyden. He’s a Westerner and he’s interested in natural resources issues
like I am, and I found him very easy to work with and a very
give-and-take sort of person. And certainly Tom Carper has been really
good to work with. Mark Pryor is another one. All of them have the idea
that we’re all here because we’re Americans long before we’re
Republicans or Democrats, and there’s serious issues facing this
country today and they deserve an American approach as opposed to a
Republican approach or a Democratic approach. That doesn’t mean we
agree all the time, but on the other hand a give-and-take attitude is
important.”

Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
“Ben Nelson is one that I find easy to work with. Tom Carper. Evan
Bayh. They are open to ideas and they’re willing to discuss issues and
be open-minded. On any given issue, Ted Kennedy is easy to work with.
We almost reached an accord on a major savings plan.”

Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)
“I’ve worked with Sen. Mikulski on Appropriations, where I was chairman
of a subcommittee and now she is. We’ve worked well together. She’s
professional, she’s organized and she’s got a good staff. We try to
work substantive issues. And we’ve known each other for a long time. We
were in the House together, and that helps a little… Sen. Dodd and I
get along pretty well on Banking. We’ve got different approaches at
times, but we know at the end of the day we’ve got to do something for
the common good.”

Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)
“There are so many, I can’t choose just one.”

Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)
“I’ve worked well with a number of members, but I’d pick Tom Harkin and
Pat Leahy. I’ve also worked with Ted Kennedy. Working well across the
aisle starts with understanding views which differ from mine, and a
willingness to accommodate the other party starting with easy matters
like scheduling, which I had when I chaired the Judiciary Committee
with Leahy and now it’s been reversed. I chaired an Appropriations
subcommittee with Harkin and now it’s been reversed. We try to consider
the other person’s needs and come to an agreement on how you handle
procedures, numbers of witnesses, that sort of thing. And then
understanding different points of view and letting people have time to
express them and letting the will of the committee determine it and not
to take offense by views which you may disagree with but try to work it
out in a collegial way. A lot of the rancor around here is caused by
impatience or intransigence.”

John Thune (R-S.D.)
“Joe Lieberman, on some national security stuff. He’s been great on
some foreign policy things. We’re both on Armed Services, and I’m
actually going to be his ranking member now on the subcommittee on
Airland. But I’ve also worked with people in my region. I’ve worked
with Ben Nelson on agricultural issues, and Mark Pryor and Tom Carper
are also good at reaching across the aisle. I’ve worked with Ron Wyden
quite a bit on a couple of transportation issues. These guys are a
little less partisan, a little less ideological. They’re focused on
solving problems and having a bipartisan solution. Maybe that’s the
common thread among them. In some cases, it’s a regional thing, like on
agricultural issues.”

David Vitter (R-La.)
“I’d say Bill Nelson. We are chairman-and-ranking on a NASA
subcommittee of Commerce, and we’ve also worked on other things we have
in common, like hurricane-related issues, since he’s from Florida. His
personality is pretty gentlemanly, and also his politics are pretty
moderate.”

George Voinovich (R-Ohio)
“Daniel Akaka, my buddy, and Tom Carper, my other friend.”

Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)
“It really depends on the issues. Carl Levin is my chairman on Armed
Services, and he doesn’t always agree with me, but he’s always so
accommodating and courteous. I just really appreciate that. That’s
probably a surprise answer. Clearly on coastal issues, Mary Landrieu
and I have a lot of issues in common because New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast still has an insurance issue that we have to grapple with. And I
have long had a friendship and a fondness for Ben and Myrna Cardin.
I’ve traveled to Israel with him on more than one occasion.”