Strange alliances grow out of deep political divide

Lawmakers break from the battle 8 eld in hopes of 8 nding common ground

WASHINGTON — Nearly 1,000 miles away f rom the G ulf Coast c ommunities that Hurricane Katrina tore apart, the storm created another startling change in the national landscape — one that many Americans mightwelcome.

Here in the Senate, one of the Republican Party’s most outspoken conservatives has joined forces with one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars in an effort to keep government funding for storm victims from being wasted.

“ We’re 8 ghting a war, we have the largest natural disaster ever in our country and we have a structural de 8 cit,” says Sen. Tom Coburn, R- Okla., explaining why he reached out to Sen. Barack Obama, D- Ill., to co- write a bill requiring an accounting czar for hurricane relief spending. “ We’re in a t im e when we need everybody’s help.”

Another Katrina- spawned couple — liberal Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican budget hawk from New Hampshire — introduced legislation recently to create a Gulf Coast Recovery and Disaster Preparedness Agency.

The unlikely partnerships illustrate a point often lost in the headlines about Washington’s political battles: Despite — or perhaps because of — a series of elections that have underscored how closely and deeply the nation is split along political lines, some of the most passionate advocates on either side of that divide are 8 ndingways to work together.

Republican and Democratic senators came together earlier this year as the “ Gang of 14” to avoid a showdown over judicial nominations. Some of them think their bipartisan bridge- building helped set the stage for the relatively smooth con 8 rmation of President Bush’s 8 rst Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts. The Senate approved him as chief justice by a bipartisan 78- 22 vote.

Some of Washington’s current odd couples are marriages of political convenience, created by issues that transcend party lines, such as the 8 ght to keep government from con 8 scating private property that brought together Rep. Maxine Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat and frequent Bush critic, and Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and presidential ally.

Some pairings come in response to an overwhelming crisis, like Hurricane Katrina and last year’s Asian tsunami, which united former president George H. W. Bush and the man who ousted him from the White House, Bill Clinton, to raise money for victims.

Sometimes it’s personal. “ You often end up working with people with whom you have a good, positive personal relationship, even though you don’t agree on many issues,” says Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D- N. Y. She has written bills with three Republicans who may also seek the presidency in 2008: Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Bill Frist of Tennessee and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. And another of the former 8 rst lady’s legislative partners, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S. C., helped prosecute her husband during his 1999 impeachment trial.

Eye-catching alliances can attract attention and support, and disarm political critics. Obama says he was already interested in putting stricter accounting controls on hurricane relief spending and was happy to hook up with Coburn “ to ensure this wasn’t perceived as a Democratic attack.” But there’s a downside to cross- party politics, as demonstrated by the political left and right’s 8 restorm over Miers’ nomination.

“ Nobody gets passionate

about moderate politics,”

says Sen. Tim Johnson, DS. D. He says the only criticism of his rapprochement

with Sen. John Thune, a

South Dakota Republican

who once ran against him,

has come from interest

groups that helped fund

their campaigns. “They’ve

got to make people angry to

get money and memberships.” Still, Johnson adds,

he and Thune “ were both

exhausted by the hostility

and negativity.”

That sense of battle fatigue is sparking other efforts to improve relations

among the nation’s policymakers. “ You’ve got people

who in their heart of hearts want to break out of this, but they are driven by machines,” says David Abshire, a veteran of the Nixon and Reagan administrations, who last March co- founded the National Committee to Unite a Divided America, which includes former Republican and Democratic Cabinet of 8 cials.

Last month, the Fetzer Institute, a nonpartisan spiritual think tank, and the Faith and Politics Institute, an interfaith group that sponsors bipartisan retreats for members of Congress, published a book of essays and sponsored a daylong conference to counter what Fetzer’s Mark Nepo calls “ a breakdown in honest public exchange.” Doug Tanner, a Methodist minister who heads the Faith and Politics Institute, says the Katrina crisis underscores the need “ to regain our sense of connections.”

Rep. Tim Johnson, an Illinois Republican ( and no relation to the South Dakota senator ) and Rep. Steve Israel, D- N. Y., this year formed the Center Aisle Caucus. So far, 47 House members have joined the bipartisan group. “ It doesn’t mean we’re moderate,” says Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R- Mo. “ It means we’re trying to at least 8 nd something in common.”