Majority Leadership in the U.S. Senate: Balancing Constraints By Andrea C. Hatcher

Majority Leadership in the U.S. Senate: Balancing Constraints By ...

Chapter 1:

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in an era in which state and regional divisions defined political stances:

[T]here could be no real conflict [between being a senator from Texas and Senate majority leader], since every member of the Senate represents a state and every state has certain regional problems all its own. The U.S. is a Nation made up of states and every senator is confronted with the problem of representing his own constituents and at the same time looking after the interests of the Nation as a whole.¹⁴

He described his political philosophy elsewhere: “I am a free man, an American, a United States Senator, and a Democrat, in that order. I am also a liberal, a conservative, a Texan, a taxpayer, a rancher, a businessman, a consumer, a parent, a voter,…and I am all these things in no fixed order.”¹⁵

Johnson's frequent writing and ruminating on his role belie his fundamental philosophy of pragmatism. He was continually searching for ways to keep his “even political balance.”¹⁶ And the path to balance is paved with such ideas: “A true [majority] leader consists of a man who can get people to work together on the points on which they agree and who can persuade them that when they disagree there are peaceful methods of settling their differences.”¹⁷ “The concept that the Lyndon Johnson type of leadership precludes the use of the Senate as a public education forum for the definition of issues is one of the latest conversation stoppers.”¹⁸ “I think that the majority leader is more than the leader of the majority. He is actually the leader of the Senate.”¹⁹ Constraints remain, no matter how leaders rank order their constituencies and obligations.

The basic problem is a widely held misconception as to the authority of the majority leader in the Senate. Actually, as the term ‘authority’ is understood in executive or management circles, he has none at all…The real ‘power’ of the Senate leader depends upon his skill at brokerage between various blocs.²⁰

These viewpoints, to which others could be added, offer glimpses into the ambiguities and constraints of Senate majority leadership. Ambiguities