Polls over, Senators to get together

Propped by two junior members, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate have invited newly elected members to spend three days ge...

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Propped by two junior members, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate have invited newly elected members to spend three days getting to know each other and discussing ways to overcome the bitter partisanship that has blocked action on so many issues the past two years.

The orientation programme for the nine new senators elected on Tuesday has been recast and expanded this year to emphasise ‘‘how to work across party lines,’’ said Senator Thomas Carper, D-Delaware, who instigated the change along with Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee.

Alexander, elected in 2002, and Carper, who came to the Senate two years earlier, said they were frustrated by the gridlock on Capitol Hill. They hope to begin changing the environment ‘‘from Day One’’ by introducing new members and their families to each other, ‘‘before they get pulled into their party caucuses and start exchanging blows,’’ as Carper put it.

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Both former governors, their model is the kind of bipartisanship they said has made the National Governors Association (NGA) an effective force in promoting welfare reform, education reform and other causes.

The programme, which begins next Sunday and continues till November 17, is being run by Emily Reynolds, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s appointee as Secretary of the Senate. Twenty sitting senators have agreed to serve as ‘‘faculty’’ for sessions that will cover topics like office management, ethics, and the balancing of official and family responsibilities.

The programme excludes policy debates, Alexander said, and focuses on ‘‘what it takes for the Senate to function as an institution and fulfill its constitutional role.’’ —LAT-WP