Byrds of a Feather

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Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), two men who have gotten into hot water for race-related remarks in the past couple of years, have something else in common: They’re both likely to get fancy titles that will enable them to keep their taxpayer-funded cars and chauffeurs.

While insiders tell HOH that Lott may get the title of "Majority Leader Emeritus" to help cushion the blow of his fall from grace, Byrd has had some difficulty of his own relinquishing the President Pro Tem and Appropriations Committee

chairman posts — and all of the perks that came with those jobs.

Insiders described Byrd as being practically holed up in his Capitol office space over the holiday break, refusing to give up his rooms to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) without a remarkable array of handouts. Stevens has taken both the Appropriations chairmanship and the PPT job.

"He’s made all sorts of ambitious office-space demands, title demands, staffing demands," one insider said of Byrd.

"Byrd is the Member who keeps on taking," added an Appropriations aide.

Republicans have been locked in delicate negotiations with Byrd, who handles these types of discussions personally, to meet some of his demands. He gets the title of "President Pro-Tem Emeritus" along with new Capitol office space and his car and driver. The wily, 85-year-old lawmaker is also pushing hard for an allotment of funds for extra committee staff.

Byrd spokesman Tom Gavin said the Senator was merely trying to work the kinks out since he and other chairmen were being asked to vacate their space without any sense of where they would wind up. "Certainly Senator Byrd and the other members of the Democratic Caucus were seeking some sort of space parity during the break," he said. "It took a little longer than expected to be resolved, but it has been resolved amicably."

While Republicans are brokering a compromise with Byrd, Democrats are privately saying they will not oppose Lott’s move to keep his official vehicle. Both lawmakers will be taken care of as part of the organizing resolution that the chamber is expected to pass later this week, though insiders say there was no formal deal between Byrd and Lott to scratch each other’s back.

Never mind that Lott’s D.C. home is about five blocks from the Capitol. "You would be surprised how much they like the creature comforts," noted one staffer. Lott will at least be in a position to make sure he gets a convenient parking spot since he’s also been given the chairmanship of the Rules and Administration Committee as part of his soft landing.

Senate aides note that there is some precedent for the maneuvering based on the fact that former Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) had the President Pro Tempore Emeritus title. The late Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) got the Deputy President Pro Tem title, along with a car and driver and extra staff, when he returned to the Senate in the 1970s after serving as vice president. Ex-Veep Walter Mondale (D) was going to get the same title, as well as the perks, if he had won last year’s Minnesota Senate race.

The Good Doctor. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has continued his transition into the top leadership post with some help from Eric Ueland, former chief of staff to Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.). While Nickles had his own designs on the top job, he eventually helped engineer Frist’s rise to power.