D.C. does elephant stomp

WASHINGTON -- Let the upheaval begin.

The switch in Senate power heralds an attitude adjustment in Washington, personnel shuffles, shifts in perks and new specials of the day on the policy menu -- changes seemingly out of proportion to the fact that only about a half-dozen extra Republicans are coming to town.

The election that made an all GOP-led Congress sets off a multilayered scrambling for advantage, on the issues, on the pecking order, in the struggle to get heard.

Ross K. Baker, author of "Friend and Foe in the U.S. Senate" and a former staff member for Republican and Democratic senators, gives this taste of the stakes: "It's going to be office space. It's going to be parking places. It's going to be not just square footage, but whether there are windows or not.

"The number of variables is just myriad."

Washington's idea factories are already retooling for the GOP elephant stomp. "New Congress? School choice!" the conservative Heritage Foundation headlines an event hawking an old policy given another chance now that Republicans will have both houses of Congress and the White House.

Republicans are busy ticking off the agenda items they want to achieve. Democrats are busy arguing what it means to be a Democrat.

The freshmen will be arriving before long, full of ambition, full of energy, full of everything except humility.

Brazen comes to Washington in the form of Norm Coleman, GOP senator-elect from Minnesota, who said on election eve, "If I win on Tuesday, the president is going to owe me big-time" -- not the usual way of sizing up who owes whom in the capital.

Washington experienced a government under all-GOP control for four months after the 2000 election, until Vermont Sen. James Jeffords left the party to sit as a Democratic-supporting independent, upending the balance of power.

Now that balance is right side up again, as far as the GOP is concerned, and Jeffords' star will fall as a result.

Republicans publicly say they are not out to exact retribution. They also do not discourage the thought that he can forget about earning their support for home-state projects.

The shuffling of members' particular offices will be limited -- seniority counts more than party in deciding whether someone is allotted the equivalent of a linen closet in the basement or spacious digs close to the action. Over the years, veterans have come up with private warrens and leaders of both parties get fine suites.

"Most senior Democrats are still going to be real estate magnates compared with junior Republicans," said Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.

But Congress' committees have offices of their own, and the transformation for committee staff members will be dramatic and -- for hundreds of Democratic employees likely to lose their jobs -- brutal.

Committees generally divided their budgets 50-50 between parties when the presidential election produced an even split in the Senate, controlled by the GOP thanks only to Vice President Cheney's tie-breaking vote.

Normally, the majority party can control up to two-thirds of a committee's staff budget, although it has been considered bad form in the past to take that much.

Majority control may count more in the House than in the Senate, a place with its own peculiar rhythms and rules where it is easier for someone to command attention or tie up legislation regardless of party, especially when -- like now -- neither side has 60 votes.

Still, everyone wants to be on the winning side.

"I've served in the majority for 16 years; I've served in the minority for eight years," said Democratic Rep. Martin Frost of Texas. "And it's like the guy said, 'I've been rich and I've been poor, and rich is better.'

"Well, the majority is better."

Under the capital's GOP domination, the language of Washington is bound to evolve, too.

There will be even more talk about security.

Along with homeland security there will be "energy security," which would involve drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; "economic security," or lower taxes; and "retirement security," which calls for steering money away from dear old Social Security.

For all the coming changes, Washington has shock absorbers, too. Local jewelry designer Ann Hand, for example, has counted Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush as patrons for her baubles, and the star of her perfume line, $250 for 1.6 ounces, does not discriminate by party. It's called, simply, Power.

Lobbying firms and law firms are each stocked with Republicans and Democrats so that no matter which party is in power, they are not left out in the cold.

It's known as "job security."