Main course at bipartisan Senate lunch: Good vibes
Dozens of senators put a week of bitterly partisan votes behind them Wednesday â if only to spend a few minutes enjoying a plate of Maine lobster and the company of someone on the other side of the aisle. The Senate held a rare bipartisan lunch in between failed attempts to fund the Department of Homeland Security past Feb. 27. No progress was made on the issue at hand or any other legislation during the meal, but that wasnât the point, organizers said. âThis will produce some real results as we yearn â both parties â to work together for the better of the country,â said Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who put on the lunch with Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Susan Collins and Maine, and Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. Story Continued Below âThis is a step that doesnât seem, maybe, as consequential as it will be in terms of bringing us together,â Schumer added. Inside the stately Kennedy Caucus Room, senators were required to sit next to a member of the opposite party as they dined on lobster, Virginia ham sandwiches and Maine blueberry pie for dessert. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) kicked things off, then turned things over to those who remember the Golden Age of the Senate: people raising their families together in Washington and making lifelong cross-party relationships that led to deal-making in a chamber that requires bipartisanship to pass legislation. âA lot of warm, fuzzy speechmaking,â deadpanned GOP Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho after the lunch. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) spoke of working with Ted Kennedy. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) reminisced on the days when nominations werenât a partisan exercise. The Senateâs rookie class of 2016 then spoke, represented by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Moore described first meeting Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in the 1970s, when he showed up to install carpet at her new house. Thatâs precisely the kind of longtime relationship senators should have these days, said Heinrich and Flake, who hatched the bipartisan lunch while they spent time together on a deserted island for a reality TV show. âThe point of these luncheons is that they really do lead people to figure out where they have common ground,â said Heinrich. âIf you donât have those relationships, if you donât have that trust, youâll never get there on that front.â All four organizers vowed to hold another lunch, perhaps as early as March, they told reporters in an upbeat news conference. Maybe then they will get into the substantive issues beyond the âgetting to know youâ stage, they said. âWe did not get into these substantive issues, whether itâs [Benjamin] Netanyahu, DHS funding,â said Schumer. Indeed, one cheery lunch did little to ease the chamberâs tense week. Minutes later, Democrats blocked a hard-line GOP immigration proposal, leaving DHS funding in doubt.