The Floor Is My Domain

How Howard Baker holds a cantankerous Senate together

It was the night of Nov. 21, and in one hour the Government would go out of business if the necessary appropriation bill was not passed. In the Senate cloakroom, Majority Leader Howard Baker was trying to put together enough votes for a continuing resolution that would keep programs funded through the fiscal year. Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, who objected to proposed increases for defense spending, threatened to filibuster. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the Republican whip, began shouting at Levin. When Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn tried to intercede, Stevens turned his wrath on him. The mild-mannered Nunn stalked away.

Amid the chaos, Baker quietly began rebuilding egos and bridges. He first went to Stevens and persuaded him to apologize to Nunn. The three of them then joined to calm Levin down. Baker was eventually able to forge a consensus: a compromise resolution to keep programs funded for four months was passed, 60 to 35. Said Baker's Senate confidant, Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana: "He just remains congenial until the other side runs out of gas."

No stirring speeches resound from the majority leader's seat, front and center in the Senate's stately chamber. No grand initiatives are launched. No crafty deals are struck, no arms are twisted. Yet easygoing Howard Henry Baker Jr., 56, of tiny Huntsville, Tenn. (pop. 519), has become one of the most effective shepherds in the history of the cantankerous club that he leads. With an amiable aw-shucks manner, he wanders the corridors keeping his troops in line and his opponents placated. "The cloakroom becomes my office," he says. "The floor is my domain."

This insider's pragmatism makes Baker a perfect complement to the doctrinaire crusader in the White House. "I'm the President's point man here," Baker says. He and Reagan first became friends in 1976, when the Californian was campaigning in Tennessee for the Republican nomination. Although Baker supported Gerald Ford, he invited Reagan to his Huntsville home for dinner. It was a grace note that Reagan remembered, and a relaxed relationship blossomed.

The two men touch base at least two or three times a week—more often if events warrant. "My approach with the President is very straightforward and direct," says Baker. "We communicate easily." In order to salvage the Administration's proposal to sell AW ACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia, Baker carefully choreographed the President's lobbying effort, even deciding details like which Senators should ride together to and from the White House. A special telephone in Baker's Capitol Hill hideaway—White House extension 806—gives him a direct line to the President. "I've got one at home too," says Baker with a smile. His other direct line to the White House is through Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada. Because of Laxalt's close friendship with Reagan, some saw him as a potential rival to Baker as leader of the Senate. The morning after Election Day, Baker asked the Nevadan to support him for the majority leadership. Laxalt agreed, and became a member of Baker's inner circle. Says Baker: "He's a good friend to have."