Senate: Bickering Already

WASHINGTON: The 106th U.S. Senate wasn't even a day old when its bipartisan facade began to crack. Majority Leader Trent Lott, his trial-in-a-week plan in tatters, announced that the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton could take at least three weeks -- witnesses included -- and "could very well take longer than that." Minority Leader Tom Daschle pledged a "universal, unanimous" Democratic opposition to calling witnesses. Which means that Lott has a lot more compromising to do.

"Conservatives would still prefer an open-ended trial," says TIME congressional correspondent John Dickerson. "And Democrats want it as short as possible. Lott is still trying to land somewhere in between." So far, the new Senate looks a lot like the old House -- Republicans running the agenda, and conservatives running the Republicans. And that seemingly inexorable rightward tide has the White House betting that the long national nightmare will come with a very long coda.