THE BATTLE FOR A KEY COMMITTEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900002-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 10, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900002-0
EARED
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Rowland Evans
And Robert Novak
The
Battle
For a Key
Committee
An attempt by Sen. David Durenber-
ger of Minnesota to take control of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, a move
regarded by the Reagan administration
as a threat to its policies, poses the first
test of how friendly to the White House
Sen. Robert J. Dole will be in his new
role as majority leader.
Durenberger, normally a mild-man-
nered moderate, called and held a
meeting of the committee on Dec. 3
even though he has not been named
chairman. Only two members attend-
ed: Durenberger and his fellow moder-
ate Republican ally, Sen. William
Cohen of Maine. The remarks of the
outgoing chairman, Sen. Barry Gold-
water, when told of Durenberger's ac-
tion, were unprintable. He and several
other Republicans were livid.
Angry though they are, the question
whether Durenberger in fact becomes
chairman in the new Congress rests
not with them but with Dole. Conse-
quently, the president's ability to have
his national security policies generally
backed in a Senate controlled by his
own party is enmeshed in tribal rela-
tionships and backroom dealings of the
world's most exclusive dub.
Neither the White House nor conser-
vative Republican senators, including
four on the Intelligence Committee in
addition to Goldwater, want Durenber-
ger as chairman. They fear his hostility
to Reagan's Nicaragua policy, particu-
larly his contempt for the contra guer-
rillas fighting the Sandinista govern-
ment. They suspect that he takes a
benign view of Soviet SALT compli-
ance.
WASHINGTON POST
10 December 1984
The decision to fight his claim as
heir apparent came when Durenber-
ger, speaking as though he were al-
ready chairman, told The Washington
Post Nov. 29 he will oppose all aid for
the contras. The conservatives' alter-
native to him is quite a surprise: Sen.
John Chafee.
Overall, .Chafee is one of the least
conservative Republicans in the Sen-
ate and a member of the liberal
"Group of Six." But he supports Rea-
gan- on Nicaragua and most other na-
tional security issues over which the
Intelligence Committee exerts ex-
traordinary influence. He might be-
come even more a Reagan loyalist as
the just-elected chairman of the Sen-
ate Republican Conference and a key
lieutenant to his good friend Bob Dole.
The new, uncontested grandee of the
Senate has said nothing publicly about
how he thinks Durenberger's claim to
the chairmanship should be handled.
Goldwater bitterly complained to Dole
last week about Durenberger's takeover
attempt. Dole replied that he had given
Durenberger no reason to hope for the
chairmanship.
But Dole is correctly known as the
most skilled cloakroom maneuverer
and deal-maker in the Senate. Nobody
could be privy to all the arrangements
he might have engineered in his unex-
pected election as Republican leader.
Durenberger's obvious confidence
about becoming chairman has evoked
vague suspicion in the Republican
doakroom that he may have some sort
of encouragement from Dole. The ma-
jority leader's intimates confirmed to
, us that Durenberger did have a hand
in his victory.
Durenberger's claim to the chair-
manship rests on the "eight-year
rule," an often ignored standing order
of the Senate that rotates Intelligence
Committee members by limiting ten-
ure to eight years. Without the rule,
Chafee would be next in line for chair-
man. With it, he and three conserva-
tive senators?Jake Garn of Utah,
? Richard Lugar of Indiana and Malcohn
Wallop of Wyoming?must leave.
Next in seniority is Durenberger.
On Sept. 20, Goldwater warned the
Senate that the departure of -Eire
four Republicans along with four sen-
ior Democratic members "would have
far-ree:consequences"
negative
for the
Goldwa-
ter scoffed at the rule's rationale: that
rotation would keen the committee
from "falling under the spell" of the
Ca_ -
Goldwater is not alone m his criti-
cism of the eight-year rule. Lugar, in-
coming Foreign Relations Committee
chairman, wrote him last June that it
would be "irresponsible . . . to jeopard-
iie the committee's ability to analyze
intelligence issues from a historical ,
perspective by such a rapid turnover"
of membership. .
Democrat; on tbs. 'Committee would
like to strip it of conservative Republi-
cans. Most of them support the rule,
but without much passion. Neverthe-
less, conservative Republicans are
suspicious of Durenberger and Cohen,
who would head the powerful subcom-
mittee that oversees the super-secret
CIA budget if Durenberger becomes
chairman. They worry about Duren-
berger and Cohen lining up Demo7
craw votes in case they have to de-
fend the eight-year rule on the floor of
the Senate.
But in fact, Dole's decision will be
crucial. If he backs the rule, it will
stay; if he wants it changed, it will be
changed. What he does will thus re-
veal not only whether Ronald Reagan
starts his second term with a damag-
ingly hostile Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee. It will disclose how far Dole
may go in fashioning the Senate into a
body more independent of the White
House than it ever was under Howard
Baker.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900002-0