how to become a senator

100 Ways to Become a Senator

<strong>GETTING IN</strong> Caroline Kennedy may be invited; Roland Burris, invited, may not be admitted. Its that club called the Senate.

Credit... Left, Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency; right, Tannen Maury, via European Pressphoto Agency

Jan. 3, 2009

WASHINGTON — He had never run for office before. Married twice, once into money and then into fame, he was dismissed even by a former subordinate as a "dilettante." His party did not want him as its standard bearer and put him on the ballot only when its nominee died in a plane crash.

But by the time Senator John W. Warner of Virginia finished packing his office on Friday to close out 30 years in the job, he had built a reputation as a mainstay of the Capitol, regarded for his independence, integrity and national security expertise. No longer Elizabeth Taylor's sixth husband, Mr. Warner at the end has completed his journey from ridicule to respect.

There is no single path to the Senate — or for that matter, through the Senate. Caroline Kennedy, you know, may yet get there on the strength, you know, of her last name. Roland Burris may yet be seated even though he was appointed by an arrested governor who seems to be saying bleep you to fellow Democrats. Al Franken may yet represent Minnesota in Stuart Smalley fashion after a disputed recount because, doggone it, people like him, or about 50 more than like the other guy, if the latest tally is to be believed.

This odd run-up to the Congress that opens Tuesday has thrust the nature of the Senate into the forefront of national discussion, all the more so because four or five of its new members may be chosen by some process beyond a simple verdict by the voters. The Minnesota recount and the selection of replacements for President-elect Barack Obama, his vice president and two cabinet secretaries have unsettled the Senate.

Are these would-be senators any less qualified than the dutiful politicians who work their way up from the state legislature and the House? The Senate has a reputation as an elite body, and perhaps it is. But it is also a political body with a cast of characters worthy of a reality show, some suited for the job and others manifestly not. What makes a good senator is not necessarily so easy to figure at first.

"There are a lot of different backgrounds that are helpful," said former Senator Warren B. Rudman, a New Hampshire Republican. Good senators, he said, have come from the military or business as well as from politics. Referring to the new senators coming in, he added: "They will reach their own level. If they're very good, that will become apparent. And if they're not, that will be too."

Respect in the Senate rarely follows celebrity. Those who arrive with a name and not much else are shunned by their new colleagues. "They sort of ignore them to a certain degree," said former Senator James Sasser, a Democrat from Tennessee. "They want to let them know that they may have a celebrity status somewhere else, but in the Senate, they're just one of 100."

What matters in the Senate more than fame, according to veterans, is a willingness to work and learn, to stand up for values and, most important, to earn trust. "Acquire a reputation of not keeping your word and you're doomed," said former Senator Bob Kerrey, a Democrat from Nebraska. "Acquire a friend because you helped them when they needed help and you'll never regret it."

But that makes it sound easy. The Senate is anything but. It can be maddeningly slow and difficult to navigate. Governors arriving in the Senate are often unhappy at its pace and byzantine ways. Seniority is still important enough that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton decided after eight years that she was too junior to accomplish what she wanted and so is leaving to become secretary of state.

"The seniority system, unfortunately, has a deep control over the Senate," said former Senator Alan K. Simpson, a Republican from Wyoming. "The first couple of years you just try to look like you're smart. I just tried to dress well and show up and hope they'd think I was smart. The first two or three years were really tough."

And no matter what is said for official consumption, appointed senators are usually disregarded until they have faced voters and actually won an election. The most profound bond among senators, veterans often say, is the shared ordeal of stumping for votes and surviving the hazing of a campaign.

For Mr. Warner, it took more than one election to earn that esteem in the eyes of his colleagues. Although he had been secretary of the Navy when he ran in 1978, he was better known for marriages to Catherine Mellon, the heiress, and Ms. Taylor. (Still, he had the advantage of succeeding another senator, William Scott, who was declared by a magazine the "dumbest member of Congress" — and then called a news conference to dispute it.)

Mr. Warner became one of the Senate's most respected members, a broker of bipartisan compromise, a powerful voice on military matters and a maverick who occasionally defied his fellow Republicans. But that took time. Looking back now, Mr. Warner said, it might have been better had he served in another elected office first.

"I heard it many times — 'he didn't come up through the chairs,' " Mr. Warner recalled on his last day in office. "Which meant that my political career came in at the top, so to speak, whereas many of my colleagues started in the General Assembly or the Congress or as a governor." In hindsight, he said, "I wished I had that opportunity to come up through one or two of those chairs because it's helpful."

Mr. Sasser said the Senate had a way of sorting its own, noting the eventual success of Mr. Warner and other celebrities, like Bill Bradley, the basketball player, and John Glenn, the astronaut. "People find out pretty fast if you're a lightweight, not too bright or not too educated," he said. "A lot of them stay there for many years. Some of them come and don't seem all that bright but they grow in the job."

He recalled that a Senate old-timer once told him that all senators get bigger over time. "Some of them grow," he said, "and some of them just swell up."

Published in The Week in Review on January 4, 2009.