Ensign has whirlwind week of orientation

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Newly elected John Ensign, R-Nev., is rushing through a harried schedule of orientation events and meetings during his first week as a soon-to-be senator.

He's plotting legislative strategy on gambling and nuclear waste and thinking through crime and education bills to draft. He has met with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev. -- the man Ensign will replace when he is sworn in Jan. 3.

Meanwhile Bryan, whose schedule and nine-room office suite are virtually empty, is winding down a long political career. The phones are quiet. Documents and keepsakes are packed into dozens of boxes (more than 20 marked "nuclear waste") and giant garbage bins are filled with papers and references discarded by departing staffers. Paintings and pictures are down from bare walls.

"This room looks like a plucked turkey," said a smiling Bryan on Wednesday, nearing the end of several months of goodbyes and career tributes. "I'm going to miss it. But no one has had a better exit than I have."

Bryan hasn't offered Ensign advice, and Ensign didn't solicit it, he said.

The two don't agree on much politically -- except taking adamant pro-gaming and anti-nuclear stances. But they are committed to a smooth transition and had a friendly meeting Tuesday to sort through the details, they said.

Ensign said he already has cemented a solid working relationship with Reid, another political opposite, but also the influential No. 2 Democratic leader. The two emerged smiling today from a meeting about gambling bills likely to surface in Congress next year.

"Harry and I are going to work very well together on that issue," Ensign said in an interview earlier. "We're defending Nevada jobs when we do that. He will work from his position as a leader on the Democratic side, and I will work on my side of the aisle."

Ensign said his committee assignments will not be known for at least a week, possibly not until January. He is angling for open spots on the Commerce, Banking, Budget and Veterans Affairs Committees.

Late Wednesday afternoon Ensign was toting four thick books that detail Senate history and rules, a gift from the unofficial dean of the Senate, Robert Byrd, D-W.V. The two had a private meeting called by Ensign.

"I'm trying to become a student of the process," said Ensign, 42, a veterinarian who served as a House Representatives from 1995 through 1998. But the rowdier 435-member House is vastly different from the more stately upper body of Congress, a prestigious club of 100.

Ensign and Sen.-elect George Allen, R-Va., are the only two freshmen Republican senators.

"You get a lot of attention from your leadership," Ensign said, smiling.

Ensign has had several meetings with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. He dined on Tuesday at an elegant dinner held in the Supreme Court building for freshmen. In attendance were Lott, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, among other powerful guests. President Clinton was there, too, Ensign added.

"He's a Senate spouse now," Ensign said with a grin.

The Senate's 11 new freshmen don't have their permanent office assignments yet. This week they filtered into a temporary suite -- Spartan single rooms in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building.

Across the hall from Ensign: Sen.-elect Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. The first lady has been trying to keep a low profile, despite being the only Senate newcomer toting a throng of media and Secret Service.

Ensign and Clinton have chatted several times, Ensign said. They plan a kind of state-issues exchange: He'll visit New York and she'll come to Las Vegas, he said. He wants to do the same with other senators, especially some from the Northeast.

"They don't understand the West at all," he said.

Ensign plans to meet privately with every senator, even its most liberal champions, in the coming months as part of an effort to get to know their pet issues and to reach across the aisle in a Senate likely to be bitterly divided with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats.

"Both sides have been talking bipartisanship and that's good," Ensign said. "Even in private conversations people have been talking bipartisanship."

Ensign has moved into his new Washington home, a house on Capitol Hill he shares with three Democratic and three Republican House lawmakers -- a reflection of the almost evenly split Congress.

"It's like a big fraternity house," Ensign said.

Bryan and wife Bonnie thought they would be back in their Las Vegas home by October. But this year's lame-duck Congress has not yet finished its final orders of business, including several spending bills -- an odd ending to a political career capped by 12 years in the Senate.

"This is a session that never ends," Bryan said. "I'll just say: It's been a prolonged farewell to the Senate."

Bryan's documents, including press releases and correspondence, will be archived along with other mementos at the University of Nevada, Reno. He's keeping a few prized possessions, including a belt buckle collection.

He and Bonnie plan to drive cross-country when the session ends. A moving truck comes today to haul their belongings from his home on Capitol Hill to Nevada.

Bryan today is also scheduled to carry on another Senate tradition: carving his name in his desk on the Senate floor, which already contains the etched autographs of former Nevada Sen. Key Pittman, and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.

"That's something I haven't done since the fourth grade," Bryan said.