Biden could be deal maker in next Congress

WASHINGTON — They've forged agreements on critical issues during intensely partisan battles on Capitol Hill.

Vice President Biden and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky may play deal-making roles even more often beginning next year, when Republicans take charge of the Senate — presumably elevating McConnell to the majority leader's post — and President Obama feels new pressure to work with GOP leaders.

"When we've reached those crisis moments, once (Senate Majority Leader Harry) Reid and the president have gotten out of the way, it's been Vice President Biden and leader McConnell who have cut deals that averted the worst-case scenarios," said Billy Piper, McConnell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2011.

Former Democratic senator Ted Kaufman, Biden's former chief of staff in the Senate, said the vice president is "the one player that all of the major players ... trust."

Trust has been a stumbling block in Obama's dealings with Republican leaders.

Obama, McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio all say they want to find common ground in the new Congress. But Obama quickly riled GOP leaders on Wednesday by renewing his commitment to bypass Congress and take executive action on immigration reform before the end of the year.

At a White House lunch with congressional leaders Friday, Obama angrily cut Biden off after the vice president interrupted Obama to ask Boehner how long Republicans would need to pass an immigration bill, a senior House Republican aide told the Associated Press.

Both McConnell and Boehner have said Obama would "poison the well" by going it alone, and they warned him at the Friday lunch not to do so, according to the AP.

"I think the president's relationships with Congress have made it very difficult, despite the fact that Biden and McConnell get along fine," said Steve Bell, a former Republican staffer now with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

McConnell's role as majority leader next year will give him a stronger hand in future negotiations than he had as minority leader. But Piper noted that, even with the gains they made in Tuesday's elections, Republicans still won't have a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in the next Congress and will still need Democratic support to move legislation.

"I think Biden can be very constructive in that effort," he said.

Biden and McConnell's previous budget negotiations came with high-stakes deadlines that don't exist to compel congressional action on issues such as tax reform and trade deals, said Bruce Reed, Biden's chief of staff from 2011 to 2013.

"That's going to be the challenge in those negotiations — getting them close enough to the finishing line (so) that a guy like Biden can close the deal," Reed said.

Biden and McConnell have more than 65 years of Senate service between them. They have similar committee experience — Biden served on and chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and McConnell serves on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations — and they've worked together on those issues.

After McConnell won his re-election race on Tuesday, Biden was the first to call him — before Obama called — to offer congratulations. Obama tried later but wasn't able to reach McConnell, according to The Hill newspaper.

As vice president, Biden has worked with McConnell on a number of fiscal issues. In 2010, they cut a deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years. They helped negotiate another deal in 2011 that increased the country's borrowing limit. And in 2012, they negotiated through another standoff over the "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2013.

"Nothing could be more excruciatingly difficult than a hostage negotiation with the fate of the economy and the government on the line," Reed said, recalling the "lovely New Year's Eve" that Biden and McConnell spent talking on the phone a dozen times to work out the fiscal cliff agreement.

Last year, Biden kept a low profile when the government partially shut down as Senate Democrats rallied around Reid as their primary advocate. Many thought Biden had given away too many Democratic priorities in earlier deals, former and current Capitol Hill staffers said at the time. They generally felt Republicans had won sharp cuts in domestic spending while Democrats had settled for tamer revenue increases than they'd wanted.

Biden still hasn't said whether he'll run for president in 2016. One possible downside of working with a Republican Senate is that Democrats would blame him if they don't like where that cooperation leads, said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked on Biden's 2008 presidential campaign.

But the vice president has more to gain than to lose, she said. Expectations for the 114th Congress will be so low that even a modest compromise will be seen positively, and Biden would get credit for that.

"The president and the vice president need to be careful not to compromise too much, on the one hand, for Democrats," she said. "On the other hand, for the public, they have to be careful not to be the government of 'no.' That's the tension. Both parties have to prove they can cooperate and they can govern."