Obama's Ties to Lugar Give Republican Support on Foreign Policy

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By Nicholas Johnston

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- In his early days as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Barack Obama would dutifully sit through hours-long hearings while more senior members left, an act of deference to the chairman, Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana.

"Frequently, Barack Obama and I were the only two people left at the table," Lugar said in an interview. "On several occasions I made a point just for the record that I appreciated his diligence and patience."

At a time when bipartisanship has all but broken down in Washington, the young Democratic president and the 76-year-old Republican wise man are quietly working to restore the notion that politics must end at the water's edge.

The two have spoken on the phone four times since Election Day, a contrast to the limited communication that Lugar had with President George W. Bush over eight years. The Bush-Lugar talks were "certainly not as frequent and as consistent as the contacts between Lugar and Obama," said Lugar's spokesman, Andy Fisher.

Lugar sought out Obama, 47, for a spot on the committee shortly after the Illinois Democrat won his seat in 2004, the start of a relationship that included traveling overseas together and that now positions Lugar as an informal senior adviser to the president.

Nuclear Weapons

The relationship also has given Lugar a powerful new ally in his decades-long quest to control the spread of nuclear weapons.

"One of my goals is to prevent nuclear proliferation," Obama said at his first White House press conference Feb. 9. "I think that it's important for the United States, in concert with Russia, to lead the way on this."

Lugar is in an unusually influential position because of his decades of work with many members of the new administration's diplomatic team.

Retired General Jim Jones, Obama's national security adviser, first met Lugar 30 years ago when he served as the Marine Corps' congressional liaison. William Burns, the highest- ranking Foreign Service officer at the State Department, worked with Lugar on his regular trips to Russia, where Burns was ambassador.

And, up until this year, the highest ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee was Vice President Joe Biden; the two traded off the chairmanship over the past seven years, according to which party had a Senate majority.

'Unique' Team

"The team that's been assembled now is maybe unique because of the length of our common service and the various good relationships I've had with them," Lugar said Feb. 10, the day before he had a one-on-one breakfast with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "I appreciate that there's been a reaching out on the part of members of the administration."

A 31-year Senate veteran, Lugar has become a leading Washington voice on stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction. In addition, he has called for increased aid to Pakistan and more diplomatic contact with Iran to help stabilize Afghanistan.

"Foreign affairs is his issue," said Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington. "He is essentially going to be ending his career as a respected statesman."

Tim Roemer, a former Indiana Democratic congressman who is now president of the Washington-based Center for National Policy, said nonproliferation would be an "extremely high priority" for the new administration.

'Break the Lock'

"Sixty years ago we had two members of the club," Roemer said. "Now we have countries like Iran and North Korea trying to break the lock and sneak in."

As early as 2002, when he was still an Illinois state senator, Obama spoke out on nonproliferation issues, saying the U.S. needs to encourage Russia to better safeguard its nuclear weapons.

Obama's comments on the issue during his 2004 Senate campaign caught Lugar's attention, and after the election, Lugar called to congratulate the new senator and suggested he serve on the Foreign Relations Committee.

In the summer of 2005 Obama asked to accompany Lugar on a trip to examine weapons sites in Russia, a rare opportunity because Lugar rarely travels abroad with other lawmakers.

The two senators spent a week visiting Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Russia.

"He was a very good listener, and a very attentive note- taker," Lugar said. "This is somebody who was really intent upon learning from these moments."

Russia Inspections

The trip included inspections of decommissioned missiles, visits to chemical-weapons labs and a three-hour detention at a Russian airport in a stand-off with customs officers before U.S. and Russian officials intervened.

"I couldn't have had a better guide than Dick," Obama wrote of the trip in his memoir "The Audacity of Hope."

Lugar's work with former Georgia Democratic Senator Sam Nunn on nonproliferation issues is a model for bipartisan cooperation, Obama wrote.

The Nunn-Lugar legislation provided the framework and funding to decommission nuclear-, biological- and chemical-weapon stockpiles in nations that were part of the former Soviet Union.

A follow-up measure, drafted by Obama and Lugar in 2006, aimed to stop the spread of shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles and was cited by Obama as a central element of his bipartisan record in commercials during last year's presidential campaign.

Close Relationship

Lugar and Obama have a rare close relationship that crosses party lines. Bush faced steady criticism from Biden when the Delaware senator was the senior Democrat on the foreign relations committee. Bush's predecessor, Democrat Bill Clinton, had a testy relationship with former Chairman Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican.

Still, Lugar and Obama have differed over policy. During Obama's time in the Senate the two disagreed about timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a signature issue of Obama's presidential campaign, and were on opposite sides of debates on bankruptcy, abortion and taxes.

The changing nature of their relationship was evident in the calls Lugar said he has received from Obama since the election.

"Two of these most recently were in regards to the stimulus package as opposed to arms control," Lugar said in an interview Feb. 10, a few hours before he voted against Obama's $838 billion economic proposal.

On most international issues, though, Lugar and Obama will likely remain close allies, as Lugar said he told Obama in their first phone conversation on Nov. 10, less than a week after the election.

"We just discussed the fact that we would remain close together in discussing foreign-policy dilemmas that face our country," Lugar said. "We had a wonderful working relationship, and he said he hoped that would continue and I affirmed it would."