Augusta Chronicle
August 28, 2006

News Analysis: Isakson finds way to common ground
By Walter Jones

MARIETTA, Ga. - Youngsters wanting to grow up to become president, or at least senator, usually aim for law school as preparation.

Despite grumbling from voters about too many lawyers being involved in politics, there remains some logic to having a background in law if you plan to write new ones. Certainly, an understanding of basic constitutional rules and legal precedents keeps legislators from passing bills that will be unworkable or unenforceable.

But lawyers are experts in conflict. They anticipate conflicts and look for ways to avoid them or to prevail if a conflict comes to a showdown.

Many business people think of lawyers as deal-killers. But in order to pass legislation, a politician needs to find points of agreement rather than disagreement.

That's why Johnny Isakson thinks his experience as a real estate salesman gives him an edge in the Senate.

As a freshman senator, the Marietta Republican has surprised many observers with the impact he's had in just 19 months, for one success and for one failure - sort of.

His notable success was passage of the pension reform bill that President Bush recently signed into law. His failure of sorts was an amendment to the Senate immigration bill that fell 14 votes short.

The pension bill had been stalled for months, but Delta Air Lines was eager for it to pass - as long as it contained a provision giving the bankrupt air carrier extra time to fully fund its retirement plan. The measure could wind up preserving the golden years of thousands of Delta employees and retirees.

Mr. Isakson, characteristically, skipped the bill-signing ceremony to stay in Georgia, keeping appointments he'd made weeks before. Not every politician would miss such a chance to stand next to the president before all the television cameras in the White House.

Mr. Isakson got the bill unstuck by meeting individually with opponents to learn their objections and try to look for ways to mollify them.

He didn't have the same luck on the immigration bill. He offered a 10-line amendment to require implementation of border-security safeguards before starting any process that would lead illegal immigrants to gain legal status and possibly citizenship.

While the vote didn't go his way, he gained national attention, something he doesn't seem to seek out much. And he also began winning over a few more converts after the vote, like Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Other senators, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Mike Pence, R-Ind., have taken a page from his book and pushed a proposal some call "Isakson Lite" that would require all illegals to register at immigration centers, leave and re-apply for guest-worker status.

Asked if he wanted to earn a reputation for behind-the-scenes brokering, Mr. Isakson demurs.

"I don't know what I'll be known for," he said in an interview recently in his Marietta office. "I'm dealing with the search for common ground in immigration the same way I dealt with the common ground on the pension issue.

"First, you have to deal one-on-one with people with opposing viewpoints in trying to find them common ground."

In the case of immigration, he starts with two points: He favors comprehensive immigration reform himself, and it's going to take two years to put in place anyway.

"If they'll back up for a second and look at the trees rather than the whole forest, then they'll realize that, you know, it's going to take us two years to do both these things anyway, and why not commit ourselves that a guest-worker program won't go into place until we've done the border security?" he said.