Clash of Senate leaders’ styles adds to the standoff that keeps the government shut down

The government shutdown is highlighting the contrasting leadership styles of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer.

Mr. Thune, South Dakota Republican, is hoping for a bottom-up solution to the crisis, saying rank-and-file senators hold the power to reopen the government.

Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, has pursued a top-down approach, demanding a bipartisan negotiation with President Trump and top congressional leaders. 

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming Republican, told The Washington Times she doesn’t know what works best, but she prefers Mr. Thune’s leadership style.

“The more command and control everything from the top has never been my favorite approach, so I tend to lean towards the Republican leader on this,” she said.

Neither approach has worked yet as the shutdown hit two full weeks on Tuesday. But the longer it drags on, the less likely it appears that leadership will get in a room and hash out a plan, as often occurs when Congress is at an impasse.

“Schumer likes closed doors and cigar smoke, and that’s being rejected by the Republicans,” Sen. Steve Daines, Montana Republican, told The Times.

Mr. Thune has said he sees no reason to meet directly with Mr. Schumer because he refuses to negotiate on the Democrats’ health care demands until the government is reopened.

“I think that the path forward on this is more likely to be achieved with rank-and-file members who actually want to have an appropriations process, want to get us back on track on the calendar, legislatively,” Mr. Thune said on the third day of the government shutdown.

He’s made similar comments since then as he continues to call for five “reasonable” Democrats to join Republicans in voting for a stopgap spending bill to reopen the government.

Mr. Schumer has said his caucus is not folding in its push for Mr. Trump and the top four party leaders to negotiate a deal. He wants to tie a bill reopening the government to Democrats’ health care priorities, such as extending a COVID-era expansion of Obamacare premium subsidies. 

“The only way you solve this problem, ultimately, is the four leaders and Trump agree,” Mr. Schumer said.

Sen. Gary Peters, Michigan Democrat, said Mr. Schumer’s top-down strategy is out of necessity.

“The Republicans won’t do anything unless Trump says it’s OK,” he said. “So I would like to work with the rank and file, but I also know that when Donald Trump speaks, all of the Republican senators basically just salute and do whatever he says.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said that is why he and Mr. Schumer demanded to meet with Mr. Trump before the shutdown, and they still believe his involvement is necessary.

“At the end of the day, nothing is going to happen on the Republican side unless Donald Trump tells them to do it,” he said. “The Republicans here in Congress have long ago abandoned the notion that they’re part of a separate and coequal branch of government. They don’t see their jobs that way. They function like functionaries, like wholly owned subsidiaries of the Trump administration.” 

Mr. Trump is siding with GOP leaders and following their lead in not negotiating with Democrats on health care during the shutdown. He said last week that such talks were happening but quickly walked it back, saying he would only negotiate when the government is open. 

On Monday, as he traveled back to the U.S. from his quick trip to the Middle East, the president told reporters he is in frequent contact with Mr. Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, about the shutdown.

“Those two guys have done a great job, but we’re dealing with a bunch of radical left lunatics that have lost an election in a landslide,” Mr. Trump said.

Republicans say the only way out of the shutdown is for Democrats to stop filibustering the House-passed stopgap bill that would fund the government through Nov. 21.

Senate Democrats have blocked the measure seven times already. Mr. Thune has an eighth vote teed up for Tuesday evening.

Mr. Thune is “engaging in the classic definition of legislative insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over and over again … and expecting a different result,” Mr Jeffries said. “Things are not going to change until Republicans actually decide to get serious about a bipartisan negotiation.”

Mr. Johnson said Republicans are not interested in Mr. Schumer’s closed-door negotiations. 

“He wants a backroom deal that the American people will never see. He literally has said we need the top four leaders to go into a room and work this out,” Mr. Johnson said Tuesday. “Why does Chuck Schumer say that? Because that’s how he’s operated for decades. … He is the broken status quo. We are trying to break the status quo so government works better for the people.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, said negotiations can happen at the leadership level or among the rank-and-file, but they need to be more formal than the casual talks that have been taking place in the Senate so far.

“There needs to be an official negotiation,” she said. “So until that happens, it’s unlikely that things will get done.”