WASHINGTON — The Foreign Relations Committee is hardly the most popular Senate panel. Many senators shun what they see as all talk and no action -- no pork-barrel projects for constituents or popular tax cuts to write into law.
But it was on this somewhat esoteric panel that the fast-rising junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, forged a relationship with his future running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.
Perhaps oddly, it was the committee's senior Republican, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, who helped foster the friendship between the two Democrats.
In his 2004 Senate campaign, Obama emphasized the need to safeguard nuclear stockpiles in the former Soviet Union. It happened to be a signature issue for Lugar, then the chairman. So when Obama arrived in Washington, Lugar encouraged him to join the committee.
Within a few months, the committee's most senior Republican and most junior Democrat traveled together to Russia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. They toured ramshackle laboratories and nuclear storage sites. They were detained at one point by Russian officials and returned home to co-write a bill expanding safeguards. They even gave a joint speech at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Lugar was surprised that he was willing to craft such a serious bill without much potential for media attention," said a senior Democratic leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as did others, because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. "What Lugar's staff felt was that Obama was more substantive than he expected."
Lugar, it seems, was grateful for the backing from the young senator with rock star popularity. And Biden, like many of the Senate's senior Democrats, was taken by Obama's unexpected seriousness.
"The nuclear proliferation trip with Lugar got Biden's attention. Biden is enough old school and he's been around the Senate long enough that he can spot someone he needs to pay attention to," the senior Democratic aide said. "For Biden, that was the moment."
Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who also sat on the committee, said the men developed a good working relationship in part because Obama respected the expertise of senior members.
"He's a good learner," said Chafee, who has endorsed Obama. "He keeps his ears open."
