Beginnings In 1995, at New Hampshire Senator
Bob Smith's birthday party, Ashcroft, Jeffords, Lott, and
Connie Mack sang "
Happy Birthday". Later, when Senator
Bob Packwood was having a birthday party, Jeffords called Lott and suggested that the four of them sing at the party. Mack declined, but Larry Craig joined. According to his autobiography,
Herding Cats, A Life in Politics, Lott formed the group in large part to improve relations between the
Republican Conference, of which Lott was
Majority Leader, and Jeffords, a Republican who frequently voted with the
Democrats. During the initial years, the four senators usually practiced in Lott's hideaway office.
Guy Hovis, the Mississippi state director for Lott, trained the senators, who practiced together every day.
1995–2000 Their first official performance of the group was in October 1995 for the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL), in which they sang "
Elvira" at a fundraising event at the
Kennedy Center organized by Ray Ivey of Consolidated Natural Gas. In December 1995, the group appeared on
The Today Show. it was described in
The Hill as "Congressional Harmony". In September 1996 the group performed again with the Oak Ridge Boys in
Branson, Missouri. The same year, the senators sang at the
1996 Republican National Convention. In 1998, the group released their only album,
Let Freedom Sing, a ten-song CD recorded in Nashville. In November 2000, Ashcroft lost his
Senate re-election race (he was appointed
Attorney General in early 2001). In May 2001, Jeffords announced he was leaving the Republican Party to become an
Independent, returning control of the Senate to the Democrats. The two events led to the apparent demise of the group. In June 2007, Ashcroft, Craig, and Lott gave their first public performance in more than six years. Craig was subsequently inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame, having been selected in March 2007. Craig said that the group was now a
trio. Lott's announced resignation in 2007 seemed to put the existence of even a trio in doubt. Craig's decision to not run for another term in 2008 — due in part to the controversy over his
arrest for solicitation the previous year — spelled the formal end of the group. ==In fiction==