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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (44169)	4/28/1999 10:37:00 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 67261

Hastert Makes Try, Probably in Vain, For Bipartisanship By Morton M. Kondracke House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) really seems to be trying to get big, bipartisan things done in Congress this year. Of course, he's almost certainly doomed to fail. "There's a lot of good things I think we can do on a bipartisan basis," he said in an interview last week. It doesn't have to be all Republican or all Democrat. That's my view." After the vitriol of the Gingrich-Clinton era, Hastert's attitude is a welcome new departure, but I suspect even he knows that it has severe limitations. As he says, a missile defense bill and the "Ed-Flex" bill giving states more leeway in use of federal education money passed with bipartisan support. Even the budget garnered some Democratic votes. But, unless Hastert's Republicans capitulate to Democratic terms on the big items -- Social Security, Medicare, health care reform and electricity deregulation -- the chances for agreement are slim. Democrats deny it on the record, but they are not interested in an accomplishment-rich 106th Congress. To the contrary, they think that the charge "do-nothing Congress" got them to within six seats of retaking power and they are setting things up to do it again. Hastert's visible efforts to "work together" and "find common ground" do serve a political purpose. They deny the Democrats the kind of juicy target that former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) presented and they open the way for the GOP to say that "do-nothing Democrats" frustrated progress. In furtherance of agreements, Hastert has had one -- though only one -- one-on-one talk with President Clinton. He has had fellow Republicans seek out Democratic cosponsors on key early legislation and has held several meetings with Democratic House leaders. He's willing to compromise on taxes, on Social Security, Medicare, environmental policy and the final shape of the budget. De facto, he is even supporting President Clinton on Kosovo, but he wants Clinton to explain it better and find his way to a negotiated settlement, even though he thinks Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic is "a thug." He told me, "I've listened to [Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright, to [Defense Secretary William] Cohen, to the Joint Chiefs [of Staff] and [National Security Adviser Sandy] Berger," he said. "But the best person to explain why we're in Kosovo is the President. He actually has a philosophy on pan-Slavism and why it's important to be there. ... "He basically said, 'If we are to have peace into the 21st century, we need to [have] a solid relationship with the Soviet Union.' "'Because of our relationship with them and the Serbs and the Slavsin Bulgaria and Rumania, we just need to stabilize the area.' It was very good. It did make sense." Hastert said he is dead against putting ground troops into combat either to topple Milosevic or to clear Kosovo of Serbian forces. "It's a moral dilemma. I met Milosevic once, five years ago, and I found him a thug. But to take him out, you'd have to invade Yugoslavia from the north with hundreds of thousands of troops. ...The American people won't stand for that. "If we invade Kosovo, we'd need a base to operate from. We needed six months to get ready to free Kuwait, with hundreds of thousands of troops. I'm no military expert. I was only in ROTC in college. But I know it's difficult to do. "We have to keep the pressure on and reach a negotiated peace. We need to be in sync with the Russians. If there is a negotiated peace, there needs to be a peace-keeping force. It's a much better alternative than an invasion." Hastert acknowledged trying to avoid showdown votes on Rep. Tom Campbell's (R-Calif.) proposals for a complete withdrawal from the Balkans or a declaration of war. "Most of our folks think that while the air war is going on we need to stand by it and work it out. Stick with the administration and see if their plan really works," he said. Hastert said he doesn't think the war in Kosovo has to interfere with the passage of legislation. "It's kind of like when impeachment was going on, we were passing legislation and doing things, but nobody focused. Kosovo is a big issue, but ... hopefully we're going to ... work with the President on Social Security" and Medicare. There's hope for a Medicare bill passing the Senate, he said, and "We're trying to keep an engagement with the White House, carry on discussions and get those big things done. I think that's what the American people expect of us." It's true, but good luck. Hastert may meet with Democrats, but I'd be amazed if he gets anything more from them than "We'll get back to you." He ought to start brandishing the slogan "do nothing Democrats" in public.