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

To: Les H who wrote (46930)	5/8/1999 9:03:00 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 67261

Les, amusing column, but I think that Bubba should get the prize....

To: Les H who wrote (46930)	5/8/1999 9:03:00 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 67261

To: Les H who wrote (46930)	5/9/1999 10:02:00 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Will Hill GOP Help Or Hurt Party's Nominee? By Morton M. Kondracke The top contenders for the GOP presidential nomination all would put a new face on the party. It certainly needs one. Texas Gov. George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism," Elizabeth Dole's soccer-mom centrism and Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) Teddy Rooseveltish independence all would represent a welcome change from the surly image Congressional Republicans have been projecting since 1995. The departure of pyrotechnic ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and the arrival of even-tempered Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has removed an easy target for Democrats to shoot at, but it hasn't solved the party's problems. The latest CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll shows the GOP now is viewed favorably by 47 percent of voters, unfavorably by 44 percent but Democrats score 55-37. And on most issues, the public trusts Democrats more. The performance of Congressional Republicans on Kosovo indicates that the party is still ridden with hyper-partisanship and obsessive Clinton-phobia -- to the point that some leaders have adopted the Rev. Jesse Jackson's penchant to blame America first in the conflict with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Granted that President Clinton's bombing-only strategy in Kosovo is unlikely to produce victory over Milosevic as McCain argues -- joined by Dole and Bush. But still, a full 127 House Republicans -- more than half the Conference -- voted last week to withdraw U.S. forces from NATO operations in Kosovo, which would leave Milosevic the clear winner. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who in 1990 cautioned Jackson not to act like a secretary of State or negotiate when he went on a hostage-rescue mission to Iraq, now is cheering Jackson's diplomacy in Serbia. And so is House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who last weekend blamed U.S. bombing for instability in the Balkans, refugee flows out of Kosovo and NATO's falling credibility. DeLay said he didn't convince anyone on the House floor to undercut Clinton's policies, but he admits trying. It's hard to imagine he'd do the same if a Republican were in the White House. Beyond Kosovo, GOP leaders in both houses are signaling they will not seriously advance major proposals on Social Security, Medicare and taxes this year -- opening the party once again to charges of "do-nothingism." The GOP leaders' motivation seems to be to avoid giving Democrats fodder for demagoguery, but the likelihood is that Democrats will simply impute far worse intentions to the GOP than the party's actual ideas would merit. Polls show that the public favors the kind of Social Security reforms the GOP favors -- allowing individual workers to invest some of their own tax money in private markets. GOP leadership aides insist that 1999 will not be a do-nothing year, citing "Ed-Flex" legislation, possible modest tax cuts, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and a "lockbox" for 100 percent of Social Security surpluses as defensible achievements. They also claim that on-time passage of a budget resolution and appropriations bills will win the GOP favor, but the chances are that in October at least three major funding bills won't be passed, giving Clinton the opportunity to threaten vetoes to get his way. Meantime, the House may pass campaign finance reform and minimum wage legislation, but the prospects are that campaign reform, at least, will be killed in the Senate, leaving the GOP open to charges it is the party of "special interests." The question raised by this decidedly mixed Congressional performance is: Will it help or hurt the party's 2000 presidential candidate? Former Rep. Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.) thinks Congress should rack up enough modest achievements to avoid "do-nothing" charges but leave "big picture issues" like Social Security and taxes for the presidential nominee to define. Conceivably, by this logic, Congressional Republicans might begin moving major legislation in April 2000 tailored to the programs of the prospective nominee, who will be known by March in the front-loaded primary process. Congress would not be able to pass major legislation before the election, but could demonstrate solidarity with the nominee and begin preparing the ground for an issues election at both the presidential and Congressional level. However, others in the party think GOP Congressional leaders are being too passive this year and should at least be "plowing the ground" with major tax cut and Social Security reform proposals. "The longer the education process lasts," said one party activist, "the better it is for us." Any of the likely nominees will benefit, he said, if Congress warms up the electorate to the ideas of tax cuts and Medicare reform. Conceivably, too, Congress could exercise its oversight or investigative powers to expose flaws in Clinton administration policies beyond Chinese espionage, the better to burden the 2000 Democratic nominee, especially if it's Vice President Al Gore. Since the changeover from Gingrich to Hastert, Republican and Congressional poll ratings have improved somewhat, but if tactics don't change, Congressional Republicans still will be a burden on the presidential nominee. It doesn't have to be that way.