GOP

WASHINGTON -- The political reckoning for the House Republicans' two-fisted, confrontational style appears about to come due, and it could cost them control of Congress.Trying to govern with a membership that is deeply divided on both tactics and philosophy, GOP leaders will be scrambling this week to deal not only with Democratic obstruction, but with rebellion in their own ranks.At some point, the GOP will be forced to seek help -- at least on critical spending issues -- from the Democratic president it impeached.

IT'S NOT the first time that a political party has been tugged in different directions. But the emerging Republican presidential race and the congressional battle over impeachment are sending the country fundamentally contradictory messages: One trying to broaden the GOP's appeal, the other narrowing it. The party's fate in 2000 may turn on which of these signals leaves a more lasting impression.As GOP consultant Ed Gillespie points out, the Republican presidential field is likely to feature an unusually large number of candidates attempting to reach out beyond the party's usual supporters.

DEFENDING managed-care health organizations is a tough sell, as House Republican leaders are discovering.The GOP's own doctor-legislators are threatening to side with Democrats on passage of a strong bill giving patients protections from arbitrary HMO rulings.This puts the GOP in a bind, caught between two loyal constituencies -- physicians and insurance executives. It also pits the GOP's more pragmatic, problem-solving lawmakers against the party's more rigidly ideological members.Republican House leaders want a minimal patients' protection bill that does not expose health insurers to lawsuits.

For the last decade and a half, David R. Blumberg has been one of Baltimore's foremost champions of lost causes.Next month, two weeks after the election, Blumberg is stepping down after 16 years as head of the city's Republican Party.That's 16 years without a Republican elected to the City Council. Sixteen years without a Republican elected to the General Assembly. Sixteen years without a Republican elected sheriff, court clerk or register of wills.The lack of GOP success in an overwhelmingly Democratic city is nothing new -- no Republican has been elected in Baltimore since Theodore R. McKeldin won the mayoralty in 1963 -- and is not likely to change on Nov. 3. Of 31 State House seats in districts solely or predominantly in the city, Republican candidates filed for just five, and no Republicans are running for any courthouse jobs.

TO THE chagrin of the Republican Party, its elevation of its lone black congressman, Oklahoma Rep. J. C. Watts, to a leadership position did little to move other African Americans into the GOP fold. Instead, the party was criticized for exercising a type of the same affirmative action it usually opposes.The party wasn't taken seriously when it claimed it was Mr. Watts' credentials that led to his selection in November to be House conference chairman. The move did little to dissipate the cynicism of those African Americans who believe the conservatism of today's Republican Party is too closely linked to viewpoints they cannot accept.

Of the seven candidates vying for the three seats on the Carroll County Board of Commissioners, the three Republicans have the edge; the three Democrats are in an uphill battle but with a fighting chance; and the lone independent has the role of spoiler."

FUNNY THINGS are happening in Annapolis, and some Democrats don't like it: Republicans in the state legislature are becoming a force to be reckoned with.Leaders in the majority party are torn over their response. Should they engage in partisan warfare? Or should they welcome GOP efforts to resolve sticky issues through compromise?So far, top Democrats have tried to have it both ways. At times, they seem to view a growing Republican presence in the House and Senate as a threat to Democratic rule.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY official and super lobbyist Gerard Evans got credit for buying 20 tickets at $150 each -- a total of $3,000 -- for the recent Republican Party fund-raiser at the Hyatt Hotel in Baltimore.Evans had a super case of flu and did not actually attend, but it seemed almost everyone knew of his law firm's support."It's something we're proud and pleased to do," Evans, who sits on the Prince George's County Democratic Central Committee, said of his contribution to the GOP. "We do it unabashedly.

Hoping to defy the odds, presidential contender Bob Dole will BTC kick off a major bid to win California by launching a statewide tour tomorrow, just before the Republican Party blankets the state with about $3.5 million in television ads over the next several weeks.The new California effort is the first sign that Dole, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, will seriously engage in a costly and high-stakes battle for the nation's biggest electoral prize, 54 votes.It is sure to surprise some political observers, who figured that the California race is so expensive and that President Clinton's lead in polls of state voters is so daunting that Dole would only be wasting his time.

BOB DOLE can hardly wait to escape the Senate before he is personally humiliated on the minimum wage issue, and who can blame him. In his political soul, he probably realized early on that House Republican leaders were leading their party over the cliff by opposing a 90-cent increase in the $4.15-an-hour wage floor.Now that the GOP debacle has come in the House, where 93 Republicans defected, the Senate's time will come. Democrats there have the happy choice of beating up on Mr. Dole while he is still around or letting the issue gnaw at Republicans as elections approach.

An agreement the Maryland Republican Party struck with the State Board of Elections unraveled in recent days, leaving uncertain how it will resolve what state officials contend was a violation of campaign finance laws. According to elections officials, former Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's campaign account made an improper $75,000 contribution to the Republican State Central Committee by covering legal fees the party incurred during a redistricting fight several years ago. The party, which has run into financial difficulties, agreed last week to incrementally repay the money to Steele, now the national GOP chairman.

The Maryland Republican Party faces its latest rebuilding effort after its chairman announced this week he is stepping down amid the organization's struggles to pay its bills and maintain relevance in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. Chairman James Pelura's announcement came about a year before the 2010 primary elections, when the GOP will select candidates to run against Democratic incumbents such as Gov. Martin O'Malley and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski. Pelura will stay on through the party's convention Nov. 14. Pelura had repeatedly told executive board members that he did not plan to step down, even after receiving a vote of no confidence in July, so his resignation Monday night was "a little surprising," said Chris Cavey of Baltimore County, the party's first vice chairman.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - -When people think of South Carolina, they think of ... I know, Comedy Central. Really, shouldn't Jon Stewart send South Carolinians a cut of his pay? What people do not typically think of is black Republicans, a perception that could change soon if a young man named Marvin Rogers has his way. This 33-year-old, Spanish-speaking former aide to South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis has a plan for the GOP: He wants to change its complexion. Until 2008, when he ran unsuccessfully for the state House of Representatives, Mr. Rogers may have been better known in Latin America, where he was an itinerant preacher for several years, than in North America.

Michael S. Steele hit the nail on the head the other day when he noted that Republicans are generally stuck in a rut when it comes to addressing black audiences. Speaking in New York City at the 100th convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the chairman of the Republican National Committee observed, "I spent some time looking at previous remarks by Republicans before this body, and I was struck by the litany of phrases that Republicans often cut and paste into a speech ... 'Party of Lincoln' four or five times ... oh, and one of my favorites, 'Bull Connor was a Democrat.

NEW YORK -- Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele stopped by the NAACP convention Tuesday to press the civil rights organization to consider his party an ally. The NAACP's relationship with the GOP has been strained for many years. Steele, the first African-American to lead the Republican Party, said he wanted his presence to signal to its members that they have options beyond the Democratic Party. Reminding people of his membership in the Prince George's County NAACP branch, Steele said he intends to depart from the "complete Republican's guide to speaking to African-Americans."

Our view Michael Steele gave a much anticipated speech Tuesday afternoon in which he was expected to reboot his chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, and perhaps the party itself. He promised that "the era of apology for Republican mistakes of the past is officially over," declared that "we're going to take the president head-on" and boasted that the Republican comeback is already under way. But, speaking to state GOP chairmen in Prince George's County, he failed to reach beyond tired party platitudes to any sort of actual road map for Republicans.

Two major debates face conservative Republicans about the future of the party. The first, rekindled by Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party, is whether the GOP should move further leftward. The second is whether conservatives should tone down their advocacy on social issues. History is on the side of outspoken conservatives in both debates. GOP establishment leaders are incapable of understanding the problem - it's them. The ascendancy of conservatives to power was done by boat-rockers, not establishment politicians.

They say among the first signs of a sinking ship is that the rats begin to desert. Witness now Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter bailing out of the leaky U.S.S. G.O.P. Were it not for the fact that Mr. Specter's party switch may give Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Republicans across the country would likely greet this news with a mixture of relief and indifference; for many, Mr. Specter had long ago ceased being a Republican on almost any question that matters. As Mark Hemingway put it in National Review's blog "The Corner," "I read that he was switching parties, but I was disappointed to learn he's still a Democrat."

I suppose I should just get it out of the way and apologize to Rush Limbaugh right off the bat, but who knows how long the line to do that is at this point? Has there ever been anyone who has taken umbrage-taking to such hyperventilating heights? And has there ever been a group of people - Republican National Chairman Michael Steele being only the latest - who can't beat a path fast enough or prostrate themselves low enough to beg forgiveness for incurring such easily incurred wrath? I know I should avert my eyes, but I can't help watching this horrifying spectacle, this emotional hostage-taking, that's going on between the GOP and the popular, powerful talk show king.

GOP's partisanship just more of the same The Republican Party's united opposition (save for the support of three moderate senators) to President Barack Obama's stimulus package was a shocking and unjust repudiation not only of this president but of our 16th president, whose 200th birthday the nation celebrated this week ("Stimulus poised for Obama's OK," Feb. 14). Rather than heed the "better angels of their nature" and act in the nation's interests by voting for a bill that, although far from perfect, will provide immediate relief for those most in need (i.e.