Moderate Republicans

WASHINGTON -- One year before the 2000 election, the Democratic Party holds its biggest lead over the Republican Party since the early part of this decade, according to an extensive new national voter survey.If that trend continues, the Democrats' strength could translate into a significant advantage in the fight for control of Congress. It could also foreshadow an extremely close contest for the White House next November.A bright spot for Republicans remains Texas Gov. George W. Bush's continuing edge in the presidential race over his potential Democratic rivals.

Democrats and GOP are too much alike on individual freedomMontesquieu said 400 years ago that people get the government they deserve. Andrew Bernstein's article ("Two major parties increasingly alike," Nov. 8, Perspective) on the increasing similarity of our two major parties is a call to all who struggle to deserve a government based upon inalienable individual rights.As Mr. Bernstein pointed out, the creeping crud of collectivism practiced by Democrats and Republicans is increasing government's role in all aspects of our lives.

WASHINGTON -- With a House impeachment vote less than a week away, the White House and congressional leaders have made a furious scramble for the handful of undecided moderate Republicans who hold the president's fate in their hands.Alarmed at the public defection of a northeastern Republican yesterday, Rep. Henry J. Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, fired off a letter to House members, pleading with them to withhold judgment until the committee has voted on articles of impeachment.

WASHINGTON -- Several moderate House Republicans declared their support yesterday for impeaching President Clinton for perjury, increasing the likelihood that the House will vote this month to impeach a president for only the second time in the nation's history.Two of them, Marge Roukema of New Jersey and Greg Ganske of Iowa, suggested that recent predictions that 20 or more Republicans would defect to vote against impeachment would prove unfounded.Another, Rep. Tom Campbell of California, said he is convinced that the president committed perjury, which the Republican called an impeachable offense.

She's against gun control, he's not. She opposes abortion, he supports the right to it. She's under attack from many environmentalists. He won praise from those groups after sending a man to prison for filling in wetlands.Can this political marriage be saved?No problem, say supporters of the Republican State House ticket. After all, gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey and her running mate, Richard D. Bennett, are more alike than different, they say.As for their differences, supporters say, they only help Sauerbrey's efforts to become Maryland's first Republican governor in three decades.

WASHINGTON -- Unless Bob Dole makes a miraculous comeback in the final two weeks of the campaign, the Republican Party is facing an internal struggle more intense than any it has experienced in the last 30 years.Moreover, it will be a fight waged without anyone in the party with the political credentials to be considered a national leader.The core of the conflict will be two mutually exclusive views of the reason Senator Dole has run such a weak challenge to President Clinton. The lines of argument are already becoming apparent.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-led House yesterday sharply repudiated a bid to curb enforcement of environmental laws in a vote that signaled growing GOP discomfort with charges that it wants to dismantle those protections.By a vote of 227-194, the House disavowed a package of spending bill amendments approved this year that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating a broad range of pollutants, including raw sewage in storm water, toxic ,, emissions from oil refineries, arsenic in drinking water and cancer-causing pesticides in food.

THE DOG caught the bus": That was the amazed assessment of a longtime Republican staffer on Capitol Hill the morning after last November's election. Now his colleagues and their bosses are getting an idea of what he meant. It's one thing to win an election after 40 years in the wilderness. It's another thing altogether to govern.Republicans thought they had solved the "what next?" problem by promulgating their Contract With America as a road map for their first 100 days in office. And the Contract has given them a place to begin plus a sense of direction, telling them where to go from here.

CONCORD, N.H. -- Liz Hager considered supporting Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania but now has about decided to sign on with the presidential campaign of Gov. Pete Wilson of California, although she disagrees with some of his positions. Susan McLane has decided to sit this one out.Hager and McLane are members of a group that used to be called "the Concord crowd" -- liberal-to-moderate Republicans who made up a significant, if minority, bloc in both presidential primaries and state politics in New Hampshire.

WASHINGTON -- Now it's official. Rep. Constance A. Morella is the least loyal Republican in the House of Representatives, at least when measured by her votes during the first 100 days of the 104th Congress.Among House Republicans, none voted against more of the bills in the party's "Contract with America" than Mrs. Morella of Montgomery County. And it wasn't even close.No other Republican voted against more than four of the Republicans' 15 bills (covering 10 broad issues), while Mrs. Morella voted "no" seven times.

WASHINGTON - Congress now has so few moderate Republicans that at least in the Senate they could squeeze into a Volkswagen Beetle. Their ranks have been severely reduced in recent elections. Those who remain in politics have been marginalized by their own party, which has inexorably veered to the right in the past generation. But now this beleaguered minority has an opportunity to wield outsized influence on what President-elect Barack Obama can accomplish in Congress. Although Democrats made big congressional gains in the 2008 election, they are still a vote or two short of the 60-vote majority they need in the Senate to keep a tight rein on GOP filibusters that can easily gum up the works.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-led House early today passed a $2.2 trillion budget that includes President Bush's $726 billion tax cut, even as Senate leaders fought off attempts by Democrats and moderate Republicans to slash the tax cut by more than half. The near party-line 215-212 roll call came after a long day of arm-twisting by House Republican leaders and top administration officials, who were determined to shield the president from a domestic defeat as war with Iraq commences. Scrambling late into the night for the votes to pass their $2.2 trillion budget, House Republican leaders faced opposition from virtually all Democrats and from some moderate Republicans who said the tax cuts were too large and the spending on key social programs too limited.

WASHINGTON The Republican-led House appeared poised late last night to pass a budget that includes President Bushs $726 billion tax cut, even as Senate leaders fought off attempts by Democrats and moderate Republicans to slash the tax cut by more than half. Scrambling late into the night for the votes to pass their $2.2 trillion budget, House Republican leaders faced opposition from virtually all Democrats and from some moderate Republicans who said the tax cuts were too large and the spending on key social programs too limited.

WASHINGTON -- One year before the 2000 election, the Democratic Party holds its biggest lead over the Republican Party since the early part of this decade, according to an extensive new national voter survey.If that trend continues, the Democrats' strength could translate into a significant advantage in the fight for control of Congress. It could also foreshadow an extremely close contest for the White House next November.A bright spot for Republicans remains Texas Gov. George W. Bush's continuing edge in the presidential race over his potential Democratic rivals.

WASHINGTON -- With a House impeachment vote less than a week away, the White House and congressional leaders have made a furious scramble for the handful of undecided moderate Republicans who hold the president's fate in their hands.Alarmed at the public defection of a northeastern Republican yesterday, Rep. Henry J. Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, fired off a letter to House members, pleading with them to withhold judgment until the committee has voted on articles of impeachment.

WASHINGTON -- Several moderate House Republicans declared their support yesterday for impeaching President Clinton for perjury, increasing the likelihood that the House will vote this month to impeach a president for only the second time in the nation's history.Two of them, Marge Roukema of New Jersey and Greg Ganske of Iowa, suggested that recent predictions that 20 or more Republicans would defect to vote against impeachment would prove unfounded.Another, Rep. Tom Campbell of California, said he is convinced that the president committed perjury, which the Republican called an impeachable offense.

Democrats and GOP are too much alike on individual freedomMontesquieu said 400 years ago that people get the government they deserve. Andrew Bernstein's article ("Two major parties increasingly alike," Nov. 8, Perspective) on the increasing similarity of our two major parties is a call to all who struggle to deserve a government based upon inalienable individual rights.As Mr. Bernstein pointed out, the creeping crud of collectivism practiced by Democrats and Republicans is increasing government's role in all aspects of our lives.

She's against gun control, he's not. She opposes abortion, he supports the right to it. She's under attack from many environmentalists. He won praise from those groups after sending a man to prison for filling in wetlands.Can this political marriage be saved?No problem, say supporters of the Republican State House ticket. After all, gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey and her running mate, Richard D. Bennett, are more alike than different, they say.As for their differences, supporters say, they only help Sauerbrey's efforts to become Maryland's first Republican governor in three decades.

WASHINGTON -- Unless Bob Dole makes a miraculous comeback in the final two weeks of the campaign, the Republican Party is facing an internal struggle more intense than any it has experienced in the last 30 years.Moreover, it will be a fight waged without anyone in the party with the political credentials to be considered a national leader.The core of the conflict will be two mutually exclusive views of the reason Senator Dole has run such a weak challenge to President Clinton. The lines of argument are already becoming apparent.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-led House yesterday sharply repudiated a bid to curb enforcement of environmental laws in a vote that signaled growing GOP discomfort with charges that it wants to dismantle those protections.By a vote of 227-194, the House disavowed a package of spending bill amendments approved this year that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating a broad range of pollutants, including raw sewage in storm water, toxic ,, emissions from oil refineries, arsenic in drinking water and cancer-causing pesticides in food.