National Governors

WASHINGTON - After two days of listening to public criticism of President Bush's fiscal strategy, some Republican governors left the National Governors Association conference yesterday complaining that its tone had been uncomfortably partisan, thanks in large part to Maryland's Gov. Parris N. Glendening, the association chairman. After voting unanimously on policy resolutions concerning Medicaid and education reform yesterday, governors heard a closing speech by Senate Democratic Leader Thomas A. Daschle, whom Glendening inadvertently referred to as "the majority leader."

WASHINGTON -- Leaders of the nation's governors said last night that they had agreed on a bipartisan proposal on Medicaid, one of the major stumbling blocks in the budget impasse between President Clinton and Republicans in Congress.The governors, at a conference of the National Governors' Association, said they had also made progress toward a compromise on welfare, another major issue in the budget debate.By themselves, the governors cannot alter Medicaid or welfare policy now set by the federal government.

WASHINGTON -- When he was mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley was a star among the leaders of America's big cities, winning praise and recognition from his peers coast to coast. But when he walked into a National Governors Association meeting for the first time yesterday, he found himself a rookie in a much more exclusive league. The governor will spend much of the next three days at the NGA's annual winter meeting in Washington attending seminars on education policy, the environment and economic development - all the while rubbing elbows with some of the nation's most prominent leaders, including at least one candidate for president.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening will open his final conference as chairman of the National Governors' Association today, capping a year's labor that may be better appreciated outside Maryland than within the borders of the Old Line State. Glendening has used his bully pulpit as a ranking governor to promote policies that fit under the banner of Smart Growth. He has spread his message of fewer highways, denser construction, farmland preservation and revitalization of older communities from state to state, and watched it take root.

Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt was sick of environmental battles and how they always pitted extremists against each other in decisions on air, land and water. So more than five years ago, the Republican tried a new approach to environmental policy. Called "Enlibra" - a quasi-Latin phrase meaning "to move toward balance" - the philosophy seeks to reach compromise through collaboration and cooperation between sides that are usually at war. "There is no progress polarizing at the extreme, but there is great progress, there's great environmental progress, when we collaborate in the productive middle," Leavitt said this week as he was named head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At a gathering of governors, Gov. Martin O'Malley led a panel Sunday on cybersecurity, calling attacks on state and federal databases "one of the nation's great emerging threats. " The Democratic governor is co-chairman of the National Governors Association's homeland security and public safety committee, sharing the role with Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. As chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, O'Malley had a prominent role throughout the weekend-long National Governors Association meeting, which included sessions on Medicaid, the economy and education.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown has been elected leader of the National Lieutenant Governors Association. A Prince George's County Democrat and the nation's highest-ranking elected official to have served a tour of duty in Iraq, Brown takes the reins from Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican. Brown has been lieutenant governor for four years under Gov. Martin O'Malley and is his running mate again this year. The association was organized in 1962. Brown was elected Friday at its annual meeting, held this year in Biloxi, Miss.

Gov. Martin O'Malleymounted an aggressive defense of President Barack Obama's handling of the economy Sunday morning, pointing to 23 consecutive months of job creation and dismissing Republican attempts to blame the administration for the rising price of gasoline. Appearing on CBS'"Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer, O'Malley got in zingers at GOP candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, as well as at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who also appeared on the show. Remarkably, neither O'Malley nor Christie was asked about the issue of same-sex marriage - a national debate in which both men have recently played prominent roles.

President Clinton will be in Baltimore this afternoon to address a meeting of the National Governors' Association at Stouffer Harborplace Hotel. The event is not open to the public.

WASHINGTON -- The National Governors Association has drafted a new policy statement saying that health care should be available to all Americans within 10 years and that the federal government should eventually take over all the costs of long-term care now borne by the states.The statement was developed by a bipartisan group of 15 governors in advance of the organization's semiannual meeting, which begins Saturday in Seattle.The governors' pronouncements on health policy are significant because the Bush administration has said it would be guided by them in developing national health policy proposals.