New Congress

WASHINGTON -- A potential new complication -- a constitutional issue that may or may not be settled -- arose yesterday in the debate over whether the House will vote to impeach President Clinton.The question: If the lame-duck House approves one or more charges against the president next week shortly before its term ends, will those charges simply become a dead letter, forcing the newly elected House to start all over again in January?A Yale law professor, Bruce A. Ackerman, dropped the constitutional question into the proceedings of the House Judiciary Committee, arguing bluntly that once the current House "dies on Jan. 3, all its unfinished business dies with it."

Now that Washington has got its man to head the United Nations, it's about time the United States paid its dues. n n n nKofi Annan will likely be a very good secretary-general. His qualifications had little to do with the outpouring of U.S. support for the new U.N. chief. He won Washington's enthusiastic embrace simply because he wasn't Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the beleaguered Egyptian whose second term was derailed by an electorally driven and internationally condemned U.S. veto.In fact, the soft-spoken and pragmatic Ghanaian is not likely to do any more drastic U.N. staff and budget cutting (what passed for "U.N.

LAST WEEK the New York Times/CBS News Poll asked: "Are you mostly pleased or disappointed with the things the Republicans have done in the first 100 days of the new Congress?"Forty-seven percent said "disappointed," 39 percent said "pleased." I guess 14 percent said, "You idiot! It's April 4! Congress has only been in session 91 days! How can I answer that? Come back next week!"* * * *Now about this hundred days business. When did it start? Who started it?In this country it is used to refer to the period Congress was in emergency session immediately after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

A who's who of Harford County businesspeople and politicians gathered Thursday to listen to Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski do what she does best -- speak her mind."

The knee-jerk response: The Major League Baseball Players Association lost its last hope of getting the labor portion of baseball's antitrust exemption removed when the Republicans took control of Congress. After all, Republicans always side with management.Reality: The players' desire to retain certain freedoms stand closer to Republican principles than do the desires of owners, who want to impose a socialistic salary cap aimed at controlling wages and curbing competitive imbalance.It's not as if Republicans have a difficult time relating to ballplayers, who reached an average salary of $1.2 million in 1994.

WASHINGTON -- Patricia S. Fleming, a long-time Washington insider, has taken charge of the administration's office of AIDS policy at a time when activists are calling the new, Republican-controlled Congress a "disaster" for anyone trying to get federal money or develop new programs to combat the fatal disease.But the new director seems undaunted by the prospects.Now in her second week at the job, Ms. Fleming, who has spent 19 years working on Democratic Congressional or Cabinet committees, believes that the key to making progress against the AIDS epidemic lies where hostility may be greatest -- Capitol Hill.

With the 103rd Congress duly sworn and assembled Democrats are on the verge of an era of no excuses. When Bill Clinton takes his presidential oath of office Jan. 20, their party will control both the legislative and executive branches of government for the first time in a dozen years. If there is "gridlock" or "stalemate" in Washington, the Democrats will no -- longer be able to blame it on a Republican in the White House.As every politician knows, this is not a unmixed blessing. One party's responsibility to govern is the other party's freedom to oppose.

When Congress convenes Tuesday, some things will have changed: 121 new faces have won election to the House and Senate. The end of "divided government" is in sight. The notorious House bank has closed. And lawmakers will be counting on bold leadership from Bill Clinton, who moves into the White House two weeks later.But some features that fueled the recent congressional disrepute will remain the same: The House and Senate leaders and most committee chairmen who presided over the stubborn gridlock of the past four years remain at the helm.

WASHINGTON -- A new Congress will take office tomorrow with a lot of big talk to live up to -- and the odds stacked against success.Pumped up with 25 percent new blood and a battle cry to end Washington's gridlock, the nation's fresh crop of lawmakers now has to make good where its predecessors failed on the most pressing problems: creating jobs, guaranteeing access to health care and balancing the federal books."

With 110 new House members, and at least 11 new senators, the Congress that convenes in January will be a very different body than the one that left in October.Established Democratic leaders, and the new Democratic president, will be faced with urgent and uncomfortable demands that Congress clean up its own house by ending the gridlock that has paralyzed all attempts to deal with the nation's persistent economic problems.But these newcomers could turn out to be bridge-builders, rather than bomb-throwers.

Washington - Next week's presidential inauguration of Barack Obama is expected to cost the state of Maryland at least $11 million, state officials said yesterday. That figure includes costs related to Obama's train trip through Maryland and his planned stop in Baltimore on Saturday. The inauguration committee has yet to release details of that event, but local officials say they are planning for an afternoon speech in front of the War Memorial building across from City Hall in downtown Baltimore.

The newly Democratic Congress is spouting neo-populism, and that means change, and new concerns for the global economy. Commentators have warned that the Democrats might revive nativist-protectionist forces in the U.S. body politic. Free trade may not have "left the building," as one observer recently asserted, but its lease may become a lot more expensive. There have been stirrings of discontent over foreign investment, hostility toward cutting agricultural subsidies to advance the Doha round of trade talks, and tax penalties on U.S. companies operating overseas.

The American National Red Cross, which came under criticism for its handling of relief efforts after 9/11 and particularly after Hurricane Katrina, is trying to reorganize itself to make clearer distinctions between governance and management. For millions across the nation who are likely to need the organization's help in the future, this is good news. It will be up to the new Congress to make this happen. Founded by Clara Barton in 1881, the Red Cross was given special status by Congress in 1900 to help prepare for disasters and provide relief to victims, for which the agency now uses 35,000 employees and 1 million volunteers.

Washington -- The new Congress includes, for the first time, a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history. Roman Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, accounting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews and Episcopalians. While Catholics in Congress are nearly 2-to-1 Democrats, the most lopsidedly Democratic groups are Jews and those not affiliated with any religion.

WASHINGTON - The new crop of lawmakers elected to serve in the next Congress features a handful of old faces and prominent party loyalists whose names already are familiar in Washington and around the nation. The Senate's new class in particular includes a few members that colleagues may have a hard time calling "freshmen." They include two one-time aspirants for the Republican presidential nomination: former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and North Carolina's Elizabeth Dole, who has held two Cabinet posts, headed the American Red Cross and is married to Bob Dole, the GOP's presidential standard-bearer in 1996.

WASHINGTON -- The new crop of lawmakers elected to serve in the next Congress features a handful of old faces and prominent party loyalists whose names already are familiar in Washington and around the nation. The Senate's new class in particular includes a few members that colleagues may have a hard time calling "freshmen." They include two one-time aspirants for the Republican presidential nomination: former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and North Carolina's Elizabeth Dole, who has held two Cabinet posts, headed the American Red Cross and is married to Bob Dole, the GOP's presidential standard-bearer in 1996.

CHICAGO -- Election Day is approaching, and like kids on Christmas Eve, both parties are atwitter over what they might get. Democrats and Republicans are both hoping for control of the Senate, which the Democrats now dominate. Normally, one party is doomed to disappointment. But this year, both could get their wish. How can that be? It's the result partly of some oddities of this particular election -- and partly of a grossly outdated constitutional provision that leaves a long delay between the time voters choose their representatives and the time those representatives take office.

WASHINGTON -- Forty years ago, when John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency by a mere 114,673 votes over Richard M. Nixon, he declared that a mandate was one vote more than the other guy got. But he governed, at least in his first days, as a man who well realized he had been elected by the skin of his teeth and had a lot to prove to the electorate. For this reason, and as a result of a careful assessment of the conservative strength in Congress, Kennedy for all his reputation as a champion of civil rights went slowly in dealing with this extremely sensitive issue at the time.

WASHINGTON -- A potential new complication -- a constitutional issue that may or may not be settled -- arose yesterday in the debate over whether the House will vote to impeach President Clinton.The question: If the lame-duck House approves one or more charges against the president next week shortly before its term ends, will those charges simply become a dead letter, forcing the newly elected House to start all over again in January?A Yale law professor, Bruce A. Ackerman, dropped the constitutional question into the proceedings of the House Judiciary Committee, arguing bluntly that once the current House "dies on Jan. 3, all its unfinished business dies with it."

Now that Washington has got its man to head the United Nations, it's about time the United States paid its dues. n n n nKofi Annan will likely be a very good secretary-general. His qualifications had little to do with the outpouring of U.S. support for the new U.N. chief. He won Washington's enthusiastic embrace simply because he wasn't Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the beleaguered Egyptian whose second term was derailed by an electorally driven and internationally condemned U.S. veto.In fact, the soft-spoken and pragmatic Ghanaian is not likely to do any more drastic U.N. staff and budget cutting (what passed for "U.N.