Party Line

TALLAHASSEE - Voting before last night's U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Republican-dominated Florida House of Representatives sought to safeguard George W. Bush's certified victory yesterday by approving a slate of electors favorable to the Texas governor. On a day when the high court decision on the election hung like a heavy fog over the House chamber, members debated for 5 1/2 hours before approving the measure, 79-41, mostly along party lines. Leaders of the Florida Senate, also dominated by the GOP, said before the ruling that they would vote on the measure today regardless of the outcome of the case before the high court.

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats rejoiced at the close Florida Supreme Court decision that breathed new life into Vice President Al Gore's hope for the White House, saying it would allow for an accurate vote count in the bitterly contested state. Republican lawmakers sharply criticized the 4-3 decision, one of them terming it "judicial aggression" that was designed to "manipulate a free and fair election." Others expressed concern about whether a "subjective" hand count of ballots - with "dimpled" and "pregnant" chads - could accurately determine the next president of the United States.

WASHINGTON - The electors who make the final choice of who will be president may get the official word this week on what the nation's voters expect them to do. There is, however, no guarantee that they will do as expected. The Electoral College - the Constitution's chosen instrument for completing the presidential election - usually makes no waves: More than 99 percent of the electors who have served over the years have voted as their states' popular votes suggested they do. But there have been electors who balked.

BEIJING - While the press in the United States has focused on presidential debates, China's state-run newspapers recently dedicated their front pages to another big political story: the annual meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee. U.S. reporters analyze differences between the presidential candidates, interview potential voters and compare polling results. China's major papers carried stories last week that ran virtually word for word, accompanied by identical photos of the party's aging leaders raising their right hands in unison to approve a draft of the 10th Five Year Plan.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The nation's governors opened their annual gathering here yesterday with promises of bipartisan cooperation in the morning but started taking political potshots before the sun set. Republican and Democratic governors attending the National Governors' Association conference held rival news conferences, giving a preview of themes that are likely to dominate the party presidential conventions and fall campaigns. Exuding confidence that Texas Gov. George W. Bush would hold his lead in recent polls, GOP governors sought to portray their nominee-to-be as an experienced consensus-builder who would bring "civility" to Washington.

Political consultant Arthur Murphy says he knew the outcome of Maryland's Democratic presidential primary in January when he attended a meeting of the 10th District Democratic Club as it considered endorsing Vice President Al Gore or former Sen. Bill Bradley. "From the talk in the room, it looked like it was going to be close," Murphy said yesterday. "Then [7th District Rep.] Elijah Cummings stood up and said he knew Gore and knew he could work with Gore. He didn't know what would happen if Bradley won. Gore got 90 percent of the vote that night."

A partisan battle has begun in Howard County over Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposal to pay prevailing union wages for most school construction jobs. The fight pits County Council Republicans against Democratic County Executive James N. Robey, and some county school construction funding might hang in the balance. Yale Stenzler, director of Maryland's Interagency Committee on School Construction, said the law -- which would require contractors to pay workers at the predominant rate in an area -- would probably affect few, if any, projects in Howard County, because it would only apply to projects funded 50 percent or more with state funds.

"I'm not a very good singer, and I'm a passable guitar player," says Jimmy Buffett in his disarmingly matter-of-fact fashion. "But I think that I write pretty well. That's my strongest suit, and I like that."Indeed, Buffett has done quite a lot of writing in recent years. In addition to composing material for his new album, "Beach House on the Moon," the 52-year-old has written several books, the score for a musical ("Don't Stop the Carnival," with a book by Herman Wouk), and a screen adaptation of his novel, "Where Is Joe Merchant?"

The Howard County Council achieved at least a temporary truce this week in its long, partisan, internal battle over personal expense accounts.How long it will last, and whether anyone but party activists care, isn't clear.Although Ellicott City Republican Christopher J. Merdon says "we're trying to get along and build up trust in each other," and fellow GOP member Allan H. Kittleman agrees, both voted against a budget resolution sponsored by Chairman C. Vernon Gray, an East Columbia Democrat, at Mondaynight's meeting.

WASHINGTON -- It sounds innocuous enough, a Senate vote on "findings of fact" in the impeachment trial of William Jefferson Clinton.But what one party has called "facts," the other party has called rash political judgments, and the GOP's proposal to vote on findings of fact before a final vote on conviction could turn into a major stumbling block in the quest to end the trial by Feb. 12.A group of Republican senators is drafting a strongly worded motion that...