Republican

WASHINGTON - With or without Trent Lott as Senate majority leader, the Republican Party will head into the next session of Congress seriously on the defensive in the broad field of civil rights. The Democrats, aware of the vulnerability of the opposition party as a result of Mr. Lott's mindless praise of the South's segregation years, will be pressing legislation to test the sincerity of Mr. Lott's epiphany on the issue and his party's willingness to acquiesce in it. In the vanguard of this effort to put civil rights litmus tests on the agenda will be the Congressional Black Caucus, which already is planning to seek a formal censure of Mr. Lott.

A Cecil County Republican says the state constitution has been ignored, hijacked and used for nefarious purposes. A procedural i wasn't dotted during the General Assembly's recent special session, he says. A t may have been left uncrossed as well. Without careful adherence to the law, says Del. Michael D. Smigiel Sr., everything the Assembly did in November is null and void. The tax bills that were passed - over Republican objections - must be rolled back, he says. This is a classic procedural tempest in a very small teapot: Because it had finished its work, the state Senate took a break until the House of Delegates finished its work.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans apparently retained control of Congress last night, claiming consecutive majorities in both houses for the first time since 1930 despite the sweeping victory by President Clinton.Like Clinton, the Republican lawmakers benefited from a seeming satisfaction with incumbents that marked a striking departure from the anti-Washington fervor that brought them to power two years ago for the first time in 40 years.But their majorities in both the House and Senate will again to be too small for the congressional Republicans to accomplish much without cooperating with Clinton and the Democrats.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Fearful of celebratory images as a hurricane headed for the Gulf Coast, Republicans scrapped an opening night convention program that was to have featured speeches by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "This is a time when we do away with our party politics," the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, said yesterday, shortly after Bush announced he would not travel to Minnesota for his planned convention address tonight. The national convention would open on schedule with an "abbreviated" session of routine business but no prime-time speeches, McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, said.

NEW YORK - Ronalee Linsenmann didn't even mind when, after asking what came with her corned-beef sandwich, the waiter at the Carnegie Deli groused, "bread." But there was one thing the Republican activist from Idaho could have done without at the landmark deli in this famously liberal city. "They seated us under a wall of pictures and we were right by the ... Clinton ... bunch ... of ... pictures," she said, slowing down and making a face as though chewing gristle. Her friend, Shari Dodge, like Linsenmann part of the Idaho delegation, said a photo of GOP honcho Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been far more appetizing.

FOR 317,000 Marylanders who opted against registering as a Democrat or a Republican, primary elections are generally lonely affairs. But not this year. For the first time, registered Maryland independents can vote in Tuesday's Republican presidential election. That's a significant development in a year in which Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Texas Gov. George W. Bush are waging a heated campaign for the nomination. Independents played key roles in New Hampshire and Michigan; they have the chance to do so in Maryland -- if they vote.

Washington -Even before Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter switched to the Democratic side, Republican leaders were warning that their national party was in danger of becoming a regional one. Specter's departure, part of a larger Republican shift away from the Northeast, has left a hole on the political map. For the first time since the founding of the Republican Party in the 1850s, there is not a single Republican senator from Maryland or any of the four...

DENVER -- As each new high-profile shooting roils the national debate over gun ownership rights, advocates for greater gun control are winning a measure of support from an unlikely source: Republican governors.After several shootings in recent years, including the mass shooting in Littleton, Colo., in April, almost a third of the nation's 31 Republican governors have taken positions to strengthen gun control in their states.Most of these governors, including Bill Owens of Colorado and Bob Taft of Ohio, were strongly endorsed in their last campaign by the National Rifle Association, which generally favors Republicans over Democrats and stronger enforcement of existing gun laws rather than new ones.

ON ELECTION NIGHT, watch for Senate races nationwide to be the wild card. While the makeup of the House may reflect the outcome of the presidential race (i.e., a Clinton victory of more than 10 percent could swing control to the Democrats), the Senate is a law unto itself. In state after state, Senate candidates have reputations and idiosyncrasies that separate them from national voting trends.At present, Republicans enjoy at 53-47 majority. With seven Democrats and only four Republicans retiring, one might think that the GOP would have an easy time of it. But with 34 seats in contention, anything can happen.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s respect for William Donald Schaefer, a political ally from the opposing party, led to an unusual promise earlier this year. "I'm going to do the best I can to keep the Republican slate clean," Ehrlich, the Maryland GOP standard-bearer, said at a fundraiser in September for the Democratic comptroller. At the time, the 84-year-old former governor and Baltimore mayor seemed to have had a clear path to re-election. But it now appears that a well-known Republican will trip up the governor's pledge.