Republicans And Democrats

Gonzales faced a relentlessly hostile grilling from Senate Republicans and Democrats Thursday as he attempted to explain inconsistencies in his previous statements about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. ?Why is your story changing?? Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa ?At the end of the day I know I did not do anything improper.? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

BEDFORD, N.H. -- It is already a cliche to say that the news media have gone stark raving mad over Gov. George W. Bush's first foray into the competition for the Republican presidential nomination.What is more interesting is the way the Texas governor, simply by leaving Austin, has caused so much politically bizarre behavior by other Republicans and Democrats. His candidacy has become the political sun around which all the moons seem to be revolving.Most of the other Republican candidates are carping and whining about all the attention being paid to Mr. Bush.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Constance A. Morella of Montgomery County and four other moderate Republicans bucked their party's House leadership yesterday, joining a Democratic effort to force an early vote on campaign finance reform."

HERSHEY, Pa. -- During fights on the House floor, they have plenty of opportunity to snipe. During committee hearings, they have ample occasion to seethe.But in this realm of chocolate kisses, members of Congress had a rare chance this weekend to do something different. They got to share.Descending on a rambling lodge and conference center for what was billed as a three-day course in civility, nearly 200 Republicans and Democrats, some with their spouses and children in tow, came together to exercise their diplomacy and exorcise their demons, primarily in small discussion groups that were meant, according to organizers, to provide "safe environments" for the venting of feelings.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's impeachment trial will formally open in the Senate tomorrow, and though details on its timing and format are uncertain, White House lawyers are preparing a vigorous defense.The opening of the trial promises to be a momentous piece of political theater. William H. Rehnquist, the chief justice of the United States, will be sworn in to preside over the first presidential impeachment trial since that of Andrew Johnson in 1868. Rehnquist will, in turn, swear in the 100 senators as jurors.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans -- spurred by increasingly strident Democratic demands and a steady diet of health care horror stories -- joined the drive to provide new protections for managed-care patients by offering their own proposal yesterday.The Senate GOP plan, like the Democratic alternative and a House Republican proposal, would expand patient access to emergency care, specialists and doctors outside a managed-care company's prescribed network. It would also require new procedures to help patients appeal adverse coverage decisions, and it would greatly expand the availability of tax-favored savings accounts that encourage patients to pay for their own care.

It should be no surprise that Democratic County Council candidate Guy Guzzone is already attacking the council's GOP majority as he goes door-to-door in southern Howard County, railing against Republicans for supporting a tax cut while not giving more money to education.What might come as a surprise is that Guzzone's likely Republican opponent, Wanda Hurt, is going door-to-door with largely the same message. She, too, thinks council Republicans erred Tuesday by favoring a small cut in the piggyback tax rather than pumping millions more dollars into schools.

THE HILLS ARE alive, with the sound of campaigning. The sweet siren songs of deceitful Lorelei, luring voters to their rocky reef? The stirring patriotic strains of citizen statesmen, leading the community into new prosperity? Voters will decide.The crop of candidates is bountiful this year, and it's certainly not due to the weather. Do the contenders sense a political change in the air, or have the perennial issues of growth and charter and taxes mobilized this heightened civic interest?

AS ANALYSTS debate whether the elections resulted in a net benefit for the Republicans or the Democrats, there is a better question to ask: Does it really matter? The debate over the elections assumes there is still some substantive distinction between the two parties. But is there?A recent New York Times article on the Senate race in that state observed that the two candidates - Republican Alfonse D'Amato and Democrat Charles Schumer - are not nearly so opposed on political ideology as is generally thought.

Newt Gingrich wasn't on any of the ballots in Howard County on Tuesday, but if the Petersens of Columbia are any indication, many people voted against the Republican House speaker and his party in the local elections."

Republicans and Democrats are again competing for attention at the annual Howard County Fair, but this non-election year seems to have a bit more edge for some than usual, according to several volunteers manning the two party booths. "Saturday morning, a man came by and said he'd never vote for a Republican," GOP central committee member Loretta Shields said. He was angry because of what he believes to be organized right-wing attempts to disrupt congressional town hall meetings on health care.

CENTREVILLE - Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. celebrated victory in the 1st Congressional District a week after Election Day yesterday, closing a rancorous campaign that has colored Maryland a deeper shade of blue. The end came when Republican Baltimore County state Sen. Andy Harris called to concede in a district that was drawn to favor Republicans but went Democratic in a national wave that broke against the GOP last week. In Maryland's most competitive race this year, Kratovil, the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County, leads Harris by 2,154 votes of the nearly 353,000 counted.

Maryland, we have ourselves a race. In a district that covers some of the most conservative terrain in the state, Republican Andy Harris is fighting off surging Democrat Frank Kratovil in a race shaped by aggressive advertising, a steep drop in fortunes for Harris' party nationwide and lots of outside money. The Eastern Shore-based district, which sent Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest to Washington nine times, was considered safe for the Republicans as recently as February. But Democrats now see a shot at picking up their seventh of Maryland's eight House seats.

Maryland, we have ourselves a race. In a district that covers some of the most conservative terrain in the state, Republican Andy Harris is fighting off surging Democrat Frank Kratovil in a race shaped by aggressive advertising, a steep drop in fortunes for Harris' party nationwide and lots of outside money. The Eastern Shore-based district, which sent Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest to Washington nine times, was considered safe for the Republicans as recently as February. But Democrats now see a shot at picking up their seventh of Maryland's eight House seats.

Samuel A. Culotta, a Baltimore lawyer and perennial Republican mayoral candidate, said he's supporting Sen. John McCain. "I love Rudy, but I'm for McCain. He's a leader and has the background, knowledge, experience and courage to be president," Culotta, 83, said in an interview. Culotta, a Northeast Baltimore resident who has practiced law since 1951, served in the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin when he was mayor and governor, and was a state delegate from 1954 to 1959.

PHILADELPHIA -- OK, so now the Democrats have made their point by passing an Iraq spending bill that calls for troop withdrawals as early as July. And now the president will veto it. After all this bipartisan posturing, can we finally have a serious debate about Iraq? Now is the moment when Republicans and Democrats must focus on what must be done to prevent an even greater Iraq disaster. There will be no time for Plan B if the current White House Plan A fails. But Plan A - as currently directed by the White House - simply cannot work.

Gonzales faced a relentlessly hostile grilling from Senate Republicans and Democrats Thursday as he attempted to explain inconsistencies in his previous statements about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. ?Why is your story changing?? Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa ?At the end of the day I know I did not do anything improper.? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Despite a broken right leg, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off his second term yesterday promising "post-partisanship" leadership in which Democrats and Republicans don't simply compromise but forge new ideas together. In an inaugural speech in which he compared California's cultural diversity and "harmony" with genocide in Darfur and "bloodshed and hate" in the Middle East, the Republican governor portrayed California as a utopian "nation-state" that should serve as a model for the rest of the world because of its apparent peace and prosperity.

WASHINGTON -- The members of the 110th Congress won't be sworn in until today, but the new era of bipartisanship pledged by Republicans and Democrats in recent weeks is grinding to a close. House Republicans are protesting what they say are plans by the new Democratic majority to shut them out of the legislative process as they pass their "First 100 Hours" package - a violation, they say, of the Democrats' campaign pledge to restore cooperation and civility to Washington. "We are disappointed that at this point in the game, half of the Congress has been cut out of the process," said Rep. Adam H. Putnam of Florida, chairman of the House Republican Caucus.

WASHINGTON -- In the cacophony of competing plans about how to deal with Iraq, one reality appears to be clear: Despite the Democrats' victory last month in an election viewed as a referendum on the war, the idea of a rapid U.S. troop withdrawal is fast receding as a viable option. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are signaling that too rapid a U.S. pullout would open the way to all-out civil war, and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group has shied away from recommending explicit timelines in favor of a vaguely timed pullback.