Republicans In Congress

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's plan for the Internal Revenue Service may never reach his goal of making the agency "customer-friendly." But it is far more realistic than the radical proposals Republicans in Congress are promoting.Everyone in both parties understands that the IRS is feared or hated -- or both -- by many voters and thus qualifies as an obvious target for grandstanding politics. And the reputation of the agency has suffered another serious blow from the Senate hearings that spelled out spectacular abuses of taxpayers.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Only the icy bite of the storm that has blanketed this region with snow rivals the chill that hangs in the air when the subject of Washington comes up here.Ask voters about the budget impasse that has resulted in the partial shutdown of the federal government and they respond with a bone-cold stare and a collective "harrumph.""Ridiculous," many snap. "Absolutely unacceptable." "Bunch of babies."Most of the several dozen New Hampshire voters interviewed this week said they had not been directly affected by the stalemate that has furloughed 280,000 federal workers and put the paychecks of many more in question.

With a chilly, easterly wind whipping off the Susquehanna River in Havre de Grace yesterday, President Clinton implored Americans to resist attempts by Republicans in Congress to weaken federal environmental laws in a speech marking the 25th anniversary of Earth Day.Mr. Clinton, speaking to several thousand people at Havre de Grace's Concord Point Lighthouse at the confluence of the Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna just before noon, said, "This Earth Day may be the most important Earth Day since the beginning."

WASHINGTON -- The best indication yet that the Republicans believe President Clinton's unpopularity is their ticket to fat congressional gains Nov. 8 may be a memorandum to Republican leaders from Bill Kristol, the former Dan Quayle chief of staff who now heads the new GOP think tank, Project for the Republican Future.All this year, Kristol has been the party's most conspicuous apostle of obstructionism, most notably obstruction of the Clinton health care plan and various offshoots, and of campaign finance reform.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard Lugar's call on President Bush to tell Congress exactly what his goals are in the Persian Gulf and then ask for a resolution of support will doubtless be seen at the White House as an obstructive act by a fellow Republican. But in the long run it could save the president's political hide, and possibly the lives of tens of thousands of young Americans as well.Lugar, as ranking Republican of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is no soft-headed peacenik who runs from any thought of using military force to advance national interests.

WASHINGTON -- It is always risky to read very much into the results of scattered off-year elections. But there was a warning -- sign for the Republicans in the returns from Kentucky and Virginia this week.The election of Democrat Paul Patton as governor of Kentucky was hardly a landslide. He defeated Republican Larry Forgy with only 51 percent of the vote. But the most intriguing factor was the strategy that apparently tipped the balance for Mr. Patton.In the late stages of the campaign the Democrat focused on Republican plans to reduce spending on Medicare, on Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and on the more general proposition that the Republicans were trying to go too far too fast.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional and White House negotiators moved toward breaking their logjam yesterday, pledging to complete a budget deal by today even as they squabbled over spending priorities with elections three weeks away.Two weeks into the government's new fiscal year, Congress was again forced to pass a short-term funding extension to keep the government running through tomorrow. It was the third such stopgap resolution to be approved since September.House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said that they will have a bill ready for the president's expected signature by tomorrow and that Congress would likely recess on Thursday.

Republicans abused their power in vote to impeach 0) presidentListening to the speeches by various members of Congress, I came to a conclusion that Republicans have decided their constituents do not count.A number of times, Republicans said, "despite popular opinion" or something similar. Because the Republicans are no longer functioning in the roles for which they were elected, to represent their constituents; they are acting against the interests of the American people.Perhaps I am an idealist, but I always thought that the whole idea of a representative was to listen to the people and to bring the views of those people to Capitol Hill.

WASHINGTON -- It's June, and on Capitol Hill the long pent-up Republican social agenda is busting out all over.Thursday brought a heated debate on school prayer. Tuesday and Wednesday, the issue was flag-burning. A limited abortion ban comes up next week. The effect of the "homosexual agenda" on public schools is to be examined soon. Efforts to eliminate race-based hiring, the ban on assault weapons and pornography in cyberspace also are percolating up.Seven months after the 1994 election gave the Republicans a congressional majority, conservative forces are beginning to push forward their list of antidotes to America's perceived social ills.

`Stop Snitching 2' sends wrong signals Thanks to The Sun for publishing the enlightening, if disturbing, article on Stop Snitching impresario Rodney Bethea ("Thug life - the sequel," Dec. 23), who is photographed in front of an abandoned, boarded-up rowhouse that symbolizes the promise of his empire - Baltimore as a dilapidated ghost town. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an acceptable rationale for Mr. Bethea's actions. Although he promotes the stop snitching, pro-dealing ethic because, he says, "People are surviving the only way they know how," he fails to add the appropriate note that they are doing so by killing their brothers and sisters and their community.