THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
What a difference an election makes! Responding to repudiation at the polls, President Clinton has lurched to the middle of the road. Meanwhile, Republicans are re-examining ideas that sounded good when they were planning a revolution. Now that they've achieved power, some seem a trifle - well, revolutionary.
Clinton has discovered more money is needed for defense. He's expressing a lot more enthusiasm for the line item veto. He's rediscovered the middle class tax cut. And welfare reform is now near the top of his agenda.
The president is also starting to talk as tough on Bosnia as Bob Dole and may be willing to consider dismantling the departments of Housing and Urban, Energy and Transportation. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is looking for work.
The transformation of the president into Newt Clinton is not particularly surprising in a man of pliable principles. What's really astonishing is the rapid emergence of Slick Willie Gingrich. Within a month of an election based on the Contract With America, Gingrich and other GOP legislators have begun to redefine the terms of the deal.
There's been waffling on the line-item veto. Maybe that's too much power to give to a Democratic president, so Gingrich is now talking about passing a watered-down version as a temporary experiment, not a permanent reform.
There's also been a notable change of mood regarding term limits. They too looked better to Republicans out of power than they do to Republicans in the majority. Within days of the election, majority-leader-in-waiting Dick Armey was talking about not honoring the term limits clause in the Contract.
The Contract also calls for a three-fifths super-majority to pass any tax increase. Now, Gingrich wants a reform that only apply to income-tax increases. All other ``revenue enhancements'' would still require a simple majority.
During the campaign, Democrats claimed that the Contract's vow to balance the budget didn't add up unless Social Security was targeted for cuts. Republicans denied the charge and said Social Security was off limits. Now Gingrich says its off the table for the timing being, but that he'd be willing to discuss the matter later. In, perhaps, five years.
Clinton's waffling can be interpreted as desperation. Republicans, who ran solemnly on an unbreakable Contract to provide fundamental change, have no such excuse. Yet, faced with their own handiwork, some are beginning to say they promised only to bring the line item veto, term limits and other reforms to a vote - not to pass them.
But that looks a lot like bait-and-switch. The voters have given them a majority and Republicans are going to be expected to enact the Contract, not just consider it. Anything less will look like Washington business as usual, not the promised revolution. What happened to Clinton after two years, could happen to the Republicans in two more. by CNB