DATE: Friday, June 20, 1997                 TAG: 9706200026

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: Keith Monroe 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

REPUBLICAN CONGRESS SUFFERS SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS

Watching the GOP operate Congress one is reminded of Casey Stengel's complaint when confronted with the hapless Mets: Can't anybody here play this game?

Apparently the Republicans learned nothing from the game of chicken they played with President Clinton that led to a couple of government shutdowns. They looked reckless and the president looked like a statesman.

Undeterred, unbelievably, they recently played a new game of chicken. Rather than pass aid for flood victims instantly and proclaim themselves heroes, the leadership decided this was a golden opportunity to force arcane, extraneous matters down the president's throat. He wouldn't dare veto flood relief, would he? He would - not only vetoing the bill but using the occasion to reinforce the theme of Republican heartlessness.

Tone-deafness would be more like it. Don't they realize how this stuff looks? Such obliviousness is particularly surprising because Speaker Newt Gingrich as a firebrand backbencher had a keen appreciation for what would play with the American people. An arrogant, inside-the-Beltway Congress out of touch with real people was a favorite theme.

Yet now that he's in charge, Congress looks as bad as it did on Jim Wright's worst day. Not only out of touch but also inept. Gingrich has never really found his footing as speaker, perhaps because there's a big difference between lobbing in grenades from outside the tent and setting a positive agenda, rallying support and passing legislation.

And the other GOP leaders are even worse. Gingrich used to have an idea a day. His colleagues seem to have used up all of theirs. Where have all their issues gone - law and order, balanced budget, welfare reform, tax relief? Gone to Clinton every one. When will they ever learn?

The telegenic qualities of the majority leaders are also undetectable. Dick Armey's blustery, oafish style doesn't create confidence. Whip Tom DeLay is a hard-eyed hardball, an angry ex-exterminator who does nothing to disguise harshly partisan views. High marks for honesty, a failing grade in the gentle art of persuasion.

Others, including Bob Livingston, John Boehner, and Bill Archer are similarly offputting. Susan Molinari was comfortable in TV land, but she's gone there permanently. Only John Kasich on the House side can project warmth and appear to speak to the concerns of average voters.

Given this vacuum, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had a chance to take the ball and run with it, but he's fumbled on more than one occasion. He's amiable on camera and has tried to adopt the old George Mitchell trick of appearing sweetly reasonable on camera while cutting the hearts out of his partisan enemies while off the air.

But the mask keeps slipping. One minute he says he wants to work with the president. The next he delivers a lecture to Clinton on the powers of Congress. The next he's a cutting a deal his colleagues don't care for.

Much of the problem may be an inability to find common ground. The GOP coalition that won Congress away from the Democrats was united by dislike of the Democrats. But once in power, country club Republicans, movement conservatives, the Christian right, Main Street and Wall Street found they had as many differences as similarities.

The symbolism of the Contract with America worked briefly, but a lot of its elements were inside baseball concerning how Congress operated. This is not where the concerns of average voters are focused. The Christian Coalition realized this and after a polite pause began demanding that attention be paid to its Family contract. But the GOP hasn't really coalesced around social conservatism.

One frustrated member recently said if his party could agree on nothing else, it ought to be able to agree it's the party of tax reduction. But he was frustrated because it can't agree.

The Dole-Domenici anti-voodoo wing has always been leery of cutting taxes before balancing the budget. Some reformers like Armey are zealots for a flat tax. Archer wants to abolish the income tax in favor of a value-added tax.

Many members yearned for a budget deal that would bring home the bacon of really big capital gains and estate tax cuts. But they rightly feared Clinton would paint them as tools of the fat cats if they didn't give him goodies too. So, they gave him goodies too, took less for themselves and now resent it.

The flood relief debacle only made matters worse. The Republicans are getting beaten up by the minority party and by a president who ought to be down for the count. It's embarrassing. As a result, the rank and file are grumbling about a lack of leadership and turning against each other.

Some days Clinton must wake up in the morning and wonder how he got so lucky. With enemies like these, who needs friends? MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot.

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