Clinton closing curtain on tough audience in Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton has never had an easy time dealing with Congress -- even when Democrats ran it -- and he's<br>gotten no signs from Republican leaders that things are about to change

Thursday, January 27th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton has never had an easy time dealing with Congress -- even when Democrats ran it -- and he's
gotten no signs from Republican leaders that things are about to change this year.

Yet, the fact that everybody but Clinton is a candidate in 2000 is feeding a strange hope at the White House of actually getting something done before he leaves office. The president even figures the agenda he articulated Thursday night stands "a better than 50-50 chance" of passage.
Of course, once he took the podium, Clinton tried to temper expectations about his legislative goals: "We will not reach them all this year. Not even in this decade. But we will reach them."

GOP leaders politely accepted Clinton's appeals for side-by-side action on issues like Social Security. But they made it clear that
they would simply ignore Clinton if he is not open to their ideas.

"There are a number of priorities that are non-negotiable for Republicans," said Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., chairman of the House
Republican Conference. "He can either work with Republicans ... or side with those in his party who block progress at every turn."

To some, Clinton's prediction of last-minute legislative magic seems rather bold. They say Clinton should stick to "bite-sized initiatives" if having a legacy is important to him.

"There won't be anything that will be written about in the history books," said Marshall Whitman, director of congressional relations for the Heritage Foundation. "This president has the worst relationship with a Congress since Nixon left the White House grounds on the helicopter."

But others say Clinton's lame-duck status frees him to be an agent provocateur for Vice President Al Gore, using legislative proposals to try to force Republicans into taking positions they must then defend before the voters.

"The truth is, he has a lot of cards to play," said Al From, president of the Democratic Leadership Council. "The Republicans have interests, too. They can't go to the voters having just blocked everything Clinton's done."

It is an added twist in the saga of Clinton vs. Congress, a story line that, over seven years, has hit upon nearly every type of conflict available to the executive and legislative branches of government.

Consider 1993, when a Congress full of his fellow Democrats sent Clinton's ambitious health care reform package to a watery grave.
Or 1994, when a Republican majority to contend with in Congress, forced him to scrap his liberal-sounding agenda and start over from the middle.

"A great marching speech. It went left-right, left-right, left-right," Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said of the 1995 State of the Union address -- which drew slow, begrudging applause and was interrupted by shouts from the audience.

Later that same year, though, Clinton emerged victorious from an epic struggle over balancing the budget that shut down the federal government. The following year, 1996, Clinton and GOP leaders regarded each other with studied cool, uncertain of whose programs would play well on the campaign trail.

More than Clinton's legislative agenda hung in the balance when he went before Congress in January 1998. The president had been accused of having an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which he denied.

GOP lawmakers seized upon the Lewinsky matter as grounds for removing Clinton from office. The president struggled to secure
passage of an Asian financial bailout and failed to get approval for "fast track" trade negotiating authority. Before year's end,
Clinton admitted to the affair, and the House voted to impeach him.

The impeachment was still playing out last January, when Clinton delivered his seventh State of the Union address. House members
debated whether he should even be invited to give the speech, since the Senate had yet to vote on impeachment.

Clinton gave the speech anyway, and Republicans responded with distant, unenthusiastic reactions. Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, remained seated and gave him no applause at all.

This year, Clinton is back as an impeachment survivor, and GOP leaders are speaking to him in terms that sound friendly -- and ominous.

In a letter Wednesday, House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas, sought cooperation on a Social Security initiative. "As we both know, the news will soon focus on what you have and have not accomplished during your presidency," Archer said.