Confrontation or Conciliation With Democrats? : GOP Debates Senate Minority Role

Senate Republicans, faced with being in the minority for the first time in six years, are quarreling among themselves over whether to adopt a confrontational or conciliatory approach in dealing with the new Democratic majority.

Advocating confrontation are conservatives led by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who contend that the Republicans also will lose control of the presidency in 1988 unless they challenge the Democratic leadership at every opportunity.

But moderate Republicans such as Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, who headed the Foreign Relations Committee during the last two years, argue that the Republicans have a responsibility to build coalitions with conservative and moderate Democrats to provide sustained congressional support for President Reagan’s policies.

Caught squarely in the middle of this dispute is Senate Republican leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who, as an aspiring candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, would like to win the support of conservatives while building support for Reagan’s policies.

Combination of Approaches

Aides said that Dole will try to combine the two approaches--seeking compromise when there is a chance of success but choosing confrontation when it appears that the Democrats are going to prevail. “In fact,” one aide said, “he will throw some bills into the hopper that we know are going to lose, just to make confrontations out of them.”

While the struggle over Republican strategy is expected to continue throughout the next two years, a key test will come shortly when the GOP caucus decides whether to install Helms or Lugar as the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The decision could be made as early as Thursday, when the caucus meets to elect its leaders.

Helms, feeling an obligation to the enormous tobacco industry in his home state, chose to take command of the Agriculture Committee two years ago, though he could have become chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee by virtue of his seniority.

However, in the wake of the Republicans’ Nov. 4 loss, he disclosed recently that he has decided to try to take the top GOP job on Foreign Relations away from Lugar this year. In a letter to Lugar, he suggested that the Indiana senator could instead assume the position as ranking Republican on the Agriculture panel.

Ideological Warfare

But Lugar has balked at Helms’ suggestion and announced that he would fight to retain his position on the Foreign Relations Committee. A spokesman said that Lugar opposes Helms’ bid to take the position because he views it as “a recipe for two years of ideological trench warfare” with the liberal Democrats who will control the panel.

“Lugar is worried about the bomb throwers,” he said. “Sinking into a minority mentality would be a mistake.”

In his letter to Lugar, Helms said that he had decided that he wants the ranking position on Foreign Relations because he does not know whether he will seek reelection in 1990 and “this may be my last shot at a leadership post on Foreign Relations, something I have greatly desired since I came to the Senate in January, 1973.” He recalled that he took the Agriculture chairmanship two years ago only because he had promised he would do so during his 1984 reelection campaign.

Although Lugar is believed to have more support than Helms among GOP senators, sources said that many Senate Republicans welcomed the Helms challenge as a warning to Lugar that he should be less conciliatory with the Democrats than he has been in the last two years. “A majority of Republicans believe that maybe Lugar has erred too much on the side of consensus,” a knowledgeable source said.

Sanctions Bill Author

Among other things, conservatives were upset with Lugar’s authorship of legislation imposing new economic sanctions on South Africa, which was enacted by Congress over a veto by President Reagan--the biggest legislative setback to the President during the 99th Congress.

Conservative Republicans also were angling to put another conservative on the Senate Intelligence Committee to help balance the influence of moderate Sen. William S. Cohen of Maine, who will be the ranking Republican on that panel. Their leading candidate for the position is Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming.

Sources said that the conservatives wanted to take control of the Intelligence Committee because they were angered by the performance of Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), who, as chairman during the last two years, has frequently used the position to criticize the President--often echoing the sentiments of the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).

“Some Republicans hold Durenberger personally responsible for the reelection of Pat Leahy,” who will become chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, a GOP source said.