Bush Hits Phones, but GOP Losses Likely : Congress: The President pitches on behalf of regional candidates. Top Republicans concede the party stands to lose seats, at least in the House.

President Bush hit the phones Sunday to seek votes for his party, but top Republicans conceded they are likely to lose seats in Congress, at least in the House.

From a hotel suite in Houston, the President placed phone calls to rallies for candidates in Nebraska, Utah, Maryland and Alaska, telling one group of voters that “dealing with a Congress completely controlled by Democrats is not easy. It’s not an easy assignment.”

In his pitch, he argued that if Republicans won more Senate seats, “We wouldn’t be playing defense to the liberal agenda that’s coming down the pike at me from time to time.”

Republican strategists, however, conceded that they will have a hard time fully recovering from the decline GOP candidates have suffered in recent polls. Those losses have been based largely on a perception that the party, and Bush in particular, sought to defend the wealthy against tax increases and then endorsed a budget deficit package that imposes higher taxes on nearly everyone.

John H. Sununu, the White House chief of staff, Sunday acknowledged that Republicans will likely lose seats in the House, but he said the overall breakdown in the Senate would remain about the same.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sununu insisted that limited losses, rather than gains, “has been the goal of what we wanted to achieve all along.”

Edward J. Rollins, director of the Republican congressional committee, also predicted losses for Republicans in the House, but said the size will depend on the depth of disenchantment among Republicans.

“If Republicans turn out and don’t do what they did in Watergate or in 1982, where a greater number of Republicans didn’t participate in the process, our losses will probably be held to a single digit,” Rollins said on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley.”

Traditionally, the party that holds the presidency loses 26 or so seats in the House in a mid-term election. But the Republicans are not expected to lose that many partly because the current 176 is a historic low for a President’s first term.

“Although we might lose a handful of House seats, it’s going to be far fewer than 25, and I still think we’re going to actually have a net gain in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday,” Charles Black, a Republican consultant, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Ron Brown, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on the same show that he expects his party to pick up seats in both bodies of Congress, without specifying a number. At a rally on Saturday, Brown had predicted a Democratic gain of eight to 10 seats in the House and one or two in the Senate.

The Democrats hold a 258-176 majority in the House, with one seat vacant, and a 55-45 edge in the Senate.

But the volatility of this election prompted Rep. Guy Vander Jagt (R-Mich.), chairman of the House GOP campaign committee, to observe that “anybody that would try to pick a number in House races has got to be out of his mind.”

“We have candidates that are dropping nine points one day and then gaining 12 the next,” added Vander Jagt, speaking on CNN.

In an effort to get out the vote for Republicans, Bush called both rallies and individuals. After reaching five people on a list prepared by the local Republican organization, he took up a dare from a group of reporters, abandoned the list, and flipped open the Houston phone book.

“You won’t believe this. This is the President of the United States,” he said to the woman whose name he had picked at random. He urged her to vote for Clayton W. Williams Jr., the embattled Republican Texas gubernatorial candidate. Bush has been campaigning for Williams, and accompanied him to church services Sunday.

The President got off the phone looking pleased, but the woman, Malissia Johnson, later told the Associated Press that she was a registered Democrat who voted against Bush in 1988 and intended to vote for Williams’ opponent, Democrat Ann Richards.

Today, Bush will fly around Texas making final appeals for Williams. He is scheduled to vote in Houston Tuesday morning, speak to a Republican Party fund-raising breakfast, and then return to Washington.

Gerstenzang reported from Houston and Frantz from Washington.