Love Leads to Congressional Pact : Washington: The gentleman from Buffalo proposed to the gentlewoman from Staten Island on the House floor. She voted ‘aye.’

He dropped to his knees. She was flustered. It was a classic proposal scene--except for the drone of debate on President Clinton’s budget bill.

Where else would one representative ask another to marry him but on the House floor? At least that’s what Bill Paxon figured when he was pondering the proper setting for the most important speech of his life.

His intended, Susan Molinari, didn’t see it quite that way.

“She kept saying, ‘Not here, I can’t believe you’re doing this now,’ ” Paxon said.

“I had a little temporary nervous breakdown,” Molinari said.

“What she said was, ‘Yes, I’ll marry you, but get off the floor,’ ” Paxon said.

Love is not an emotion most people associate with Congress. But on July 3, before about 120 people, the gentleman from Buffalo will marry the gentlewoman from Staten Island, N.Y.--uniting in holy matrimony two of the country’s hottest political properties.

Paxon, 40, is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, charged with winning House elections. Molinari, 36, is the face of the new GOP--young, female, moderate, professional. She’s increasingly in the capital spotlight, and back home her name was circulated for governor.

Their wedding is carefully timed to fall during a congressional recess, well before the November election. It’s also carefully placed--at an inn in New Hope, Pa.

“We didn’t want to get married in either one of our districts because we wanted to keep it very small,” Molinari said. “It would be impossible in our political circumstances not to invite everyone who ever signed a petition for us.”

Particularly in his leadership role this year, Paxon has displayed a sharp partisan tongue. He calls Washington “the Disney World of the North” and says House Democrats are retiring because “they see the lynch mob coming down the street.”

The bubbly Molinari has a definite softening effect on him. Plainly put, he turns to mush.

“Susan has the great elective future, and she should. She is the best, most dynamic Republican in the country today,” Paxon said earnestly. “As long as she’ll let me mow the lawn at the White House when she’s President, I’m happy.”

Ah, love. He doesn’t even mind that she’s keeping her name. He thought it was funny when constituents gave him an apron that said “Mr. Molinari.”

But the harmony isn’t always perfect. She voted for the family leave bill last year; he opposed it. He backs term limits; she does not. She supports abortion rights; he does not. She voted for this year’s ban on assault rifles; he opposed it.

“We used to talk about it,” Molinari said. “Now I think we just respect each other’s differences.”

“There’s a little lobbying that goes on,” Paxon interjected.

“A little needling every now and then,” Molinari conceded.

They are only the second pair of sitting House members to marry each other. Andy Jacobs of Indiana and Martha Keys of Kansas were the first. It didn’t last.

“She lost her race and then she lost her Andy,” Molinari said, with the air of someone who sees no chance that will happen to her.

Paxon is a bachelor; Molinari was divorced four years ago after a brief marriage. These days, her constituents are bombarding her with cards, gifts and good wishes.

Molinari doesn’t think they’ll mind if she becomes the nation’s first pregnant congresswoman, either. “As long as I’m married when I get pregnant, my constituents will be comfortable,” she said with a giggle.

Congressional colleagues greeted the news with warmth and some glee. House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) halted the budget debate last August to announce the engagement. Democrat Eliot L. Engel of New York wished the pair “many healthy and happy children, and may they all grow up to be good Democrats.”

Both partners in this match have been steeped in politics all their lives. Molinari’s father was in the House for nearly a decade before becoming borough president of Staten Island. Paxon’s father was an elected judge in the Buffalo area.

Carrying on the family business, Molinari was a New York City council member from 1986-90, then won her father’s congressional seat. Paxon was 15 when he volunteered for his first campaign and 23 when he won election to the Erie County Legislature.

Their shared obsession, the two maintain, will make for a stronger marriage.

In the two weeks before a recent special election in Kentucky, Molinari said, “I knew that there were times when Bill was just going to be shut off and that was his main focus. I can understand that and respect it and to some extent like that drivenness about him, because I’m in the same game.”