GOP Senators Decline to Punish Hatfield : Republicans: Effort to strip him of a committee chairmanship in revenge for vote is killed. Clash signals an intraparty rift likely to slow legislation.

Sen. Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon survived an attempt Wednesday by fellow Republicans to strip him of his committee chairmanship for voting against the balanced-budget constitutional amendment, but the dispute demonstrated that tensions between party conservatives and moderates appear destined to slow the GOP agenda in Congress.

Without taking a formal vote, the Senate Republican Conference acted behind closed doors to kill an effort to remove Hatfield as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Conservative Republicans wanted him booted from the chair for casting the only GOP vote against the amendment, which failed by one vote.

Senate Republicans were reluctant to punish Hatfield because--for all the changes that Republicans have brought to Congress since taking control this year--the Senate’s traditional deference to seniority remains strong. What’s more, many GOP senators--looking ahead to votes on taxes, spending cuts and other difficult issues--see that they themselves might soon need such freedom to break with the party line.

Indeed, the next major fiscal measure on the GOP agenda, the line-item presidential veto, is bogging down in the Senate over intraparty divisions. Competing versions are being pushed by hard-core conservatives and by the party’s moderate flank.

Hatfield’s fate bodes well for fellow Republican moderates in the Senate who, while few in number, hold some important committee chairmanships. His survival shows that the seniority system is likely to protect them from retribution, although they may now think twice before they cross the majority of their party as boldly as Hatfield did.

The episode is a defeat for the Senate’s younger, more partisan conservatives, who have chafed with frustration as they watched House Republicans move quickly and in lock-step to pass a balanced-budget amendment, line-item veto legislation and a host of other items on the GOP agenda, then seen those measures meet greater opposition in the slow-moving, more moderate Senate.

After Hatfield’s vote, a small group of mostly younger conservatives led by Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) called for retribution against Hatfield and pushed the GOP leadership to convene Wednesday’s meeting to discuss the matter.

By the time the meeting began, it was clear that Hatfield would not be deposed, and the matter was never brought to a vote. His critics used the session to air their complaints that GOP leaders and committee chairmen had a special obligation to toe the party line.

“We sent a shot across the bow,” said freshman Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

But Hatfield said after the session that he would not change his position on the balanced-budget amendment if it comes to a vote again this year or next.

“I am glad that my vote of conscience did not cost me my chairmanship,” he said. “A lot of people had feelings they wanted to get off their chests. I listened carefully.”

He attributed some of the criticism to a generational difference between the younger Republicans, many of whom came from the more partisan House, and more senior senators steeped in the Senate’s traditions of deference and individualism.

Republican leaders agreed to study issues raised by Hatfield’s critics, such as giving the leadership more power to enforce party discipline. But Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) indicated that no changes would be made until the next Congress, and it is clear that many Republicans do not want to push that idea very far because there are too many issues about which the party is much more divided than that of the balanced-budget amendment.

“It is not a healthy concept to think everyone has to fit through the same keyhole to belong to the Republican Party,” said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

Indications are, however, that this will not be the last time the party’s more moderate committee chairmen will be at odds with the conservative majority.

Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) has incurred the wrath of conservative colleagues for pushing a watered-down version of the line-item veto bill. Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) has shown far less enthusiasm for tax cuts than others. And some Republicans are wary of how major environmental issues before Congress this year will be handled by John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), head of the Environment and Public Works Committee.