House Speaker Struggles to Make Peace in His Party

As House Republicans have brawled among themselves this spring over the budget, the Balkans and other divisive issues, many have looked to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to play peacemaker.

But conservatives, moderates and the new speaker’s own headstrong lieutenants repeatedly have forced Hastert to shelve legislation that he had hoped to pass before Congress’ Memorial Day recess.

Now, as lawmakers return to work this week, pressure is more intense than ever on Hastert to bring order to his domain. Unchecked, the power struggle threatens to keep Republicans from passing a long-promised tax cut, to bollix up the year’s must-pass money bills and to put Congress on track for a year-end budget meltdown.

Such a scenario would further imperil the party’s chances of maintaining its narrow House majority in the 2000 elections.

The simmering GOP family feud is expected to come to a boil today when House Republicans convene a closed-door session to hash out seemingly intractable differences over the budget. Conservatives want to stick to current strict caps on spending. Moderates want to lift them. Both factions have enough members to stymie a strategy that they don’t like. About the only thing they share is frustration with party leaders for failing to articulate a winning strategy.

“It’s very hard to do [the budget] process when you don’t know where you’re going,” said Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.), a leading moderate. “It’s a terrible way to do business.”

“The leadership this week will have to come up with a plan,” said conservative Rep. David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.). “Moderates and conservatives have combined to say this is not a good [strategy].”

GOP leaders, meeting Monday evening in an effort to regroup, floated a new plan designed to meet conservative demands to stick to current spending caps while shifting money to ease potentially deep cuts in domestic programs. The issue will be debated by the full GOP conference at today’s closed-door caucus.

But the budget impasse is just part of the problem. The party’s factions are at odds over a panoply of other issues: campaign finance reform, the minimum wage, regulation of managed health care, the administration’s handling of the war in Kosovo--including the U.S. role in any peace plan.

How Hastert handles these conflicts may set the tone for the rest of his speakership. It offers him “an opportunity to once and for all put to rest the question of who is in charge of the House,” said Marshall Whittmann, an analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Whittmann added: “This is Denny Hastert’s moment. He clearly and without question has to be the one who restores order out of chaos.”

That’s easier said than done in a House where the GOP margin is so narrow that the majority party cannot afford to lose six votes on any given issue. Hastert’s challenge is to chart a steady course as conservatives push him to the right, moderates push back, committee barons throw their weight around and even his own lieutenants, such as Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), sometimes stray.

Here is a look at the forces with which Hastert must contend.

DeLay: The Enforcer. If the speaker’s low-key style has created a vacuum, no one is in better position to fill it than DeLay. A hard-nosed conservative, he and his broad network of 67 assistant whips are responsible for enforcing party discipline. He has a reputation for exacting retribution that was underscored recently when Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) accused DeLay of offering to finance a primary challenge to him because of Shays’ support for campaign finance reform. DeLay’s spokesman denied the charge, but it fueled the image that has earned him the nickname “the hammer.”

DeLay is close to Hastert, who for years was his chief deputy whip. Indeed, many believe it is because of DeLay that Hastert is speaker. After Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) resigned both from the speakership and Congress and his heir apparent, Bob Livingston (R-La.), decided to leave the House after acknowledging adulterous affairs, Hastert emerged from the ensuing chaos and assumed the speakership in January, with strong support from DeLay.

But the war in Kosovo sparked tensions between DeLay and Hastert. Earlier this year, Hastert backed a resolution endorsing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization air campaign but did nothing to persuade other Republicans to join him. DeLay opposed the measure and lobbied colleagues to oppose the resolution, which failed on a tie vote.

The episode fueled Hastert’s image as a weak leader and DeLay’s as willing to fill the void. Now Hastert’s challenge, as he sorts out the party’s troubles, is to take advantage of DeLay’s political skills and connections without seeming to be controlled by him.

Conservatives: The True Believers. One of the House’s largest and most vocal factions is a cadre of about 50 of the GOP’s most conservative members. Their clout was evident two weeks ago, when they brought the chamber to a virtual standstill over budget disputes, and again when they forced Hastert to shelve a defense bill because he tried to block debate on a provision aimed at limiting President Clinton’s options in Kosovo.

Many of these conservatives were elected in 1994, when Republicans gained control of Congress, and many thought they had a mandate to turn Washington upside down.

Rep. Tom A. Coburn (R-Okla.) is the prototype--an unreconstructed fiscal conservative loath to compromise as he presses his agenda. Having imposed a six-year term limit on himself, Coburn is now in his last term--and thus has little to fear from defying his party’s leaders.

Coburn and his allies have stalled the budget process by demanding that the GOP stick to the ceilings on spending that were key to the 1997 balanced-budget agreement. Until the leadership comes up with such a plan, the conservatives have pledged to block pending money bills with a barrage of time-consuming amendments.

Moderates: Swing Voters. Although a smaller faction than the conservatives, moderate Republicans are in a powerful position. There are enough of them--three dozen or so--that they can sway party leaders by threatening to join Democrats on a variety of issues.

Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.), for instance, has used his leverage to encourage GOP support for a minimum wage increase. Rep. Greg Ganske (R-Iowa) is clamoring for action on managed health care legislation. And Shays continues to push for action on campaign finance reform.

GOP leaders are under special pressure to heed this faction’s political needs and legislative interests: After having voted for Clinton’s impeachment last December, many moderates face potentially tough reelection battles in their swing districts. And defeat of even a few of them could be enough to cost Republicans their House majority.

Appropriators: The Money Barons. The 34 Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee wield tremendous clout because they control spending for programs big and small--including the local projects that are coveted by many House members. A clubby, insular group, appropriators tend to be pragmatic and focused on passing the 13 appropriations bills that keep the government operating each year.

They have been telling colleagues for months that the budget caps would force politically unacceptable cuts, but GOP leaders have refused to agree to lift them.

In response, Appropriations has taken the risky step of crafting some of the smaller, more routine, spending bills--such as the one for agriculture--without big cuts while shortchanging the larger, more controversial, bills. By the time Congress gets to these larger bills, appropriators hope, a broader budget agreement will have been worked out with Clinton.

Conservatives complain that approach is an invitation to capitulation. “These are good guys, but . . . I believe they tend to lose perspective,” Coburn said.

The party’s factions are so rambunctious, some analysts suggested, because there is no fear of retribution for crossing Hastert. But the speaker’s defenders said that a tougher approach would only backfire, given the GOP’s narrow majority.

“You’ve got to be tough but you also have to understand where members are coming from, because if you don’t listen they will fly off at any time,” said John Feehery, Hastert’s press secretary.

“The only fear factor you’ve got is that we hang together or we hang separately,” he said. “That’s the thing we’re trying to drive home: We’ve got to work as a team or we’re going to lose as individuals.”