11/18/96 'IT'S THE YEAR OF THE MODERATE' ON CAPITOL HILL

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'IT'S THE YEAR OF THE MODERATE' ON CAPITOL HILL

Newt Gingrich still will wield the gavel as Speaker of the House. Trent Lott will continue to control the legislative calendar as Senate Majority Leader. Richard A. Gephardt and Tom Daschle again will lead the opposition. But the real power brokers in the 105th Congress may turn out to be a bunch of unknown lawmakers with names like Condit, Collins, Hinojosa, Stabenow, and McCarthy.
They're charter members of the Mod Squad--some 60 middle-of-the-road Hill Republicans and Democrats determined to prevent their parties' noisy partisan fringes from setting the national agenda. With the GOP holding narrow majorities of 20 seats in the House and 9 in the Senate, this bipartisan bloc suddenly has become the key swing vote on Capitol Hill. ''It's the year of the moderate,'' says one Squad leader, Representative Sherwood L. Boelhert (R-N.Y.), who has pushed the GOP toward a more enviro-friendly stance.
Republican Mod Squaders are disproportionately from the Northeast and Midwest, while the centrist Democrats hail from all regions. And though they don't agree on everything, they concur on this: ''People want politicians to cool the rhetoric, cut the partisanship, and get the job done,'' asserts North Carolina Democrat David E. Price, who just regained the seat he lost in 1994 to GOP freshman Fred K. Heineman.
The centrists' top priority next year: prodding less flexible colleagues into a consensus budget-balancing plan. Also on the wish list are ''common sense'' legal reform, regulatory relief for business that doesn't shred environmental and safety protections, a streamlining of the Food & Drug Administration, and campaign-finance reform. The coalition also may block attempts by President Clinton to liberalize the welfare-reform law he signed this fall. ''We intend to drive policy,'' says four-term Representative Gary A. Condit (D-Calif.), leader of 20 moderate and conservative House Democrats known as the ''Blue Dogs.'' Adds centrist Representative Marge Roukema (R-N.J.): ''The result will be more sensible policy and less right-wing rhetoric.''
NEW DOG DEMOCRATS. For now, Washington's political leaders say they'll play ball with the centrists. Clinton acknowledged in his victory speech on Nov. 5 that the public wants the pols to ''work together,'' and Gingrich extended a thorny olive branch to the President: ''We'll give him his chance to lead in the direction he campaigned in.'' Adds Senate Minority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.), ''We have to govern from the center.''
Still, some House GOP leaders aren't ready to abandon their combative tactics. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) calls the election ''a huge mandate'' for conservatives. Indeed, with 90% of the heavily conservative freshman class surviving reelection, the firebrands remain in firm control of the House GOP caucus. ''We're not going to stop [fighting] just because Bill Clinton was reelected President,'' DeLay snaps.
But voters are telling lawmakers to reach out across party lines to solve problems. So the new GOP centrists vow to challenge their party's right wing. And with enough numbers to hold veto power over legislation, they have singular leverage. ''Moderates will not be afraid to speak up,'' says Representative Sue W. Kelly (R-N.Y.), a member of the class of '94 who won reelection.
Who's on the Mod Squad? Republican conciliators in the House include moderate-conservative members of the ''Alliance'' and the ''Lunch Bunch,'' a group that wants a bipartisan solution to the Medicare mess but remains committed to the GOP's smaller-government philosophy. The ''Blue Dogs'' lean right on fiscal and social issues, and seek tax reform and regulatory relief for business. ''The trouble with [the Blue Dogs],'' sniffs Gingrich aide Tony Blankley, ''is that they never met a tax cut they could stand.'' Then there are the ''New Dogs,'' a Clintonesque clique that's conservative economically and more liberal on social issues. The New Dogs back the President's education spending push but would pay for it by cutting other programs.
Only time will tell if the group's bite is as bad as its bark. Potential New Dog leaders are Price and Debbie Stabenow, 46, a former Michigan state senator who became an instant star by upending GOP House freshman Dick Chrysler (R-Mich.). Other moderate freshmen: Ruben Hinojosa, 56, a food-processing executive from Texas' Rio Grande Valley; Ellen O. Tauscher, 44, who owns a San Francisco Bay-area company that screens child-care providers; and former Republican Carolyn McCarthy, 52, whose husband was killed in the 1993 Long Island railway massacre. New Senate centrists include Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrats Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Max Cleland of Georgia.
The Mod Squad can't wait to flex its muscle. North Carolina's Price is already planning a bipartisan retreat in February. Meanwhile, the Blue Dogs and the Alliance are working together to develop a tax-reform plan by Apr. 15. Above all, moderates are committed to forcing the Administration and Congress to balance the budget. ''We're going to hold everyone's feet to the fire to make sure we stay committed,'' says Condit.
These raging centrists know progress will be slow, and they're sure to face resistance from unreconstructed ideologues who would rather score political points than tackle difficult problems. But they think the voters' divided verdict of '96 was a clear message to try a new path. ''Both parties now realize that the old way is neither productive nor politically smart,'' says Representative Chet Edwards (D-Tex.), a moderate member of the Democratic leadership. Now, the Mod Squad's job is to convince colleagues that its low-key approach to problem-solving is the only way to go.
By Richard S. Dunham in Washington

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