If the House and Senate cut a deal on an fiscal 1999 budget plan, and it remains a big if, it may be attributable to the long relationship between House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, and Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
The two have a history of haggling, but of eventually being able to reach agreement on thorny budget issues. "You're talking about two guys who have worked together time and time again," a Republican Senate aide said recently.
Amateur psychoanalysts in both chambers see a father-son relationship between the 66-year-old Domenici, son of Italian immigrants, and Kasich, the 46-year-old son of a mail carrier. Indeed, even Kasich has drawn the analogy. When asked recently about Domenici's nasty comments about the House budget, Kasich told reporters, "Dad's allowed to yell at the kid once in a while."
Domenici also has played the role, at various times joking about the House chairman's energy, going so far as to question whether Kasich should be allowed to drink non-decaffeinated coffee. And recently, Kasich said he and Domenici would cut a deal over wine and nachos. "I don't eat the damn nachos," Domenici replied. "I can't eat them at my age."
Finally, a few weeks ago, Domenici made it clear he was not quite sure what the younger man was up to after trying to contact him about a meeting. "I tried to reach him for four hours yesterday, but he was [not] around," Domenici said. "God knows what he was doing."
One Republican goes even further than simply talking about a father-son relationship, saying the relationship between the two has gone through three distinct phases. In 1995, when the Republicans had just taken over the House, Kasich played the teenage son, who was showing his independence from his father. The House budget was a conservative Republican blueprint that drew fire from a variety of sources.
In 1997, Kasich played the mature son, who was willing to work with his father and the result was the balanced budget deal that both sides, as well as the Clinton administration, were willing to buy into.
Finally, this year, Kasich has produced a budget that includes cuts much deeper than the Domenici plan. Kasich has declared that the "son is equal and knows as much as the father. He's grown up as a man and feels he should have as much independence," the Republican said. Another Republican who has worked with the two agreed, saying, "The son is saying there's a better way."
Still, some Republicans said they are surprised by the strident comments Domenici made about the House budget, calling it a mockery. "Some of us were a little shocked about Domenici's comments about our budget," one House Republican said. He added that some House Republicans are somewhat skeptical of the Senate chairman, since he also serves as chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. "Domenici is an appropriator at heart," the House Republican said.
Another Republican acknowledged that Domenici had said some things "out of frustration."
After President Clinton exercised the line item veto to kill several military construction projects, some Republican senators expressed regret that they had supported the concept of a line item veto and said they would not do it again. Now that the Supreme Court has declared the line item veto unconstitutional, those senators may have the chance to decide again whether they want to support it.
The Senate passed the conference report on the line item veto by a 69-31 margin, so there were plenty of votes to spare. But some senators, including GOP Sens. Larry Craig of Idaho and Robert Bennett of Utah, clearly and bluntly said they felt burned by the president's use of his new power, much to the glee of longtime Democratic senators who were not shy about telling their colleagues, "We told you so."
Craig's home state had two projects on the military construction line item veto list and Bennett had a high-profile veto, elimination of funds to help move an Army maintenance shop to allow a portion of the Olympic Village for the 2002 Winter Olympics to be built.
And based on interviews this week, those Republican senators still feel burned. "I am seriously thinking about not supporting it" if a line item veto bill comes back in some form, Craig said. "I am reserving the right to say I made a mistake because I may have."
Bennett echoed those comments, but said he definitely would not support it. "I'm going to vote against the line item veto and with the Supreme Court," he said. He said he never believed critics like Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who warned that the president would misuse the new power. "When I looked at how it was used, I discovered that Pat Moynihan and Robert Byrd were right," Bennett said.
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