The Moderates Go to Extremes

The ringleader, Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), acknowledged that "sometimes we can't even agree what day of the week it is." But not this time. "We will not waver," he promised. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-Md.) seconded the defiance. "We will hold the line on this," he vowed. "I think this is the dawning of a new day."

Moderates were raging. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.) took the microphone. "They know very well what our position is, and it won't change," he said of party leaders.

Back at the Capitol, the Republican leaders were still predicting passage of the budget cuts by day's end. "I haven't been told otherwise," a leadership spokesman said.

That was at 3 p.m. By 3:30, he had been told otherwise: Republican leaders called an impromptu news conference outside House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's office.

Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) played quality-control manager. "The product we had today wasn't quite where we needed to be," he said. Besides, he added, "West Coast members have to make planes."

Joining them but saying not a word was Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), who once maintained lockstep discipline in the House but was returned to the backbenches by an indictment.

Democrats, all smiles and backslaps, held their own news conference in the House television gallery, where they announced that the Republican Party had, officially, cracked up. "Republicans have a massive failure on their hands," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). "A failure today of the Republican leadership," said Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (Md.).

Only Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.) gave some credit to the "brave" GOP moderates.

Out on the newly reopened House floor, Hoyer made some mischief at Blunt's expense, asking the Republican leader in a colloquy about the fate of the budget bill.

"We hoped to have that bill on the floor today," Blunt said, tightly. He had better luck passing the next item on the agenda: H.R. 1953, the San Francisco Old Mint Commemorative Coin Act.