GOP narrowing its congressional agenda

WASHINGTON -- Republican leaders in Congress have all but abandoned efforts to pass major policy initiatives this year, and are instead focusing their energies on a series of conservative favorites that they hope will rally loyal voters in November's congressional elections.

The House and Senate agendas are packed with bills that, even supporters concede, have no chance of passing but that social and fiscal conservatives clamor for, like constitutional amendments banning flag-burning and gay marriage. By bringing them up, Republicans hope to inspire a constituency that has fractured in its support for President Bush and the party. They also hope to cast Democrats as obstructionists by drawing their plentiful ''no" votes.

But some GOP moderates fear the strategy risks alienating moderate voters, whom vulnerable Republicans need at the polls in November.

The strategy is on display during what Senate majority leader Bill Frist dubbed ''health week" in the Senate. On Monday, the Republican-controlled Senate considered two bills that would limit medical malpractice judgments, even though the Democrats were expected to stop the measures with a filibuster, and did.

Still, Republicans used the Senate debate to blast Democrats for their ties to trial lawyers and to accuse them of blocking progress. Meanwhile, the GOP leadership has tabled bolder but more controversial healthcare proposals, such as expanding stem cell research and allowing US citizens to import prescription drugs from Canada.

''What a waste of time," said Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's number-two Democrat. ''Republican leadership has given up on doing anything that is substantial and necessary. All they're dealing with now are bumper-sticker issues."

The efforts to feed red meat to their base come as opinion polls indicate that Bush and GOP congressional leaders' approval ratings are sinking near record lows.

At the White House, similar concerns prompted the reassignment of top political aide Karl Rove from daily policy matters to GOP strategies for the midterm elections. Democrats need to gain six seats to take over the Senate and 15 to control the House.

The Republicans' short-term legislative schedule speaks to smaller-bore goals. Next month, the Senate could vote on the amendments that would ban flag-burning and same-sex marriage, even though GOP leaders know they can't muster enough votes to pass them.

In the Senate, Republicans are about to reignite a bitter fight with Democrats over the federal judiciary by pushing to confirm two conservative judges whom Democrats have vowed to block. The issue has been a rallying point for social conservatives, who want more supportive voices on the federal bench.

Meanwhile, House and Senate leaders finished a package of tax cuts yesterday, centered on an extension of reductions that don't expire until late 2008. Many Democrats probably will vote against the package, arguing that it would further swell the near-record budget deficit.

And House leaders have promised a full day of debate over the Iraq war, giving lawmakers a chance to express themselves in a high-profile public forum about the Bush administration's war conduct. Republicans hope it will expose the Democrats as passive in the war against terror.

House majority leader John A. Boehner said Republicans don't need sweeping policy achievements to convince voters that the GOP should stay in control.

''What we need to do every day is the simple blocking and tackling that any team goes through if they're going to win," the Ohio Republican said.

When Congress convened last January, Republicans vowed to use their increased political muscle in the House and Senate for bold action, such as partially privatizing Social Security and drastically restructuring the nation's tax code.

Now, with more than six months left, the GOP's legislative to-do list has essentially been winnowed to one item: immigration reform. But that issue has led to a weekslong partisan deadlock, and party conservatives are threatening to split from Bush and deny any legislation allowing undocumented immigrants to work legally and achieve citizenship.

GOP consultant Whit Ayres said that Democrats have stymied the Republicans' top priorities, citing Social Security as Exhibit A. Given that, Republicans have decided to give their base a reason to vote this fall, he said.

''It's important to demonstrate that Republicans are standing up for Republican ideals, and that Democrats -- should they take control of Congress -- will bury those ideals for good," Ayres said.

But the lack of big-ticket accomplishments has irked some Republicans. On Monday afternoon, as the Senate debated the doomed medical malpractice bills, Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, bemoaned the situation.

''We haven't done anything worth a toot in three months," Lott told Congressional Quarterly.

But Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership, said GOP lawmakers can't afford to alienate moderate voters.

''We have to reach out to the center-right group that, frankly right now, we're losing," she said.