Victorious Republicans plan tax cuts

EXULTANT Republicans, who won control of the Senate, House and White House yesterday, plan to use their famous victory to bolster President George Bush's re-election chances with further tax cuts and ratification of his judicial nominees.

Republicans still have to work with Democrats to actually get legislation approved by Congress, with both the House of Representatives and Senate still closely divided between parties.

But Republican senators and House members ran on being able to work with Bush, and say that getting his agenda through will be their top priority, a move that would bolster his re-election chances in 2004.

The biggest gain for Republicans was in the Senate, where they are guaranteed to hold at least 50 seats next year, making Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi the majority leader again.

Lott held the title for six months in 2001 before Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont defected from the Republicans and threw control of the Senate to the Democrats.

With Lott able to place Republican majorities on all Senate committees, including Judiciary, Republicans plan to push through as many of Bush's judicial nominees as possible and hope for a Supreme Court vacancy while they still have a numerical advantage so the president can begin shaping that court as well.

None of his nominees for judgeships won confirmation in the first six months of the 2001 congressional session while Lott was majority leader. The Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed 80 of 130 US Appeals and District Court nominees before the midterm elections but rejected or delayed the ones Republicans wanted most. After pushing through a 10-year, $1.3 trillion package of tax cuts in the first few months of the Bush presidency, the Republican-run Congress plans to add new tax reductions.

"If we do, it's going to be something to try to stimulate folks to put whatever liquidity they have back in the market or to try and create jobs," Hastert said.

Republican lawmakers also plan to bolster Bush's re-election chances by pushing as many of his legislative priorities as possible, including a strong new Homeland Security Department and initiatives involving prescription drug benefits for senior citizens, health insurance and energy policy.

However, Republicans still won't have ultimate control over what the Senate does. It takes 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to choke off filibusters and force legislation through.

"The only things that will get done will be those things for which we can find common ground," said Democratic Senator Tom Daschle, the current majority leader.

With four races undecided, the Republicans won 227 House seats, the Democrats, 203, and there was one independent.

When the new Congress is sworn in January, it will be the first time in 50 years that Republicans take outright control of the White House, Senate and House. After prevailing in Minnesota, Republicans were assured of at least 51 Senate seats.

In the House, Tuesday's voting padded the GOP majority by at least two seats.

Democrats did manage to break the GOP grip on governorships in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania, electoral troves critical to Bush's designs on a second term. Democrats also captured formerly Republican or independent-held governorships in Kansas, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Still, the Democrats appeared to have been denied a majority of the nation's governorships. They were destined to tie or slightly trail the GOP on that scoreboard after Republicans won at least 20 of the 36 races and when Democrat Doug Racine conceded the Vermont contest to Republican Jim Douglas on Wednesday.

The president's younger brother Jeb easily held onto the Florida governor's office, beating back the full force of a national Democratic Party that had made him its No. 1 target not only to avenge the 2000 presidential recount debacle in Florida, but also as hopeful prelude to toppling the older Bush in 2004.

Tuesday's off-year ballot appeared to draw little more than a third of eligible Americans to the polls, where widely anticipated technical problems amounted to a few hiccups.