8/25/00 11:30 a.m.
Beware the Clinton Gridlock
It's Clinton and Gore who want a government shutdown.

By Kate O'Beirne is NR's Washington editor.

hen White House interns filled in for furloughed staff during the last government shutdown in 1995, Monica Lewinsky delivered pizza to the president and lust bloomed. This year, Bill Clinton looks forward to a budget battle that will bring Republicans to their knees.

If the president can engineer another budget showdown, with a possible shutdown in early October, he figures Republicans will be blamed for their intransigence, and Governor Bush will be tarred with congressional inaction. During the August recess, the few nervous congressional Republicans who have begun to contemplate what's ahead believe that the November elections could hinge on developing an "exit strategy" that avoids a shutdown, without demoralizing GOP capitulations on major issues.

Only two of the 13 appropriations bills have been signed, because the White House has refused to negotiate with Republicans who are eager for agreements on policy and funding differences. The president prefers to wait until next month, when high-profile showdowns will help to nationalize congressional elections, and create pressure on Gov. Bush to urge his Hill allies to reach bipartisan compromises.

The looming budget battle won't be fought over spending levels, which Republicans are only too happy to compromise on in the interest of getting out of town early in an election year. The president is likely, instead, to hold appropriations bills hostage until Congress passes both a patient's bill of rights and a Medicare prescription-drug plan. But Republicans are convinced that no compromise is possible on these issues, because the president would rather hammer their inaction than preside over signing ceremonies that would deny Al Gore his argument about special interests preventing critical reforms.

Next month, a politically-driven "Clinton gridlock" will prevent final action on the federal budget, and Republicans ought to cut their vacations short in order to return to Washington and begin saying so.