Right Makes Might

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Senator Mark Hatfield, the Oregon Republican in line to chair the Appropriations Committee, told TIME that "there will be a very early attempt to do the symbols -- the line-item veto, a Balanced Budget Amendment and term limitations. I call them symbols because none of them really address the concerns and underlying issues of deficits, fair taxation and overregulation that the people have about their central government."

Hatfield, who hails from what's left of the moderate wing of Republican lawmakers, advocates compromise with centrist Democrats and with Clinton to get legislation passed. But compromise is a dirty word to many of the fire breathers elected to Congress last week. That's why Gingrich felt obliged to declare that he would "cooperate" with Clinton and Democratic lawmakers, "but we will not compromise." Gingrich stumbled over another conservative taboo last week when he mused in an interview that he would "grow" into his new role as Speaker. Almost immediately, half a dozen conservatives jumped him, Gingrich told TIME, and explained that grow was "a code word for selling out."

/ That incident gives a hint of the intraparty spats that await Gingrich and incoming Senate majority leader Bob Dole. For starters, the two Republican leaders have never liked each other, especially since Gingrich called Dole "the tax collector for the welfare state." And soon the contest for the G.O.P. presidential nomination will begin to play out on the floors of the Senate and House. Already, Dole's rivals in the Senate are whispering that he should step down from his leadership post if, as expected, he launches his bid for the Republican nomination for President. Dole, however, thinks he could campaign while continuing to serve as majority leader. "There are certain advantages to the leadership, obviously," he said, "when it comes to raising money and getting people's attention."

Central elements of the G.O.P. legislative agenda will look far less appealing to Republicans running states and major cities. Some Republican Governors and mayors will probably oppose ratification of the Balanced Budget Amendment once they see how its mandated spending cuts would affect them. And some are likely to resist the House G.O.P. plan to cut $9.5 billion in job- training funds to states. "The Governors and the mayors, who have to implement the law, are going to tell the right-wingers, 'Wait a minute, we don't agree with you,' " predicted Tony Coehlo, the de facto head of the Democratic National Committee.

The Democrats, however, will be roiling with factional strife of their own in the wake of last week's humiliating defeat. Senate Democrats were already jockeying last week to see which among them could go toe to toe with Dole. The election defeat of Tennessee's Jim Sasser, considered the top contender for Democratic leader, left Thomas Daschle of South Dakota next in line. Yet many fear that Daschle lacks the stature and the grit for the job of leading a dispirited minority. By week's end at least two others, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, were sounding out fellow Democrats about their prospects.