And for them the issue is redemption. Republicans are hoping they can profit from Clinton's shortcomings in a subtler way, by playing up questions of character without tying them to particulars of sexual behavior. Other Republicans are refining the language they will use to accuse Al Gore of passive complicity in the actions that brought Clinton to the brink of removal from office. At some point, he's got to deny Bill Clinton. Since Ken Starr and the House Republicans ended the year more unpopular than Clinton, the G.O.P. also needs to distance itself from its obsession with dislodging the President.
Conservative activists maintain that there was no way to sidestep impeachment.
We would have gone into 2000 like a three-legged horse. Republicans know they need to demonstrate that they can accomplish something in Congress. This is why G.O.P. moderates have finally begun to crawl into the light. It's no surprise that Democrats are calling it a giveaway that betrays Social Security, but Kasich's plan is also being rejected by 11 moderates from his own party. All predictions are tentative right now, says William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, but he wouldn't be surprised to see a G.O.P. divided in that fashion all the way to 2000.