With the Senate already at a virtual halt from Republican stalling, congressional Democrats confronted their worst nightmare Tuesday - their GOP opponents amassed by the hundreds, poised to take the Capitol.
About 350 House GOP candidates, including incumbents, stood on the Capitol's steps in a bid to convince voters the way to show their anger with Congress, and their doubts about President Clinton, is to vote Republican at home.
Each GOP candidate signed a 10-point "Contract with America," pledging action on 10 bills in the first 100 days of the next Congress if Republicans win a majority.
The contract promises a feel-good agenda of tax cuts, stronger defense and a balanced budget, along with a constitutional amendment limiting congressional terms.
"Clinton is in such trouble with the American people that our job is to go out and offer a clear, positive alternative," said Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
Democrats and the Clinton White House complain loudly the Republicans' numbers don't add up and offer only a Reaganomics replay sure to drown the nation in more debt.
"They are on the steps saying, `Let's crack open another trillion in deficits,'" says Majority Leader Dick Gephardt.
Nervous Democrats, however, are feeling beset from all sides as the Nov. 8 elections bear down on them.
In the Senate, Republicans are invoking what is in effect a by-the-rules work slowdown to block nearly any bill from passing in the final weeks of the 103rd Congress.
Their aim is to deny Clinton and the Democratic majority any accomplishment and hold issues until next year when they expect greater numbers.
Voters back home are compounding the Democrats' woes.
A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows voters favoring the GOP in a reversal of decades-long historic patterns.
Republicans were rated as the party best able to keep the country prosperous and out of war, and the GOP was favored 48%-45% when asked which party they would vote for in congressional elections.
The last time Republicans led on congressional races in Gallup polling was 1968. The lead, which first emerged this summer, marks their first consecutive advantage since 1952 - the year Republicans last won a House majority.
The poll finds Democrats faring worst in the Midwest, where the GOP is favored 50%-42%. Only in the East do congressional Democrats have the edge, 48%-43%. And suburban voters favor GOP congressional candidates 54%-38%.
Compounding the problem is Clinton, whose disapproval rating stands at 51%.
These trends, in the face of a fairly strong economy, have Democrats bewildered, says Democratic campaign consultant Raymond Strother.
"They really don't understand why the public is so angry," Strother says. "The economy is improving and congressional rankings are going down. They're puzzled. It's bewilderment. They don't know what's going on."
Against this backdrop, Republican strategists have decided to swing for the fences.
Already expecting gains of 20 to 30 seats this fall, Gingrich dreams of winning 40 seats, which would hand the GOP a House majority and make him speaker of the House.
Republicans believe their goals of tax cuts and a balanced budget are popular, even if they can't show how to pay for it. GOP polling found 60% support for each item.
Republicans believe they will win more seats if voters focus on those national issues, rather than the relative merits of individual candidates.
Democrats, as usual, want congressional races to turn on more local issues, but they have been rushing to warn that the GOP "contract" proves what a Republican Congress would mean: tax cuts for the rich and a huge new round of the deficits seen in the 1980s.
"What they basically have come up with is a list of goodies . . . and absolutely no specifics on how to pay for it," says Clinton economics adviser Robert Rubin.
Poll: For Republican Party, happier days are here again The GOP continues to draw better marks on peace and prosperity issues, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll shows.
If congressional elections were held today, which party's candidate would you lean toward voting?
Democrat Republican
Sept. 25 45% 48%
Which party will be do a better job keeping the USA prosperous?
Democrat Republican
Sept. 25 39% 48%
Dems paint fund-raiser as opponents' hypocrisy
On the sunny steps of the U.S. Capitol, GOP House candidates pledged Tuesday to take back Congress from special interests. As evening fell, the same Republicans headed for a $5,000-a-table dinner held to raise half a million dollars from Washington's special interest money elite.
Democrats didn't wait to accuse the GOP of hypocrisy in the contrasting events.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee planned to film GOP candidates entering the gala for campaign ads. Tuxedo-clad college Democrats circulated throughout the morning event, handing out sarcastic invitations to sign a "Republican Contract for Cash" with special interests.
