> Snowe blasts Sen. Mitchell

WASHINGTON — As a rule, Maine’s members of Congress don’t criticize each other by name.

Rep. Olympia J. Snowe broke that unwritten rule Wednesday, charging in an interview that Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell has risked plunging the nation into a deep recession to gain a political advantage over President George Bush for Democrats.

Snowe’s comments came after she and 150 other House Republicans were told by Bush during a White House briefing that despite 12 weeks of budget summit negotiations, Democratic leaders had offered no plan of their own to resolve the deficit and were moving to adjourn Congress for an August vacation.

The collapse of budget negotiations touched off an orgy of finger-pointing in which both Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for the debacle.

Bush demanded that Democratic leaders submit a compromise proposal “within 48 hours” after the meeting with Republican legislators, but later retracted that ultimatum.

Responding to Snowe’s criticism, Mitchell declared it was “disarray” among Republicans, not Democratic intransigence, that had led to the failure of the budget summit negotiations and insisted that Republican senators, not himself, were pushing for a congressional vacation this weekend.

Rep. Joseph E. Brennan asserted that a lack of leadership by Bush, not Mitchell, was the major factor in the breakdown of budget deficit negotiations.

During a floor speech, Snowe asked, “If those at the budget summit are called negotiators, shouldn’t they be negotiating? And shouldn’t they continue to do so until a budget agreement is reached?”

“The president can’t negotiate by himself. He’s offered specific proposals, but all the Democrats have offered is criticism. That is utterly irresponsible,” said Snowe.

She warned that continued political gridlock would trigger automatic federal spending cuts on Oct. 1 mandated by the Gramm-Rudman Act of more than $100 billion, forcing hundreds of thousands of layoffs which would jolt the nation into a severe recession.

Asked after the speech if she blamed Mitchell for the failure of the budget summit, Snowe said, “Sen. Mitchell is a very capable man. If he wanted to reach an agreement on the budget, he would be able to do it.”

Instead, Snowe said, the Democrats’ priority has been to gain a political edge over Bush.

“They say the major obstacle is Bush’s stand on taxes. He reverses his stand, they hammer him. He offers his (deficit) plan, it gets leaked to the newspapers and they hammer him,” said Snowe.

“All they want is to gain a political advantage. I’m personally fed up. I see no leadership. … I’m sick of all this negativism and criticism. I can understand why people think so ill of Congress,” she continued, adding, “They should show some guts and come out with their own plan.”

Snowe said the tactics of national Democrats in Washington is aped by state party leaders, who, she said, continually berate Gov. John R. McKernan’s attempts to resolve Maine’s budget crisis without offering any solutions of their own.

Snowe is married to McKernan, who is being challenged by Brennan.

“I think George Mitchell is one of the most reasoned people in Washington and one of the most respected persons in the U.S. Congress,” said Brennan. The budget impasse would end, Brennan said, if President Bush would go on national television and explain to the public which taxes should be raised.

“Instead, he’s trying to blame Congress. (Bush) and McKernan ran for these positions. They want to be the leaders of the state and nation. It goes with the job that they have to exercise leadership and speak out,” said Brennan.

“When I announced that the Senate would remain in session until Aug. 10 to complete action on important measures,” Mitchell said, “the loudest complaints came from Republican senators who demanded that we go on recess this Friday.”

With respect to the Senate at least, “she’s wrong,” Mitchell said. “I’m the one who’s trying to keep us here to complete the important work of the Senate.”

According to Mitchell, the root cause of the breakdown in budget negotiations is “the disarray and disagreement” among Republicans.

“First the president said that tax increases were necessary. Then House Republicans adopted a resolution rejecting tax increases. Then Republican negotiators apparently agreed on a tax increase package, but when it was released to the press by one of their own members, it was immediately criticized by other Republicans,” said Mitchell.

Even the president can’t get his act straight, Mitchell stated.

After setting a 48-hour deadline for Democratic negotiators to submit a deficit package after Wednesday’s White House meeting, the president’s press spokesman later in the morning withdrew the ultimatum.

“If this weren’t such serious business, it would be funny. They are in complete disarray … and obviously are trying to divert attention,” Mitchell said.