001120.txt Congressional deadlock extended during election impasse By Melanie Fonder News-Chronicle WASHINGTON - Shortly after they returned last week, Congressional leaders gave up on completing budget negotiations until the presidential election is decided. Signing a three-week agreement extending the deadline for completion of the budget until Dec. 5, most legislators headed home to their districts Wednesday afternoon. They will return that Monday to convene a rare - and later-than-usual - "lame-duck" session. The fact that President Clinton was not scheduled to return from Vietnam until Sunday, directly following another trip, also contributed to the decision to let negotiations linger. As the uncertainty continues, the Florida Supreme Court hearing this afternoon on whether to include the hand-counted ballots from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties could be decisive. But the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court or a closely divided Congress could play a role is still possible. Meanwhile, the likelihood of a Wisconsin recount diminished during the week, with most political operatives on both sides of aisle recommending Florida be the final deciding factor in the contest. With partisan rhetoric in Florida increasing, and budget negotiations at yet another deadlock, it might seem that the next Congress could produce little legislatively with such harsh relations in recent months. Still, there were signs that the spirit of bipartisanship might fare better than it has recently. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., met for the first time in months on Wednesday, with both sides declaring the meeting a success. The two had not met since a bitter controversy over the selection of a house chaplain, when Democrats accused Republicans of anti-Catholic bias for not installing a priest. Even closer margins in the House and the Senate, however, mean that for anything to be accomplished, Democrats and Republicans will have to work together. Also, the 40-odd new members of Congress who arrived for a week of orientation urged bipartisanship, and many said they were in support of moderate coalitions across party lines in the 107th Congress. GOP GOVS. EXPLAIN THEMSELVES In yet another unfortunate twist of planning ahead, some 30 Republican governors, including Wisconsin's Tommy Thompson, headed to Florida over the weekend for a conference. Originally, the conference was planned under the assumption that the new president's identity would have been known 10 days earlier. Instead, they were right in the epicenter of controversy over the still-undecided election. Once there, they didn't seem to mind, as most wasted no time to hit the very-available airwaves condemning the ballot recounts requested by the Gore campaign. They also had to explain why they were unable to deliver several key states for fellow Republican Gov. George W. Bush - namely Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. "George Bush campaigned hard, he had a great organization, but Wisconsin tilts to the Democratic column," Thompson told the Associated Press. The GOP governors agreed that last-minute grass-roots organization and mobilization of key constituencies for Democrats was the deciding factor in several states where the vote was close. New Jersey Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman added, "There's a concern about unions, there's a concern about reaching out to African Americans. What do we do to make sure we have the appeal to voters?" SHALALA HEADS TO MIAMI No, not to count ballots. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, the former University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor, announced Saturday she has accepted an offer to become president of the University of Miami in June. Shalala, 59, who has served as HHS secretary longer than anyone ever has, was chancellor in Wisconsin from 1987 to 1992. Before that, she was president of Hunter College at the City University of New York. The University of Miami, a private school, has about 14,000 students. WRITERS NEED BREAKS, TOO Because of the Thanksgiving holiday and congressional members being out of town, this column will not appear next week. "Wisconsin in Washington" will resume on Dec. 5. Fonder, whose column appears here almost every Monday, is a staff writer for The Hill, a Washington-based weekly that covers Congress. You can write her via e-mail at melfonder@yahoo.com.