President Clinton went to unusual lengths Monday to reach out to the Republican congressional leadership, inviting them to a White House budget summit and emphasizing his willingness to put past rancor aside.
"I have never, to the best of my knowledge, let political conflicts-even ones that had deeply personal overtones-get in the way of working with people," Clinton told reporters after a meeting Monday with his budget team. He attested he has "always had a very cordial relationship" with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and he even had a friendly word to say about a man some regard as his chief congressional nemesis. "Even [House Majority Whip Tom] DeLay [R-Texas] came up here the other day to this adoption event and we had a good visit," Clinton said.
The president appeared to again try to lure Republicans into considering tapping the Social Security surplus-an action Clinton finds unpalatable but preferable to an across-the-board spending cut-by indicating he would not bash the GOP for reneging on its promise to stay away from the funds.
"I'm not interested in being able to walk out of here and win a battle [over] whether they spent the Social Security surplus or not," he said. Clinton nevertheless quickly noted, "As a matter of fact, they have," while adding, "but that's not the point."
He offered to sign another continuing resolution, but admonished, "It ought to be short." White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart Monday said Clinton wanted to clear out time "in the next day or two" to gather with Republican leaders and their Democratic counterparts.
House Speaker Hastert responded by releasing a statement Monday afternoon saying he would not discuss "secret ways to spend the Social Security surplus," but does support a meeting. "More recently the president has said that spending the Social Security surplus would be OK if both parties decided to move together," Hastert said. "When we sit down with the president, we will try and help him understand that spending the Social Security surplus is not an option."
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, call Clinton's invitation "music to my ears ... I look forward to going to the White House tomorrow."
The meeting was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
At an afternoon news conference, Armey also said "the next CR will probably be for a week or in the neighborhood of a week." The current continuing resolution expires Thursday.
Lockhart maintained the administration's tough line toward the remaining appropriations bills. He confirmed that Clinton is considering vetoing the Defense spending bill, saying its spending was "beyond what the president requested" and citing "gimmicks" such the classification of operations and maintenance spending as an emergency.
Lisa Caruso and Geoff Earle contributed to this report.
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