WASHINGTON -- With the White House determined to show that single-party control can get things done in Washington, Democrats, joined by a few renegade Republicans, are girding this week for the most bitter showdown of the Bush presidency over two major policy initiatives, an industry-friendly energy bill and a new Medicare drug benefit, that President Bush considers vital to his agenda.

Senators are mounting filibusters of both bills, meaning that supporters will need 60 votes to prevail. A vote is expected today on the package to provide nearly $400 billion in prescription drug assistance to seniors while for the first time allowing private health insurance companies to compete with Medicare for consumers.

The energy bill, developed during secret meetings by a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, was written exclusively by Republicans, who shut out Democrats from conference committee talks that have historically been bipartisan. The Medicare bill started out as a bipartisan effort, with Kennedy working with Republican colleagues. But House Republican leaders forced dramatic revisions to the bill and rewrote the package in closed-door sessions. Senators Max Baucus of Montana and John B. Breaux of Louisiana were the only Democrats allowed into the meetings.

Yesterday, Democrats -- including Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a longtime Medicare advocate, and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who abandoned his efforts to work with Republicans -- vowed to fight to block the bills. Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, flew back yesterday from the campaign trail to help lead the filibuster.

"What is now coming before the Senate is basically hijacking the Medicare program," Kennedy said on ABC's "This Week." "They want to replace it, they want to undermine it, and they want to privatize it. We worked too long to put the Medicare program into place, and we're not going to just let the special interests ride over this."

Meanwhile, the energy bill is already being held up by a bipartisan filibuster of senators who believe the package is a costly giveaway to oil and gas companies that does nothing to weaken the nation's dependence on foreign oil. The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, has promised another vote on the package this week, with leaders hoping to pry loose the two votes needed to stop the filibuster.

Republican leaders eked out a hard-fought victory on the Medicare bill in the House early Saturday morning, taking unprecedented liberties afforded to them as the majority party to hold the vote open for three hours to persuade a couple of Republicans to change their votes to yes. In the Senate, Republicans appear to have the 60 votes to defeat a filibuster of the Medicare bill, with Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California giving her support to the GOP-authored bill yesterday, but are scrambling to find a way to approve the energy legislation.

The unusual dual showdowns will be a critical test of the administration's ability to get its agenda through a Congress controlled by its own party. Democratic leaders, criticized by some of the party's presidential candidates for being too cooperative with a majority that has all but cut them out of the legislative process, are taking their strongest stand in years, matching the Republicans in their efforts to persuade wavering lawmakers.

The Democrats have found some allies on the Republican side. Deficit hawks, including John Sununu, Republican of New Hampshire, are alarmed at the big spending initiatives the administration is pushing in both the energy and Medicare bills.

"The federal government's spending too much," said Sununu, who is backing the energy filibuster and opposes the Medicare package. Congress is generally keeping within the spending caps it set earlier this year, but the energy bill would lead to "a huge increase in spending," he said.

Senator John S. McCain, Republican of Arizona, said on "This Week" that the energy bill is "almost entirely a huge pork barrel project -- just layer upon layer in order to buy votes."

The bill includes $23 billion in subsidies and tax breaks to the energy industry, as well as funding for local projects, such as a coal plant in Minnesota and a nuclear plant in Idaho.

Medicare, too, has Republicans worried about spending and deficits. Many are concerned that the prescription drug coverage -- now set at $395 billion over the next 10 years -- will grow, especially if Democrats take over the White House or Congress in coming years. Some Republicans want a means test to target assistance.

"To give my mother $1,200 a month in drug money when she just bought a new Mercedes, and make my kids pay for this? No. That's not what I came here for," said Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who led a conservative cadre against the bill.

The defections of some Republicans have frustrated the GOP's strategy of crafting bills without striking compromises with Democrats. The traditionally more collegial Senate, where Republicans have an edge of 51 to 48, with one Independent, has tended to be more bipartisan than the House, in large part because the minority has the filibuster tool. In the House, where the Republicans have a 229-to-206 majority, the leadership has adopted a unilateralist approach.

Saturday morning's spectacle was a stark example of the ability of a majority party to use parliamentary tactics to its advantage. After holding the vote open to lobby Republicans to change their minds, the GOP leaders gaveled it closed, despite the fact that Democrats believe they, too, could have then turned some votes around.

The energy bill, developed during secret meetings by a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, was written exclusively by Republicans, who shut out Democrats from conference committee talks that have historically been bipartisan.

The Medicare bill started out as a bipartisan effort, with Kennedy working with Republican colleagues. But House Republican leaders forced dramatic revisions to the bill and rewrote the package in closed-door sessions. Senators Max Baucus of Montana and John B. Breaux of Louisiana were the only Democrats allowed into the meetings.

Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico and a lead negotiator on the energy bill, defended the single-party strategy, saying it was the only way to reach agreement on a complicated package fraught with regional rivalries. "I think they're making a big, big crisis out of nothing on the issue of consultation," Domenici said.

On the presidential campaign trail, former Vermont governor Howard B. Dean has accused Senate Democrats of being too accommodating of the Republican agenda. Lieberman, who has in the past emphasized the importance of working with Republicans, announced yesterday that he was leaving the trail to return to Washington to fight the Medicare bill. The bill is opposed by all nine Democratic candidates.

Said Lieberman, "As much as I want to give seniors a prescription drug benefit, they shouldn't have to swallow the many harmful poison pills that Republicans loaded into this bill just to get there."

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company

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