Now what?

We've had the Starr report and we've had the elections, and with the end of Thanksgiving we are well into the Holiday season, during which time there will be very little activity to occupy us nationally.

The national news media will continue to be obsessed with the activities of the House Judiciary Committee for the next month. The committee will go through the process of debating and voting on the impeachment question, because that is its duty, and the House will go through the same process for the same reason, and eventually we'll see articles of impeachment, censure or some other form of punishment come out of this exhaustive process.

Meanwhile, numerous House and Senate committees and subcommittees will be meeting, and a variety of caucuses and strategy groups composed of Democrats, Republicans, racial/religious/cultural minorities, and special interest lobbyists will be sharpening their pencils and mapping their strategies for 1999.

What will Republicans do with their diminished majority?

I'm not familiar enough with the new leaders to answer that with any confidence. But I can tell you what Democrats and the president will do, and I can tell you what I hope Republicans in Congress will do.

Congressional Democrats will fulfill the role that they have become accustomed to over the last four years. When they agree with, or at least can live with, a Republican proposal they'll vote for it, or at least let it go to a vote without a lot of uproar.

If they disagree with a proposal, they'll vote against it, filibuster it, have press conferences and denounce it.

Basically, they'll play the loyal opposition just as Republicans have done in the past, becoming major players only when an item comes along that they can get a lot of TV mileage out of.

The president will continue to sign bills he can live with, taking credit for most of them, and veto those he can't live with. And he'll continue to take his show on the road, hopping from country to country for photo opps.

The vice president will be increasingly visible on the home front and abroad. If Republicans are doing what they should be doing in 1999, you'll hear the words "risky" and "extreme" come from Al Gore's lips 1.77 million times over the next 12 months.

And you'll see him fold his hands and make that truck-driver-with-hemorrhoids facial expression each time he utters those words.

What should Republicans do?

The first thing they should do is pass a substantial income tax cut that applies only to those earning $200,000 a year or less.

Yes, I know, it's wrong. It not only discriminates against those who pay most of the taxes, but also fails to provide the stimulation our economy needs, because those people also provide most of the jobs and monetary activity in the country. But limiting the tax cut will remove the weapon that Democrats use every time Republicans try to let us keep more of our income... that "tax cuts for the rich" mantra they keep repeating.

I'm curious to see how Democrats will vote and how Clinton will react if they can't use the class envy card in a tax cut debate. If nothing else, it would be entertaining.

If Clinton vetoes the cut, then Republicans should repackage it and pass it again... and again, and again. Let him veto it a hundred times if necessary.

Second, the House and Senate majority leadership should simultaneously place two items the flat tax/sales tax debate and the future of Social Security at the top of their agendas for 1999. They should appoint subcommittees and task forces, conduct focus groups, have televised town hall meetings, issue advisories and have press conferences.

It's not enough merely to make these debates their priorities. They have to make as much noise as possible in the process.

Third, the Judiciary Committee should move the impeachment debate into executive session until they come out with a recommendation. That's a weird concept coming from me. Ask your local representatives and they'll tell you I spend a lot of time fighting against the misuse of executive session.

But in opening every part of the process, Republicans have put weapons into the hands of demagogues on the other side and in the media and have angered the public. And they have allowed a smoke screen to develop that has obscured all the hard work they have done in the past year.

Get on with it. Take as much time as you need, but do it behind closed doors.

Finally, Republicans should dust off that old document, the Contract with America, and they should have a press conference to issue a report card on that contract.

The contract originally promised a vote on all the items included in it, and that promise was fulfilled 100 percent within the first 100 days after Republicans took over Congress. Did you know that? Most Americans don't.

But I'm not suggesting an exercise aimed merely at setting the record straight. In the same press conference, they should renew the contract, promising to vote again on the items that Democrats managed to defeat in previous votes, and adding new items that are in keeping with the conservative vision of an America where everyone has equal access to the guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness a vision shared by most of us.