ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 TAG: 9601170053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: DAVID ESPO ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANOTHER REPUBLICAN MIDDLE-ROADER is leaving the Senate, and the new political extremism in Washington gets the blame.
Maine GOP Sen. William Cohen on Tuesday announced a surprise decision to retire - in mid-career and in no obvious electoral jeopardy - providing fresh evidence that modern-day politics is squeezing the moderates out of Washington.
Sen. John Breaux, D-La., called Cohen's decision ``symptomatic of the frustration that many moderates are finding in the House and the Senate, both on the Republican and the Democratic side.''
``The extremes dominate,'' said Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, active in trying to shove his own party toward the center. ``That can't go on for long with a government hoping to hold the trust of the American people.''
Lieberman's sobering prediction is for the political scientists to debate. Or perhaps for the voters to influence. Their fascination with Ross Perot, Colin Powell and now Steve Forbes attests to an eagerness for something new in presidential politics.
Inside the Senate, Cohen's departure will open a seat for Democratic pursuit this fall in a state that boasts an independent governor and two first-term House members: one Republican and one Democrat.
And it will further erode the ranks of Republican moderates, as Cohen joins Oregon's Mark Hatfield and Kansas' Nancy Kassebaum in heading for retirement.
At 55, Cohen was favored to win a fourth term, and with it the increased clout that derives from seniority. He said in announcing plans for retirement that the recent budget stalemate in Washington had been ``instrumental in crystallizing'' his belief that he could serve his state in realms outside the Senate.
Cohen has shown his independence since arriving in Washington, when he voted as a junior member of the House Judiciary Committee to impeach President Nixon.
Most recently, he cast the lone GOP vote against balanced-budget legislation this year, saying the tax cuts sought so fervently by conservatives were ill-timed in an era of soaring deficits. Written material distributed by his office Tuesday labeled Cohen a ``force for moderation'' who had helped secure concessions on Medicaid, nursing home standards, the environment and student aid funds from GOP leadership in the course of developing the party's balanced-budget bill.
Hatfield, a generation older than Cohen at 73, cast the lone Republican vote earlier this year against a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. That sent the measure down to defeat and sparked an abortive effort by younger, more conservative senators to strip him of his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee.
Kassebaum, 63, demonstrated her independence in three Senate terms by standing up for abortion rights and gun control, and parting company from time to time with her fellow Kansan, GOP Leader Bob Dole.
So, too, among the Democrats.
Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, 67, is retiring after two terms. In this year's highly polarized debate over the balanced-budget amendment, he was the principal Democratic supporter.
Other consensus-seeking Democrats retiring include Georgia's Sen. Sam Nunn, one of several Southern Democrats ending their careers, and New Jersey's Bill Bradley, who criticized both parties in a retirement speech last year. ``We live in a time when, on a basic level, politics is broken,'' he said. ``Neither party speaks to people where they live their lives.''
In all, 13 senators of both parties have announced plans to retire, a record number. The roster is heavily tilted toward minority Democrats, and toward moderates of both parties.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Cohen. Graphic: Chart by AP: Sweeping theby CNBSenate.