CLINTON LASHES OUT AT GOP OVER SCHOOL SPENDING.

Byline: Lawrence O'Rourke Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

Lashing out at the Republican majority on Capitol Hill for ``doing nothing,'' President Clinton demanded Friday that Congress remain at work in Washington and off the campaign trail until it enacts his plan for more federal spending on public education.

``Politics should stop at the classroom door,'' the president said at the White House after he met with congressional Democratic leaders to put together a final push for an administration education package that would include incentives to encourage states and localities to hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce class sizes in the first three grades to no more than 18 pupils.

Using some of his sharpest political rhetoric since his successful campaign for the White House two years ago, Clinton said congressional Republicans should ``finally try to salvage some shred of positive accomplishment for the American people.''

The president spoke as the clock ticked toward a threatened partial shutdown of the federal government at midnight Friday. But late Friday, Congress passed and Clinton signed a continuing resolution to keep the government working through Monday night.

GOP leaders said that Congress might have to remain in session for another week to work out compromises. A few conservative Republicans from safe districts urged Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Speaker Newt Gingrich not to yield to Clinton's demands, but to accept a government shutdown and put the blame on the president.

With the shutdown deadline moving back only 72 hours, GOP leaders agreed to continue tension-filled negotiations with White House and congressional Democratic leaders over the weekend.

In a blunt challenge to congressional Republicans, Clinton made it clear that he's ready to veto spending bills that do not meet his priorities - even if that means shutting down parts of the federal government not yet covered by approved appropriations bills.

And the president demonstrated that he's ready to tell the country that Republicans bear the responsibility for any shutdown.

Though a few Republicans called for an equally tough response from their leaders, the top GOP figures on Capitol Hill signaled they don't want to test Clinton's resolve or run the political risks linked to a shutdown.

Friday was supposed to be the final day of work this year for Congress, arranged so that incumbents could spent the next three weeks campaigning for re-election on Nov. 3.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders said their members wanted to get onto the trail, but Clinton made clear he won't let them do that until he gets a federal budget that meets his priorities, especially in education.

But there are other hot-button issues remaining, including how to conduct the next national census, a proposed new program for foreign agricultural guest workers, White House calls for legislation to reduce smoking by children, a patient's health care bill of rights, environmental protection, support for contraception programs in other nations, and campaign finance reform.

Many of these issues won't be addressed anymore this year, but Clinton showed Friday that he's ready to battle it out on education.

A day after the GOP-controlled House launched an inquiry to see if he should be impeached, Clinton aggressively hit at congressional Republicans.

``What has happened in this Congress? What is the record to date of the majority?'' Clinton asked. ``They have killed the bill to reform the way we treat tobacco and to protect our children from the dangers of tobacco. They killed campaign finance reform. They killed the minimum wage (increase). . . . The Senate joined the House in putting an end to the patient's bill of rights.''

Flourishing the threat of vetoes, Clinton made clear he will insist upon GOP approval of his education agenda.