Keep the rope handy.

`I'VE NEVER asked anything from you in all these years,'' Senator Robert Dole implored his old colleague Mark Hatfield forty minutes before the key vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment. In response, Hatfield told Dole: ``I'll pray on it.'' Then he voted against the BBA, handing Democrats a handsome victory. Dole said later that this was the most important vote in thirty years, and he could not understand Hatfield's failure to be responsive to both the GOP Senate leadership and the national party. ``What's wrong with sending it out to the states, including Oregon?'' Dole asked angrily.Shortly after the failed vote, a move to strip Hatfield of his Appropriations Committee chairmanship started within the Republican Senate Conference, led by Whip Trent Lott and Conference Secretary Connie Mack, and freshman Rick Santorum (Pa.), and Spence Abraham (Mich.). The vengeful were angered not only by Hatfield's nay vote, but also by his willingness to retain committee staffers who had been appointed by former Chairman Robert Byrd, and who routinely refer to Byrd as ``Mr. Co-Chairman.'' Byrd, of course, led the fight against the BBA. With the support of President Clinton and Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, Byrd orchestrated a clever campaign that let Democrats up for re-election in 1996 vote for the amendment, while Democrats whose day of reckoning is five years off, including Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.), were compelled to break 1994 campaign promises and vote against.By the weekend after the vote the lynch-Hatfield mood had turned to collegiality and forgiveness. Dole -- who had declared that the choice was between keeping Hatfield (who had offered to resign) as a Republican senator, and passing the most important legislation in thirty years -- backed off. Senator Gramm, playing Mr. Nice Guy instead of Mr. Mean, said it would be ``stupid'' to punish Hatfield. Senator D'Amato and his National Republican Senatorial Committee, said they would enthusiastically back his re-election in 1996. So it went.Will it matter? Without the crutch of a BBA, GOP liberals in the Senate and House might not have the courage to cast tough budget-cutting votes. But Senator Dole said, ``We will proceed as though the BBA were in place, and the zero-deficit pledge will remain intact.'' Dole promptly announced his support for plans to abolish the Departments of HUD, Energy, Education, and Commerce. Then the Senate GOP released proposed budget cuts amounting to $750 billion over five years, including a thorough restructuring and cost-saving reform of Medicare and Medicaid, and a 15 per cent across-the-board reduction for travel, supplies, rent, and other budget overhead.If Dole follows through, the battle of the BBA will be just a skirmish. But the party must not ignore its Hatfield problem. Though he has voted pro-life, he has never been reliable on cutting domestic spending, and he consistently votes to decimate the defense budget. Should he sin again, he must be punished.