That has left Democrats unwilling to do very much to help Republicans achieve legislative gains to run on.

This might mean a short-term political loss, but a long-term legislative gain.

And the legislative gains the women's movement sought have been blocked.

With Washington consumed by the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, Republicans know they need quick legislative gains to turn around those numbers.

Congressional Republicans are divided over whether to adopt a conciliatory approach and produce some legislative gains, or stick to their core principles going into the 2000 campaign season.

Roosevelt achieved modest legislative gains in terms of railroad legislation and pure food laws.

Mr. Lowery, on the other hand, said he thought the burnings had a broader source, in an "attitude of hostility" toward legislative gains made by blacks.

"Democrats made substantial state legislative gains in a large number of states in 1974, the Watergate election," the political scientist Malcom Jewell wrote.

The party's legislative gains are starting to have a tangible impact, particularly on social issues.

A number of Democrats have pressed party officials to stop emphasizing gun control issues, asserting that there are few legislative gains left to be made and that the political cost to the party is too high.