Since the day following the election, I have told friends and Republican elected officials:

Say to the president (hopefully while on live TV), "Mr. President you are taking us into a disastrous financial mess. Your plan will create a slow or no-growth America, which will not add employees to private payrolls. But you won this election and have the right to promote your course of action. We will not vote yes but we will not vote no and stand in your way. When you do take America into this foreseeable disaster, do not point an accusing finger at Republicans. You will have earned all the credit for yourself."

Unless Republicans thought the president's plan was a formula for success, they should have let the Democrats have their 'victory' then sat back and waited for the predictable results.

It was obvious on Nov. 7 that arguing, stalling, and negotiating with this president and his allies in the Senate was going to make Republicans look weak and give the president and the Democrats a bigger victory when Republicans finally cave in to political reality.

At the end of the year, Republicans decided to play the president's game and the results were predictable. When economic disaster does arrive, the Democrats and their allies in the press will say: The president tried to save the situation but the Republicans would not let him.

There is nothing unusual here for a Republican team that has repeatedly learned how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Lee A. Presser

St. Louis