But Democrats are maneuvering for loopholes to make any ceiling less binding.

Democrats are maneuvering to raise the issue in separate statements of their own.

Democrats had intentionally maneuvered to avoid a roll-call vote so that they would not have to go on the record against the measures or display a split in party ranks.

But Democrats are maneuvering to raise the issue in separate statements.

In remarks to about 300 Orange County business leaders here, Mr. Bush said the bipartisan Senate compromise, which fell apart this month as Republicans and Democrats maneuvered for political advantage, was "an interesting approach."

From the Democrats' point of view, the danger is that Mr. Bush will succeed in tarring them again as the high-tax party, something the Democrats have been maneuvering to avoid for six months.

And as Gov. James E. McGreevey prepares to step down on Nov. 15, his fellow Democrats are maneuvering to select a candidate to succeed him in next year's election.

Those forces are intensified, as Republicans and Democrats maneuver over competing formulas to chastise the President, by the desire of each party to protect itself, especially in the 2000 elections, while putting the other at a political disadvantage.

Democrats have also been maneuvering to replace him as party chairman, a post he has held since 1994.

In a flurry of publicly released letters and statements, the committee's Republicans and Democrats maneuvered furiously for advantage before Mr. Starr's high-stakes appearance.