Sen. Mark Hatfield seems likely to thwart efforts to oust him from his committee chairmanship, thanks to firm support from colleagues who say Republicans should be allowed to defy the party line.

The 54 GOP senators, including Hatfield, planned to discuss Wednesday whether to strip the moderate Oregon Republican of his post as Senate Appropriations Committee chairman.Some of the Senate's younger, more ideological members are enraged that the 72-year-old moderate cast the telling vote last week against the balanced-budget constitutional amendment, the foundation of the party's budget-cutting efforts this year. Hatfield was the lone Republican to vote "no."

"No one was more upset with Mark Hatfield's vote than I was," said conservative Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. "And I told him that. But on the other hand, right is right, and there is no right way to do a wrong thing. It would be a wrong thing to deprive him of his chairmanship."

"Even though I didn't agree with Mark, he stood up for his convictions," said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., the former Democrat who switched to the GOP last Friday. "And I put that above all things - standing up for your principles."

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Hatfield and numerous others predicted that he would prevail.

"I'm going to fight to keep the chairmanship," he told reporters. "And I expect to win."

The fight came as Republicans sought to refocus the aftermath of the balanced-budget amendment fight on Democrats, who overwhelmingly opposed the vastly popular measure. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., agreed to Wednesday's session after concluding that Republicans should aim their fire at Democrats and not at Hatfield.

"We'll deal with it and deal with it quickly," Dole said about the Hatfield dispute.

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