In recovery - contributions of specific Republican congress members to the defeat of Pres Bill Clinton's health care reform bill

BY THWARTING the attempted Clinton coup against the health-care system, the Republicans effected their most complete and significant (even if negative) legislative victory since the 1981 Reagan tax cuts. But in this battle some Republicans stood out while others copped out. Herewith, a guide.

The winners: Phil Gramm: A year ago, when all of Washington was a-twitter over the idea of a government overhaul of health care, Senator Gramm was almost alone in saying no. He never stopped saying intelligently and powerfully. This is what principled leadership looks like. Bob Dole: It was a tortuous road, but with his uncanny sense of political timing, Mr. Dole led Democratic "reform" into a ditch. He kept GOP moderates on board until the perfect moment came to introduce his own "minimalist" bill and let the moderates huff off into "mainstream" oblivion. A virtuoso performance. Bob Packwood: Perhaps no other Republican knows more about health care or has invested as much in its reform. But Mr. Packwood realized that some ideas he had earlier endorsed - like the employer mandate - just wouldn't work when thrown into the Clinton stew. He led the day-to-day fight against Clinton-Mitchell ("Lethal Weapon"), and was invaluable. Paul Coverdell: On health care, a wolf in moderate's clothing. Mr. Coverdell was energetic and persistent in coordinating tactics with conservative grass-roots groups. He's to be taken seriously. Newt Gingrich. He kept Republicans in the House (which mostly sat out the health-care endgame) united and aggressive from the start.

The losers. John Chafee. Senator Chafee crossed the line between just deviating from the Republican approach to health care and actively opposing it. Rhode Island voters won't punish him this year, but his fellow Republican senators should. Mr. Chafee can do without his ranking spot on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Sheila Burke. Bob Dole's liberal-leaning chief of staff finally did her boss's bidding on health care, but not without sometimes seeming to contradict the senator in public. Sorry, Miss Burk - semi-socialized medicine will have to wait. Nancy Kassebaum. Dreadful. First she mounted no more than token opposition to Ted Kennedy's bill in the Labor Committee, and then she couldn't decide whether she was with Chafee or Dole on health care. Fred Grandy: Remember "Cooper-Grandy" the proud-to-be-Clinton-Lite bill No one else does. And after Mr. Grandy steps down this year - having lost in a nasty bid to upset sitting Iowa Governor Terry Branstad - no one will remember him either.

Above all, believers in the power of ideas (and the fax machine) can take heart from the influence of Bill Kristol and his Project for the Republican Future. It was Mr. Kristol, with his faxed memos to Republican leaders, who first advanced the notion that there was no health-care crisis - a scandalous break with orthodoxy at the time, now a commonplace. Throughout the debate, Mr. Kristol was a step ahead, and a notch to the right, of Hill Republicans. Eventually, they almost all caught up. Republicans would be well advised (if they don't get control of Congress) to stick to a Kristol-style program of intelligent obstruction over the next two years. As long as it's Bill Kristol they're aping, "me-too" Republicans may be the best kind.