Republicans are uttering a word that for 12 years has been utterly unspeakable.

Shutdown.

It’s a word that can send shudders through those who saw the last one — actually, two — play out after Republicans took control of Congress in 1995. The Newt Gingrich-Bill Clinton standoff was so traumatic that since then, neither party has ventured anywhere in that direction.

This year’s appropriations tug-of-war between a new majority in Congress and a president of the opposing party does not appear to be headed for a government shutdown, but a rhetorical taboo was lifted when the word became part of the partisan message of the moment.

“The obvious plan of the Democrats is to not do appropriations bills but put everything together in a giant omnibus appropriations bill in a kind of legislative blackmail with all of the policy and increased spending, to in effect threaten the president to either sign the bill or be accused of shutting down the government,” Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chairman of the Republican Conference, said Wednesday.

President Bush has threatened to veto seven appropriations bills because together they would exceed his discretionary spending limit by more than $20 billion.

Congressional veterans are certain the two sides are headed for a whopper of a fight over a catchall, omnibus appropriations bill.

Democratic leaders insist, however, that they really want separate bills to pass and that they prefer to avoid an omnibus.

“That is not our intention at all,” said Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill. “If they want to cooperate with us and bring the bills to the floor, we have six or seven bills that have cleared committee. We’re ready to move.”

In predicting a replay of the last government shutdown, Republicans have cast Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in the role of Gingrich (1979-99), who in 1995 was in his first year as Speaker.

Gingrich and other GOP leaders tried to hold the line on fiscal 1996 spending bills, triggering a shutdown in November 1995, when a stopgap government funding bill (PL 104-31) expired. A second government shutdown followed in December 1995, when another stopgap bill (PL 104-56) expired.

Pelosi said in an interview Wednesday that she saw few parallels with the current situation. She acknowledged that an omnibus spending bill might occur, but she insisted that it would be written to attract broad support.

“There’s a poverty of ideas on the part of Republicans,” she said. “It’s stunning. They keep coming up with charges all the time, based on nothing.”

She and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are to meet next week with Bush to discuss appropriations.

A shutdown showdown would hinge in large part on whether the White House thinks congressional Republicans can sustain vetoes of spending bills. That, in turn, would depend in large part on whether the omnibus contains a tax increase — opposed by moderates in both parties — and whether it pares back overall spending to a smaller, more digestible number.

“If the spending in the omnibus is cut back from where it is in the individual bills, it will not be so hard to vote ‘yes.’ But that’s a big if,” said Rep. Robin Hayes of North Carolina, one of 53 Republicans who defected and support the fiscal 2008 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (HR 3043).

“If they raise taxes to pay for it, Republicans will vote ‘no,’ ” Hayes said.

Former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he believed that a settlement was possible to avert a government shutdown at a time of war.

“It’s too early to predict a shutdown like 1995,” Hastert said. “Democrats know the president can’t shut down the government in the middle of a war. They shouldn’t be pushing him to the wall.”

The House expects to complete all of its fiscal 2008 appropriations bills before the August recess. But the Senate aims to complete only two of its spending bills by then: Homeland Security (HR 2638) and Military Construction-VA (HR 2642).

Reid scoffed at Republicans who say they are worried about the pace of appropriations work in the Senate.

“Maybe they should have thought of that before my filing 45 cloture petitions, where they’ve rejected everything we’ve done,” Reid said. “We’re going to work through these appropriations bills as fast as we can.”

And while Democrats rebuff Republicans and their accusations of shutdown politics, the majority is throwing some brickbats of its own.

“They’ve been stalling,’’ said John W. Olver, D-Mass., chairman of the House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee. “They are nihilists. They are jihadists.”