Word: gingriched
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...Gingrich was furious. He kicked off an 11th-hour meeting last Monday night with Clinton by refusing to let McCurry attend the parley unless the Speaker's own press secretary could be present. Tempers quickly flared inside the Cabinet Room. When Clinton pointed a finger at House majority leader Dick Armey, the Texan complained, "Perhaps it's my Western upbringing, but I don't listen very well when someone's pointing a finger in my face." The President retorted with his own lesson in etiquette. Dredging up Armey's attack on Hillary Clinton during last year's health-care debate...
...government rolled into its second day of partial paralysis, Gingrich began showing signs of strain. Pressed by reporters at a Wednesday breakfast to explain why he was so convinced that a seven-year timetable was the right one for balancing the budget, the Speaker offered a one-word response: "Intuition.'' (This was a sharp contrast to his reasoned response to the same question by Time last September, when he explained that he'd settled on that time frame after consulting with former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, banker Pete Peterson and others.) Then he devoted much of the remaining time...
VALHALLA! DEMOCRATS TRIPPED over themselves to capitalize on the Speaker's gaffe. Before legislators would have their fun on the House floor, an Administration official leaked word that Gingrich had talked "during the whole trip" to and from Israel, thwarting even Dole's attempts to get some sleep. And even Dole was finding ways to put some distance between himself and Gingrich on the deplaning question by using statesmanlike humor: "We got in on the front exit, went out the rear exit. Maybe that's just normal rotation...
...Clinton, he took the high road, saying, straight-faced, "If it would get the government open, I'd be glad to tell [Gingrich] I'm sorry." But Clinton's press secretary squeezed more mileage out of the situation. Asked what the President could do to assuage Gingrich's hurt feelings, McCurry joked, "Maybe we can send him some of those little M&M's [served aboard Air Force One] with the Presidential seal...
While Clinton was prepping Wednesday for an interview for the CBS Evening News, one of his advisers asked how the President would respond to a question about the political fallout from his refusal to cave in to G.O.P. demands. Summoning an answer he'd used on Gingrich days earlier in private, Clinton responded, "I don't care if my approval ratings drop all the way down to 5%; it's the right thing to do." Gore then piped up, "Why 5%? Why don't you say, 'All the way down to zero'?" Clinton joked in reply, "Well...