Word: gingriched
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...handful of junior members. The next morning, he whined to reporters that his stubbornness on the budget was partly inspired by an indignity--the President had forced him to exit Air Force One by the rear door upon returning from the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. Hours later, when Gingrich appeared for a press conference, he had a prepared text in hand, as if trying to regain his composure...
...Speaker's lip flapping had serious consequences. He not only impeded efforts to return federal employees to work, but also put his ego in the way of the 104th Congress's achieving its larger aim of balancing the budget in seven years. Gingrich's behavior reminded his colleagues that the visionary architect of the Contract with America has never had to prove himself under the pressure of adversarial bargaining...
...misplaying his hand, Gingrich gave up the G.O.P.'s advantage. He left his troops with no bargaining chips. ("We look like idiots," fumed one.) He dealt the President the card he needed to appear decisive and resolute. ("The very idea that they could think they could just blow the President over shows the depth of their miscalculation," said Vice President Gore.) And the Speaker gave Bob Dole's campaign for the G.O.P. presidential nomination a boost by fueling the impression that it might be time to put an adult in charge to end the gridlock...
...Gingrich's missteps of last week were not the first in his battle of wills with the White House. During a Nov. 1 visit to the Oval Office to discuss the budget with Clinton and Gore, the Speaker sniped that White House spokesman Mike McCurry had suggested that Gingrich and his troops wanted senior citizens to "die." Lurching forward in his seat, Gore reminded Gingrich of his 1994 allegation that Democratic Party values had played a role in Susan Smith's drowning of her two young sons. "Newt," Gore scolded, "I don't remember you apologizing to us for saying...
Three days later, the groundwork for Gingrich's Air Force One pique was laid when the Speaker was told by Pat Griffin, the President's top lobbyist, that Clinton would discuss budget issues on the return flight from Israel. So on Nov. 5, Gingrich spent more than four hours huddled with advisers at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown, preparing one-page statements for use during the in-flight negotiating session. Gingrich even had an exit line ready to be declared upon touchdown at Andrews Air Force Base: "If they can make peace in the Middle East...