Word: gingriches
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...where was Gingrich last spring? Putting himself in a position in which Clinton could be self-righteous. So confident was Gingrich that the intern scandal would doom the President--despite polls that were already consistently showing that the public didn't care--that he assumed he would have the upper hand in any budget deal. Instead, the public saw the Democrats as the party that was trying to attend to business while the Republicans were distracted by scandal...
...that history made it hard, after the elections last week, for anyone to trust Gingrich with another two years as Speaker. Most may have been willing, once again, to accept his promises of change--change in management, in decision making, in priorities. But there was one thing Gingrich couldn't change. "The problem for the party is that Newt is the face of the party," said a G.O.P. congressional operative on the eve of Gingrich's resignation. "Until we elect a President, he's the most visible spokesman we have. The snake won't die unless...
...only thing certain about Gingrich's successor is that he will strike a lower profile while he wrestles the same alligators. The problem for the party is that the very traditions and mechanisms of the House may prevent the Republicans from finding the leader they desperately need. No member of Congress with the experience, the stature or the chits to be a plausible candidate for Speaker resembles the kind of Republican leader that last week the voters signaled they liked. "We still need to prove that we can be conservative without being mean," said a G.O.P. moderate Senator. In Washington...
What best prepares a man to be speaker of the House? Being the water boy for his high school football team? Enjoying the rowdy pleasures of his college frat house? Or learning how to play the trumpet while driving a car? The first Republican to make a grab at Gingrich's job last week has all those qualifications, which may come in handy in a job that requires carrying water for brawling factions, holding steady in a raucous ideological environment and doing more than one thing at a time...
...Robert Livingston of Louisiana also has a black belt in Taekwondo and an instinct for the kill. If he's in a better position than his Republican competitors to nab the speakership, it's because Gingrich himself gave him a head start. In February the 55-year-old Livingston told colleagues that should Gingrich run for President in 2000, he wanted to take over. Four years earlier, Gingrich had handpicked Livingston--at the time the fifth-ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee--to become the panel's chairman. Livingston ultimately used this perch of patronage to knife his benefactor: wielding...