Word: gingrichism
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When House Republicans convene this week to elect their leaders, Newt Gingrich's will be the only name put in nomination for Speaker. But such a show of confidence would have been much sweeter had Gingrich not spent last week beating back a minirevolt among former loyalists...
...Gingrich, in a hurried round of phone calls, managed to silence most of his detractors. And even though he won't give up the job of Speaker, he will relinquish some of his power in order to quiet grumbling in the ranks. Having centralized authority to the point where he was regarded as the strongest Speaker in eight decades, Gingrich is now moving to return more policy-setting freedom to committee chairmen and has promised to consult more closely with members before taking controversial stands, as he did on Bosnia and the Mexican bailout...
...same time, however, he can expect the other side to reciprocate, forging ahead on an ethics case against Gingrich that had begun to escalate as Congress adjourned last month. He dismisses that move by his opponents as "a deliberate strategy of exhaustion," but friends and colleagues are worried that it is working, distracting and draining...
...instincts haven't left him. In one arena, he appears eager to move ahead. As he talks about the ethics scandals that are beginning to surround the Clinton White House like dandelions, Gingrich sounds once again like the back-bench Congressman who came to national attention waging the war that brought down one of his predecessors as Speaker. "These people are dramatically more dishonest and more systematically covering up than anyone in American history," Gingrich said in the final days of the campaign. "It is breathtaking...
Still, if Election Night marked a political resurrection for Bill Clinton, it also gave a second chance to Newt Gingrich. He has proved he can shut the government down; now he hopes to show he can make it work. And he has to learn to become visible again...