Word: gingrichs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Whether his congressional colleagues regard him as a hero or a hothead -- there seem to be few opinions in between -- Newt Gingrich, 45, accomplished a feat last week that not many of them would ever have ever predicted. By a vote of 87 to 85, he was elected minority whip, the G.O.P.'s second-ranking leadership post, by House Republicans. Gingrich succeeds Wyoming's Richard Cheney, who left the House to become Secretary of Defense...
...choice of Gingrich, a former history professor, may mean an era of confrontational politics in the House, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 258 to 174. By selecting the aggressive Gingrich over his mild-mannered rival, Illinois' Edward Madigan, House Republicans signaled that they want more lash in their whip. "We had a choice of being attack dogs or lapdogs," said a G.O.P. lawmaker. "We decided attack dogs are more useful...
...Gingrich's victory was a rebuke to the House's Old Guard Republicans, a breed typified by the congenial minority leader, Bob Michel of Illinois. The chunky, blow-dried Gingrich represents the party's Young Turks, ultra- conservative Republicans, many of them elected in the '80s, who are fed up with their elders' deference to the majority. The Old Guard, Gingrich said, "tends to say, 'Oh, gee, ((the Democrats)) are in charge. How can we be nice enough to them that they'll let us pretend we're part of the game?' " In contrast, he declared, "I represent the wing...
While the whip's basic job is to count votes, getting a sense of where lawmakers stand on an issue, Gingrich is more likely to use the post as a bully pulpit for his legendary Democrat bashing. In 1984 Gingrich enraged then Speaker Tip O'Neill by vehemently accusing Democratic lawmakers of blindness to the Communist threat. It was Gingrich who fomented the House Ethics Committee's investigation of O'Neill's successor, Jim Wright of Texas. In a characteristically antagonistic oratorical flourish, Gingrich accused Wright, as well as other Democratic leaders, of having a "Mussolini-like...
...Gingrich may find himself caught in an ethics scandal similar to Wright's. One of the main charges against Wright is that he used an unusual royalty arrangement for his book, Reflections of a Public Man, to get around limitations on campaign contributions. The book was sold primarily in bulk to such political supporters as the Teamsters Union and Washington lobbyist John White. The Speaker pocketed a 55% royalty. The Ethics Committee is expected to release next week a potentially damning report on Wright's activities...