Word: whip
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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...
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...
Democratic lawmakers plan to ask the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate Gingrich's book arrangement. After Gingrich's election last week, Wright sent the new whip a copy of Reflections of a Public Man with a pungent inscription: "For Newt, who likes books too." When asked how Gingrich, in his new leadership role, would deal with Wright, Gingrich replied, "Politely...
Most Democrats expect anything but courtesy from Gingrich. In fact, they view his combativeness as a potential plus. "Newt probably unites the Democratic Party more than any other single Republican," said House Majority Whip Tony Coelho of California. If Gingrich lives up to his loose-cannon reputation, he could further hinder the President's crusade for congressional bipartisanship. Of course, if Gingrich has his way, there will not be a Democratic majority in the House for long. "Newt wakes up in the morning, and < the first thing he thinks about is how to become the majority party," says Charles Black...